Bird Buddy Production
Milestones
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Funded through Kickstarter
Funded through Kickstarter
- Ability to move forward with building the product.
Selection of Contract Manufacturer
Selection of Contract Manufacturer
- After a long vetting process, we selected a US based partner that has integrated offshore facilities and a California-based engineering development team.
Analysis and planning the mobile app
Analysis and planning the
mobile app
- Defining goals for the app, drawing first user flows, visualizing use case diagrams, producing wireframes (line sketches of the interface).
Mobile app development starts
Mobile app development starts
- Tech stack is selected.
- Development and testing environment is established.
Industrial Design Development
Industrial Design Development
- Increased seed capacity.
- Surface refinement.
- Solar roof redesign.
- Suet ball attachment design.
Mechanical Engineering Development
Mechanical Engineering Development
- Housing optimized for durability and mass production.
- Mechanics for seed door and assembly finalized.
- Solar roof and mounting add-ons engineered to fit housing.
Custom content for over 500 birds
created and localized to 7 languages
Custom content for over 500 birds
created and localized to 7 languages
- Bird profile defined.
- Content management system designed and developed.
- Custom descriptions, illustrations and stickers done for over 500 bird species.
- First batch of bird profiles localised to 7 languages and imported to the freshly developed content management system.
Global chip shortage and supply chain challenges
Global chip shortage and
supply chain challenges
- COVID-19 starts affecting component availability and supply chain/logistics.
- Redundancies in engineering and component selection built into the design to try to mitigate shortages and lead times.
Electrical Engineering Development
Electrical Engineering Development
- Testing Wi-Fi range, bird detection solutions, seed sensor solutions, and power consumption scenarios.
- Electrical engineering development continues, working closely with sourcing for component availability.
- First prototype PCBAs (circuit boards) built and assembled.
- Still waiting on long lead camera module components.
Design of all major app flows finalized
Design of all major app
flows finalized
- Feeder pairing steps.
- Onboarding steps.
- Photo-taking steps.
- Collection steps.
- App settings.
All art assets produced
All art assets produced
- The app now contains over 50 animations, each full of character.
- First version of sound design implemented.
- Branded icons for every bird spicies developed.
All main app flows developed
All main app flows developed
- Photo-taking flow.
- Collection flow.
- Paring flow.
- Login flow.
DFM and Injection molding tools completed
DFM and Injection molding
tools completed
- Tooling and first parts for over 30 component parts and accessories in the final stages.
- Plans for alpha and beta builds (fully-functioning BBs) to be sent for lab testing and certification.
- Pre-certified battery selected for the first 50k units (costly, but an effort to maintain delivery estimates).
Cloud infrastructure complete
Cloud infrastructure complete
- Selected AWS as our cloud infrastructure provider.
- Completed design of cloud architecture.
- Implemented most of the core cloud infrastructure services.
- Deployed most of the Bird Buddy services.
Sourcing and vetting of 3PL partners
Sourcing and vetting of 3PL partners
- Detailed requirements and RFP produced to vet potential partners.
- Vetting additional 3PL partners to mitigate COVID-19-induced supply chain issues.
- Final components sourced.
T0 units produced and validated
T0 units produced and validated
- T0 parts tested for dimensional accuracy and finetuning of the tools and molding process.
PCBA and end-of-line test fixtures complete
PCBA and end-of-line test
fixtures complete
- First batch of PCBAs produced for fixtures and initial firmware development.
- All components required to start mass production are in the factory.
- Test fixtures and test processes validated and shipped to the factory.
Packaging design and supplier selection
Packaging design and supplier selection
- Vetted multiple packaging suppliers.
- Structural packaging design prototyped and artwork finalized.
- Packaging materials selected.
Packaging production complete
Packaging production complete
Passed FCC and EMC testing
Passed FCC and EMC testing
- Electronics passed initial functional and safety requirements testing.
3rd Party Logistics partner selected
3rd Party Logistics partner selected
- Large global 3PL partner selected.
- Technology integration underway.
- Bird Buddy tours the main warehouse and fulfillment location.
Accessories manufactured
Accessories manufactured
- Accessories manufactured and waiting for shipment.
AI refinements
AI refinements
- Deployed data gathering cameras to 100 different locations.
- Manually labeled close to 1 million photos of birds.
- Classification model trained to filter "not interesting" images to reduce memory footprint.
- Bird detection and species classification models trained.
- The AI will be getting smarter and more accurate with each bird visit at your feeder.
Critical software improvements
Critical software improvements
- Video quality evaluations.
- Video processing improvements.
- h265 benefits
- Preparing data for AI inference in multiple models.
- Working on the improvement AI pipeline.
Firmware release candidate complete
Firmware release candidate complete
- Secure communication and AWS integration - done.
- Secure Over The Air updates - done.
- Device provisioning - done.
- Video streamming - done.
- Still images - done.
Final QA and firmware polish complete
Final QA and firmware polish complete
- Testing framework in place.
- Stress testing all key features on statistically significant sample sizes.
Final manufacturing and assembly
Final manufacturing and assembly
- Final components go into mass production.
- Final assembly.
- Weekly batches start leaving the factory.
Inbound transport
Inbound transport
- We have our first inbound bookings scheduled, securing an early allocation on the containers.
Fulfillment
Fulfillment
- US domestic fulfillment is ready to go as product arrives in our US site.
- We continue to work on international fulfillment requirements and expect these will be completed shortly.
- We continue to look at transportation opportunities to provide the right balance of service and cost.
Reach out!
Thank you so much for sticking it out with us throughout this journey! If you still have concerns about your order, or would like to request a refund please feel free to reach out to us through this form. Our customer support agents will be happy to help with any questions or requests you might have.