Installation Video Update - Better Detailed Installation Video
about 9 years ago – Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 07:04:43 PM

Hi Backers,

Mike seemed to think that I made the Form Mount install on the first video look TOO easy. So we took some more video today and edited it into a new one. Here is a link to the latest installation video with more detailed details.

https://youtu.be/i9tsNWklZCw

For the best quality, select HD.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tim,Mike and Frank

Installation Video Update - Better Detailed Installation Video
about 9 years ago – Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 07:03:23 PM

Hi Backers,

Mike seemed to think that I made the Form Mount install on the first video look TOO easy. So we took some more video today and edited it into a new one. Here is a link to the latest installation video with more detailed details.

https://youtu.be/i9tsNWklZCw

For the best quality, select HD.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tim,Mike and Frank

Shipping Update!!
about 9 years ago – Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 07:57:53 PM

Hey There Backers,

We are happy to announce that we started printing shipping labels last night. We will be packaging tonight and tomorrow morning and dropping off our first batch of mounts at the post office later tomorrow afternoon!!

In the meantime, here is a link to our installation video for anyone who wants an heads up on the installation procedure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGzBwvZV9DA

More details to follow.....

Thanks

Tim, Mike and Frank

Production Has Resumed!!
about 9 years ago – Tue, Mar 14, 2017 at 11:47:30 PM

Hey There Backers,

Very quick, we approved our latest arm geometry this morning, along with some other tweaks, and made a material change on the TCMI and Garmin/Wahoo inserts.

So the short story is we are back to producing Arms and Cradles now, and will be starting production on the other approved parts in a couple days. We should be up to full production, at full speed, by the end of this week. We are planning to start shipping over the weekend.

Sincere thanks to everyone for the awesome patience and support you have shown us.

Tim, Mike, and Frank

And now,

Extremely detailed details, for interested backers seeking information on what we have been up to for the past 2 weeks. And, a series of unfortunate events that turned out to be not so unfortunate after all.

Event one- Unfortunate - Arms out of Spec

Our first attempt to start production a couple of weeks ago, allowed us to accumulate a large inventory of parts to inspect. We noticed a trend in out of roundness of the arm diameters as they came out of the mold. It wasn't much, but it could be made better. These fits are important to the overall assembly and we want them accurate based on our engineering drawings and our earlier test samples.

Not quite .250" Diameter on this arm :(

Gauge pins installed into cradle assembly

This picture shows .251" diameter gauge pins installed into the cradle assembly to check fits. This shows a nice consistent fit around the diameter. This is what we want to see with the actual arms. The out of spec amounts we were seeing were in no way excessive, we're talking just a couple thousandths of an inch variation beyond what we specified, but we could make it better, and it would make the mount feel just that much nicer.

The out of roundness can be a problem  when injection molding what is basically a rod (Arm), and there are very common and proven fixes for this.Depending on the amount of out of roundness, it can be reduced or eliminated through processing or mold geometry compensation, or a combination of both. The processing consists of tweaks to temperature, pressure, packing rate and duration, etc... The mold compensation consists of modifying the mold geometry. Example: The mold cavity steel is perfectly round in the area of the arm diameter. If the parts come out of the mold "out of round" consistently, you can make the mold diameter bigger on the part detail that is coming out smaller when molded. So the mold cavity steel ends up being out of round(slightly oval shaped), but when the part is molded, the part shrinks to round. Instead of being molded round and shrinking to oval shaped. This is a very basic example of explaining the complexity of it.

So in summary, production was put on hold until we got our carbon tool tweaked.

Which led to a not so unfortunate event

Event 2 - NOT Unfortunate - Improved Arm Design

Since we were going to have to go back into the EDM department with our arm mold inserts and basically alter the cavity/core details, we took the opportunity to beef up the arms and make some aesthetic changes to the geometry, so the arms looked more proportionate to the cradle assemblies.

The Form Mount was originally designed to accommodate smaller Garmin computers. So the form factor was designed with smaller arms proportionate to the cradle assembly. During the campaign the cradle assembly grew in size to allow interchangeable inserts, and a set of long arms was created off the short arm geometry. This left the original arm aesthetics a bit out of place with the longer arms and larger cradle assembly. Maybe it was only readily apparent to us, but it still kinda bugged us.

 Check out this new arm geometry!!

