CE for Babies June Update

Things are moving along! In the last update, I mentioned there were a few hiccups due to having to change the chips on the circuit boards and things are currently looking like August. You can read that update here:
https://computerengineeringforbabies.com/pages/ce-for-babies-may-update

Since then things have gone pretty smoothly (although still a little slower than I would like). I received the new sample boards with the new design, and they seemed to work great. I spent a few days working on the firmware code that runs on the microcontroller, and I'm convinced that this is going to be the best version of the book yet! The trickiest part with these books is just getting it to work in all the different light environments. For instance being outside on a bright day with the book totally closed can look very similar to being inside with one of the first few pages open, as far as the light sensors are concerned. So I'm doing some fancy stuff (and sometimes making some assumptions) to make the best guess as to which page is actually open. For instance, most of the time people are going to start on the first page and not immediately jump to the last page of the book, also knowing that the red button can't be pressed from the cover page, etc.

After I got the code working on my end, I spent a few days just carrying a couple books around with me everywhere and testing them in all the light environments, and it seemed to work really well pretty much everywhere.

I've sent off the new circuit board design to be made, and put in an order for these new microcontrollers (incidentally, in the couple months I've spent back and forth testing and troubleshooting these new chips, Texas Instruments has depleted most of their stock, and I have to buy them from third parties at close to double the price. This chip shortage thing is killer). I've been told that all the circuit boards should be populated and completely finished up by the end of this month (June).

Here are some of the first circuit boards fresh off the machine.

The actual books have already been printed, so after the circuit boards are all finished, all that is left is to assemble them into the books. I haven't yet gotten an estimate on how long this will take, but based on the two previous orders, my guess it it will take about a month, and with any luck, the completed books will be on a boat to the US before August arrives.

This is the optimistic timeline. Some people have noticed that the website has December as the estimated arrival. Just to reassure you, that estimate is for orders that were placed after about May 21st. If you're reading this update in your email inbox, then you're expected delivery is still August (or September for the less optimistic timeline).

There will probably be a couple more updates before the books ship. I am hoping that the next update will just be "the circuit boards are done and being loaded into books." I will also include a link in that email where you can confirm and/or update your shipping address if you need to. I will also send out a "your order is shipping soon" email one week before your books ship just as one last chance to update your shipping address, and of course you'll get a tracking number as well after it goes out. So don't unsubscribe quite yet.

Thanks so much for all of your patience, I know this has been a tremendous amount of waiting.

Best,
Chase