Okay, here is the update we have been hoping to avoid... Production units will not be shipping in July.
Full Disclosure-
While doing our final testing of the Hardware we discovered an over-heating issue with one of the Voltage regulators. The simple fix would have been just to add a Heat-sink to the regulator... but we just weren't comfortable with this solution. The problem arises only when the supply voltage is close to it's maximum allowable voltage (24VAC). All other common voltages such as USB (5VDC) and Automotive (12VDC) and even our supplied Transformer (220-110VAC to 12VDC) works just fine. However, we foresee many applications in the Residential and Commercial HVAC Industry which commonly uses 24VAC. It is at this voltage when both relays are active for an extended time that we start to see a potential problem. The regulator has a thermal protection circuit that will shut-down the N3RD if the temperature exceeds it's maximum threshold. This safety feature is Great unless you are using your N3RD during this shut-down. We decided to go back to one of our prior designs that utilizes a regulated switching power supply. This circuit is much more costly, however, it allows a far superior solution than just trying to "cool" down the existing circuit. With the Switching Power Supply design, we never have to worry about a thermal shut-down even with continuous use.
Microprocessor Upgrade-
Since we now needed to re-layout the PCB for the new Power Supply Design we decided that it was a good time to make a change to the Microprocessor. Our current microprocessor is just fine however, with all the new features and advancements we have made to the App and with the Cloud integration coming we were nearing the maximum capacity of the on-board memory... in other words, we were running out of code space. We have been able to optimize our code so that everything fits fine now, but we want to make sure that we have a little extra headroom for any future upgrades that might be needed.
New Production Schedule-
We have diligently worked to avoid any delays to our Production Schedule. We already have the new Power Supply integrated and have built and fully tested pre-production units (and they work Great!). However, there has been a delay in procuring enough of the new microprocessors for the Production run. We already had the previous microprocessors in stock and was assured by the factory that the model with more RAM was not an issue to get. This was not the case and we are scrambling to attain enough of the new microprocessors from various vendors to fulfill our production numbers. As of today, we have confirmation that these parts will arrive on 8/29/2014. In addition, we have had to make a slight modification to our enclosure Tooling that has moved the receipt of the enclosures to mid September. We will continue to push to make improvements on these deliveries but at this time expect to ship Production units towards the middle to end of September.