New Long Arm On Top - Old Long Arm On Bottom

 New Long Arm On Top - Old Long Arm On Bottom - Shown Retracted

 Old Long Arm On Left - New Long Arm On Right

New short arms get the same splayed width increase as the long arms, minus the diameter change.

Event 3 - Unfortunate - Letter confusion

Having 2 "G" and 2 "W" letters in the engagement bosses was causing a bit of confusion during assembly,( to assembly helpers, not us, we know what we're doin) as the interfaces were being installed into the TCMI. Since we were already down with arm tweaks, we took advantage of the time to eliminate the letters. There is now one "G" and one "W" on the TCMI interface pocket. And one letter each on Garmin/Wahoo engagement boss. Installation = Letter to Letter= Simpler.

Not so intuitive letter arrangement....

Event 4 - Fortunate - Improved performance of Garmin/Wahoo inserts as well as aesthetics of TCMI, by changing material from straight Delrin to 20% Glass Filled Delrin.

Another down time tweak that really kicked things up a notch. And this was last minute, like accomplished during this mornings tooling meeting, last minute.

Since we were sampling the new letter omitted TCMI parts we asked our molding partner if there was a material that had similar shrink factors as the straight Delrin.

They said "yeah, we have some 20% glass filled Delrin in the shop", we said " Cool, can you sample our Delrin parts with some of that?", then they said "Sure", then we said "Cool!". Then about 1/2 hr later we had these.

Notice how the gloss level of the upper cradle parts and inserts now perfectly matches the Carbon Cradle Bottoms and Arms. In a previous update we were trying the get the Delrin textures to more closely match the Carbon parts. We got very close on texture, but didn't get the gloss levels to match as well as we would have liked.

Now we have an almost perfect match on both!

AND, since we are using a 20% glass filled nylon now, these parts are stronger and stiffer than the previous straight Delrin production parts.

Stiffer, Stronger and improved aesthetics! Win, Win, Win!!!

All proves the importance of partnering up with a trustworthy manufacturer that is willing to work with you. Kudos to the guys at 3R plastics!!

Speaking of 3R, the shop guys have shared this short video of our Delrin production samples being molded this morning. It is extremely boring and artistically challenged regarding cinematography, but the audio is fantastic.

Enjoy!!

Quick summary

So we are finally back to production after a few setbacks, which turned out to be beneficial by actually allowing time for issues to surface, while still on our end. And creating the opportunity to make improvements before any product made it to backers.

Improvements that would not of been included if everything went as planned, and we started shipping in early January.

Arms - Improved aesthetic proportions and strength.

TCMI - Improved cosmetics and strength.

Garmin/Wahoo Inserts -  Improved cosmetics and strength.

We knew we had a cool product originally, but it is so much better now. And all made possible by a series of not so unfortunate events.

We are very excited to be able to ship the " New and Improved ,2.0 version" first time out!!

We still have some backers who have not filled out their "Surveys". The name "Survey" can be a bit misleading to backers new to Kickstarter, as it can be taken as being voluntary. But the surveys actually let us know what ships to who, and where, so we need them filled out. Thanks.

Next update - Shipping!!

Getting It Right
over 9 years ago – Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 06:13:06 PM

Hey there Backers,

A quick update tonight for everyone. A highly detailed one with production specifics soon, for those so inclined to delve in.

We are in a slight holding pattern while tweaks are being made to the carbon filled  tool's arm cavity detail.  Production has given us a large sample group to test from and we discovered a trend in the arms being slightly out of round and just out of tolerance, which is unacceptable to us, so refinements were needed.  Our molding partner is again working over the weekend to get this dialed in and we expect to be back and running by the end of this week with a new batch of arms for inspection and approval. 

Silver lining: Our other parts have met all production expectations, so we have a ton of inventory built up.

Please know it pains us more to say this than it does for you to hear it.  This has been more than just a Kickstarter project for us from the inception of the idea. We created FormMount and F3 Cycling and are in it for the long haul. Your support has helped make that possible, and your reward will be receiving the best component.  We are managing the struggles of any small startup launching it's first product. We can accept taking our lumps now based on delivery delays, vs later, with a product than would not have meet our expectations, and exceeded yours - which is our intention all along. The knowledge that there are actions that we can take now to perfect FormMount requires us to take this step. Shortcuts will not be made now, or with any future F3 product. 

We're 98% there and 110% confident that it will be worth the wait.  Thank you for your patience and support.

Sincerely, 

Tim, Mike and Frank.