Pebble Tracker Update - Mass Manufacturing is Underway!
Hello Pebble Tracker community -- we are happy to report that final product testing is now complete and mass manufacturing is underway! We have been working around the clock amidst unprecedented supply chain issues and chip shortages that have made it incredibly challenging for electronics manufacturers around the world, but we are almost at the finish line. We expect to complete mass manufacturing and certifications by mid-October, after which all units will be shipped to the CrowdSupply warehouse and then into your hands as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!
In the rest of this update, we share some behind-the-scenes information on the mass manufacturing, testing, and certification processes, as well as highlight the software/SDKs we are building that will complement Pebble Tracker hardware.
Production Units & Final Testing
Since our last update in July, we manufactured our first production trial run of Pebble Trackers, which were rigorously tested for performance, accuracy, and resiliency. We are happy to report our production units performed extremely well, passing all performance and resiliency testing requirements and proving that Pebble Tracker is ready for primetime. With dozens of unique parts that needed to be welded, assembled, and tested, weāre extremely excited to move on to the mass manufacturing process where hundreds of Pebble Trackers will be manufactured each week. A picture is worth a thousand words, so take a behind-the-scenes look at the Pebble Tracker manufacturing and testing process below!
Certifications
As a product that will be used by builders from around the world, Pebble Tracker requires a lot of certifications. And we mean a lot! CE, FCC, SRRC, ROHS, and UKDA certifications are now underway and expected to be completed by the end of September. The purpose of these certifications is to ensure that safety, health, and environmental protection requirements are met, as well as to protect against hazardous substances, radiation, and other negative externalities. We are proud that Pebble Tracker was designed to operate in an environmentally responsible fashion that can be used internationally as a globally certified product.
Device Management Portal, SDKs, and Protocols
In addition to manufacturing and certifications, our team has been working diligently on incredible complementary software and firmware for Pebble Tracker. We are truly going the extra mile to ensure Pebble Tracker delivers a fantastic user experience for both builders and users. First off, we have built a user-friendly IoT portal that will make onboarding for device owners a breeze -- check out the initial design screenshots below. To ensure a fantastic developer experience for Pebble Tracker, we have also been busy building new software and SDKs that will complement Pebble Tracker: in addition to the previous embedded developer documentation, you can now start browsing the work-in-progress blockchain development documentation to get an idea of how building blockchain applications based on Pebble Tracker will look like. As usual, you can browse the source code via our Github. Finally, we are working on multiple operation modes for the firmware, such as "no-battery", "low-power", or "always-on" modes.
If youāre itching to get started with developing on Pebble Tracker, you can check out our new Pebble Tracker data generator, which generates signed GPS, climate, motion, and light data that can be transmitted to the IoTeX Network, simulating a real Pebble device. The IoTeX network will in turn verify the data and make it available to conventional apps or decentralized blockchain apps (Dapps) ā ask for a simulated device identity in our Discord, give it a try, and let us know your feedback!
The Finish Line Is In Sight!
From all of us here at IoTeX, we want to thank you for your patience and outpouring of support. As the blockchain industry finally starts to garner global attention, we know that the most important use cases for blockchain are yet to come. We truly believe Pebble Tracker will jumpstart an entirely new category of decentralized use cases that connect the physical and digital worlds like never before. By providing 100% verifiable, real-world data to the blockchain we will witness the first-ever applications where people can earn digital assets based on their real-world actions.We canāt wait to see what you build! Stay tuned for more updates from the IoTeX team, and reach out to us on Discord with any questions.
About IoTeX
Founded as an open-source platform in 2017, IoTeX is building the Internet of Trusted Things, an open ecosystem where all āthingsāāāāhumans, machines, businesses, and DAppsāāācan interact with trust and privacy. Backed by a global team of 30+ top research scientists and engineers, IoTeX combines blockchain, secure hardware, and confidential computing to enable next-gen IoT devices, networks, and economies. IoTeX will empower the future decentralized economy by āconnecting the physical world, block by blockā.
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