Enyware : The Smart Seat that Transforms Posture & Habit

September update : MAss production edition!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 05:48:56 PM

Dear Backers!

Happy September, we have passed many mass production milestones.

1. Molds for 90%+ of all parts have been completed. Below are a few examples of the molds.

The front support looks really nice and has been repeatedly refined, it came out so awesome we thought it's made for an electric car.

The lumbar has been modified based on study done with a leading University in South East Asia to give the back more support and fits much more snugly that the original design.

The slot for both left and right side + electronics housing are also done.

The molds for mechanism that makes enyware bends as it supports your body is also 100% complete as well as the armrest holder below

What does all this mean? It means that after this we just pump out a few trail Enyware units from these mold. If all goes well the factory can pump all backer units out by Mid-November.

2. Electronics

We have finally decided to go ahead with an updated curcuit design that will avoid the Global chip shortages by leveraging new platforms like RISC-V since they still has lower demand compared to more established platforms that are gobbled up by big techs the moment stocks become avialble. (RISC-V is the open-source CPU that might one day stand side by side with X86, so watch this space).

The design is 100% finished and tested, the early production batch of electronics will arrive next week and head straight to Hong Kong for an alphabet soup of certification testings which includes FCC,CE Mark, Japanese Radio laws and others. This should take about 3 weeks, afterwards manufacturing should take another 3 weeks.  

3. Final assembly

After the electronics parts are done, it will join with the main Enyware unit in the final assembly phase which will be completed by early to mid December. After that, it's about shipping and on that front we are doing everything we can to have Enyware arrive by Christmas or at the very worst, early January.

This month was supposed to be the month we start shipping. We are sorry and disappointed at the delay. Everything is on track now and in just a few months, Enyware will arrive at your door.

Take care, stay safe, and we will talk to you again soon,

Enyware team

August Enyware update! MAss production and delivery schedule!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 08:39:41 PM

Dear backers,

It's time for our August Enyware update!

We are happy to report that mass production of Enyware has started last week. We wish there are more photos to show you and next month's update will be full of production photos. For now, here is the first batch of the pins used to hold the main mechanism in place

Mass production of the main Enyware unit will continue from now until September with a full QC in October. During that time we will also submit Enyware to CE mark certifications to ensure your posture will be protected by a world-class product.

While in theory we should be able to ship out with just one month delay, we have a big challenge regarding the smart sensor. It's just 5% of the deivce but a very crucial part to help ensure healthy sitting.

Due to Covid and that little "trouble in the Suez" earlier in the year with the Evergreen cargo ship we are facing supply problems in electronics part with some components more than tripling in price. This means a lot of re-design, also the FCC certification process will need to start over. 

We have just finished the redesign and chose our new components. We will be able to proceeed with smart sensor assembly next month. However, this means the final integration with Enyware will happen a bit later, likely in late October to early November. 

We are making sure that all goes to plan so delivery can start in December at the latest. Once again we are very sorry about the delay and we are doing everything we can in this challenging year to fulfill our pledges to you. Or in the immortal words of Billy Joel, we didn't start the fire but we tried to fight it.

We will keep you up to date with plenty of production photos next month as well as an update to the electronics.

The Enyware project wouldn't be possible without you. So please stay safe, take care and kindly consider getting vacinated if it's available to you, the faster things get back to normal the better for all of us.

Thank you, take care and stay safe!

Enyware team

June update : DFM and next steps
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jul 01, 2021 at 12:14:58 AM

Dear backers,

Greetings for the month of June!

It has been an another exciting month as we wrap up our final DFM (Design For Manufacturing) process for Enyware.  Having lots of components mean we have to make sure that every finished parts will snap together perfectly during the assembly process and afterwards when you are putting it together at home. Any mismatched parts will become a very expensive mistake.  

We ask the factory to produce samples of every part, then try assembling Enyware from the ground up to see if there are any issues.

Here we make sure the mechanism will fit perfectly into the cover and still work correctly

After quite a few samples being made, shipped back and forth via air fraight and faults carefully identified, we have finally arrived at the final DFM design, the master mold design is undergoing final inspection by us and the factory before go-ahead can be issues around the 3rd week of July.

