I wanted to take a moment to give everyone an honest update on where things stand.
We’ve now crossed the 1,000-order mark. That kind of response has been humbling, and I mean that sincerely. It’s also meant that fulfillment has slowed down more than I’d like, and I want to be upfront about why.
Partway through this run, our SD card duplicator passed a batch of cards as verified and good to ship, but a number of them turned out to be corrupted once they actually reached customers. We’ve since caught this, and we’re working through re-verifying and replacing every card affected. If you’ve received a card that didn’t boot right the first time, this is almost certainly why, and I’m sorry for the extra wait and hassle it caused you specifically.
We also had a handful of cards that were damaged in transit rather than at duplication. In response, we’ve beefed up our shipping packaging materials so this shouldn’t be a recurring issue going forward.
A quick note on shipping methods: SKU-1 (Raspberry Pi microSD) orders go out via regular first-class mail, so those won’t have tracking numbers, that’s just the nature of that shipping method. SKU-2 (USB stick) and SKU-3 (Turnkey Appliance) orders do have tracking, and those have been going out.
What I can tell you is that we’ve ramped up production, we’re running through this weekend to catch up, and new orders have slowed enough that we’re finally gaining ground on the backlog. I’m hopeful we’ll be caught up soon.
I also want to share something that’s kept me going through all of this: as of today, not a single person has returned a Helioclock once they’ve had it running. That’s a 100% keep rate. The reviews, videos, and articles that have come out have been overwhelmingly positive, and hearing that this thing is actually doing what I built it to do, for real hams in real shacks, means more to me than I can easily put into words.
On that note, we’ll be pushing a software update soon with some new features I think you’ll like. I’ll send a separate email once that’s ready so it doesn’t get lost in this one.
Thank you, genuinely, for your patience while we work through this. The response to Helioclock has been both a blessing and a curse, and I promise we’re doing everything we can to catch up and get every one of these units into your hands.
73,
Anthony Watts
KA9NWM
Helioclock
What is the estimated date that the product will ship? I would appreciate an actual date you will be caught up instead of “we are working hard”
Hi Michael,
Good news: your order shipped on August 28th via USPS.
A couple of things in the meantime: check your inbox (and spam/junk folder) for an email directly from USPS, that’s typically where the tracking number shows up first. I’m traveling at the moment and don’t have your exact tracking number in front of me, but I’ll follow up with it as soon as I’m back at my desk so you can track it directly. If it hasn’t arrived by the time I send that over, let me know and we’ll sort it out right away.
Thanks for your patience.
73,
Anthony Watts
KA9NWM
Helioclock
ka9nwm@gmail.com
Hi, it definitely hasn’t arrived and I haven’t received any tracking information from the post office either. If it shipped on Aug 28th it’s been 22 days – so something isn’t right. Please advise
That is really strange. I personally remembered putting it in the mailbox because your name is very similar to a friend of mine. I thought it was coincidental. So, we’ll find out what this is, figure it out, and either get you a new one or we’ll get this one found.
I found it!!! It was placed in the wrong mailbox at the rv park. My apologies for the false alarm and I appreciate your quick response. I’m really excited to get this up and running