Making Qleek
Dear Qleek Backers,
We’re excited to tell you that things are shaping up pretty well for Qleek since we’ve intergrated Bolt.io
But before we dive in, we wanted to ask your permission to add your name on the Qleek supporters page as a thank you.
We will keep this page as a reminder of where Qleek come from and that you are the kickstarter of this ambitious project.
Pierre is refining the electronics of Qleek with the help of a very talented electrical engineering team specializing in hardware and firmware design. He’s started the firmware development and is optimizing the Qleek board for energy efficiency. He’s also working on the “media playing” part of Qleek, but more on that later.
The latest design of the Qleek PCB [/caption]
Johanna now works with an experienced product designer and a great mechanical engineer who will help us get the production of Qleek right.
After a week reviewing our work, they pointed some potential issues we may have with the current mechanical design of tapps. So we have decided to take the time to improve their design in order to ship the best possible version for you.
A couple of days later, Johanna issued a prototyping plan to test different designs that would simplify the production process of tapps.
The good thing of being part of Bolt is that we can experiment the various look and feel of the material combinations and iterate quickly.
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A “sandwich” version mixing wood and plastic[/caption]
For instance, we are trying to combine wood and plastic to change from CNC miling (which is difficult and costly) to injection molding. This would possibly allow us to have less defects during the production process.
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This half-metal / half-walnut version is a beautiful reminder of how Qleek mixes the digital and the physical[/caption]
Another possibility is to use metal forming and combine the digital feel of aluminum with warmess of maple. Because miling wood is time consuming, this design would allow us to produce tapps at a more effient rate.
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This cork version is a beautiful alternative to wood [/caption]
Among other choices of materials cork is really interesting since it can be injection molded. Just as wood, it is a natual material with a warm touch. It is also eco-friendly and very beautiful.
We’ll keep investigating the best solution during the next couple of weeks. Then we’ll get back on track towards the production.
Providing you the best possible Qleek experience is our top priority. That is why we take time to improve every facet of the product from the materials, to electronic components and every line of code we write.
We will give you a more precise idea of the shipping date as soon as we finalize our work here at Bolt. And we promise it is worth the wait.
So stay tuned, we’ll tell you more about our work here in Boston in a couple of weeks with more exciting news to share.
We can’t thank you enough for your support so far. We get tons of emails from around the world encouraging us and motivating us everyday.
Cheers,
Ismail, Johanna & Pierre
PS. Let us know your thoughts on which design you love on the comments section below
