It’s about time we posted another update, so we’re going to share a few photos of the injection moulding progress and answer a few commonly asked questions, including our best estimate as to when we think we’ll be ready to ship again.

Wildlife Cam Kit Progress

Our injection moulders are currently making small changes to the tool to enhance the quality of the case and are working to ensure there are no imperfections. We found a few small minor issues such as “sink holes” where there wasn’t enough plastic injected in time. This resulted in depressions as seen in the photo below. Shortly before we all broke for Xmas and New Year we started to work on these smaller issues and they continue to be our primary focus.

A “sink hole” can be seen on the support bar

Delivery date and shipping update

To ship the Wildlife Cam Kit we are reliant on the completion of the case, so below we have pasted the latest update from our injection moulders with dates as to when we would expect the finished case to ready;

“The rear case is going well, therefore w/c 25th Jan we intend to run fresh samples. We will open the gate and make longer pin inserts on the front cover tool which we believe will eradicate the sinkage around the tabs.

So in summary, we intend to complete the new samples (front and rear) the w/c 25th for you to test. Once you are happy, we will then sand blast the tool to give a final finish. Therefore full production early February.”

We’re fast approaching the 25th of January, so we should now reach the turning point where we can sign off development and start production. With full production in early February of the case, we only need to drop in the components (that we had back in December) and get the kits in the post to you.

Frequently asked questions

Over the last few weeks we have had a number of questions and comments about the kits. We’re going to answer the most commonly asked questions below, but if you do have any not listed then do please get in touch as always.

How will the software work and can I download it?

We have used a standard version of Raspbian that has been configured to run the camera out of the box – in that it will boot up and start taking photos once constructed without the need to edit any code or config files. There are a number of scripts and instructions to help anyone from young junior programmers to users that have never used a Raspberry Pi before. It’s our intention to promote the editing of code, files and settings by following easy to understand steps, but not to scare users into having to do so. Our scripts that run timelapse, slow-mo etc… will all be available, or you can just download our image. The image will be released to all backers once we ship the final kit so everyone has access at the same time.

When will you ship rewards that don’t need the case?

We realised that the component layout needed to be tweaked after changes to the case were introduced to fix certain injection moulding issues. We needed a little more time to re-test our “print your own” 3D files and re-test that components would fit, so we haven’t yet shipped the non-case version. We do however still intend to ship and deliver all of the rewards (t-shirts etc…) in early February, as we want to complete the Kickstarter and get the community setup and going as soon as possible.

When can I get access to the Naturebytes online community?

As soon as we ship the kits we’ll release the online kit instructions, 3D print files and all of the layout plans. We don’t want to release all of the files before our backers get their kits as we could have people who didn’t back the project building their own cameras before our backers, so bear with us and we’ll soon get you, our backers, the kits and plans first as you have invested your funds in us. We’ll then release access to the wider community so everyone can benefit.

We’ll get another update out in the first week of February as we should then be about to start the final production of the eagerly awaited case.

Kind regards,

Naturebytes.