So on the purely hardware front this is what we are looking at

Material selection - Done

Strength Testing - Done

DFM - Done

Master mold design - Done

Master mold production - Next step!

Tooling - August

Production - September

QC and final assembly - October

We apologize for being off by 1-2 months. All the parts are custom-made so a lot of processes to be involved to make sure things will work properly on the production line and when it's in your hands.

In paralell, we are finalizing our electronics manufacturing as well. This is more problematic and the situation has been changing almost weekly due to chip shortages and the unfortunate choice of choosing the same component used in Apple's airtag.

We are working with the factory to secure an alternate source of component or do a minor redesign of the circuit to get around the issue. We will do a more substantive update of the electronics part in our next update

Thank you for all your support and patience over the past 9 months. We wish things could be quicker but the surging cases has thrown a spanner into our operation with lockdowns and disruption of shipping. 

We will do all we can to get Enyware into your hands as quickly as possible. Please stay safe and healthy. If you have questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected] 

We are always happy to help. This wouldn't have been possible without you all

Astride team

Manufacturing update, cicada edition!
almost 3 years ago – Sun, May 23, 2021 at 12:28:04 AM

Hi Everyone!

We hope you are doing well. We are very glad to see the covid situation getting better in the US and UK but are quite disheartened at what's happening in India,Japan and also in many parts of the world. You are in our thoughts, please stay safe.

We would like to give you all a short update for this month.

Production planning is still going apace and we have been working with the factory to come up with the final mold design for Enyware (Just like a cicada). Since Enyware's design is unique we cannot rely on off-the-shelf parts. The lumbar superstructure has been quite a challenge to get right because it must be able to bear the user's weight as well as function as a part of the 2 point posture adjustment system.

DFM (Design for Manufacturing) for the lumbar 

Once this largest part is done the next step will be integrating it with the molding for other parts. Then a few "gold" units would be made pre-mass production. This is being done in paralell with electronics circuit parts as well.

The app is also shaping up quite nicely

At the same time, we will be starting FCC and CE certification in the coming weeks. We are confident that it will pass and Enyware will arrive at your doopstep with as a certified safe and durable product!

There have been some questions in the comments about changing your shipping address. Simply send us an email at [email protected] and we will happily send you your backerkit link. You can change the address at anytime!

Let's talk more next month!

Astride team

April update. Indiegogo launch and Manufacturing update.
about 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 18, 2021 at 12:41:09 AM

Dear backers,

We hope you are doing fine and healthy. We have a few exciting annoucements to make!

1. Indiegogo launch with special discount voucher for Kickstarter backers

We are launching on indiegogo indemand today and as a special thanks to all kickstarter backers we have included an exclusive $20 discount code "ENYTHX"

Please feel free to give this to friends and families who might have missed out during the kickstarter period and welcome them to the ultimate posture hacking experience!

Why didn't we launch earlier? We want to make sure the team has finished most of the crucial engineering works first. Astride is a small team and a marketing push can distract us from what really matters, making sure Enyware is finished and delivered to your hands.

Now that most of the manufacturing is finalized, we have decided to launch our indiegogo campaign.

2. Manufacturing update

Which brings us to the next topic, manufacturing is going well and we are finalizing the components and assembly steps. Just last week we have received the pre-final, pre-production Enyware unit from the factory and are now meticulously going through each piece and component to make sure that every part fits before molding process can starts. 

Testing the painting process is also crucial in this step and the workshop will be busy for the next few days to make sure the fina surface will be a beautiful, solid black

3. Electronics update

We had to do a minor redesign due to the chip shortages. While it's a bit challenging because we have to look ahead to make sure that the selected chips will still be available 6-9 months on the line, we have an experienced team and partner helping us out.

FCC certification is also ongoing and is expected to finish soon after the design is finalized

We are still on target for late August, early September shipping. Our only concern right now is the electronics situation which remains more fluid than we would like but it's nothing we can overcome.

Please stay healthy, stay safe and talk to you in the next update!