Friends, we are around here because we trust and suport Ez-robot. Ok. But, in any business to be in touch with costumers is primary. We understood the "pre order" deal, ok. We decide to bet in the revolution to raise our knowledge - pro or amateur builder - but, again, all this delay is more than sufficient to cause frustration. Nobody is asking for money back. We just do not want to receive another delay note.. I'm shure people at Ez-robot understand that we, the early costumers around the world are valuable resources when comes to spread the brand goods. So, I like to think that our orders will be shipped as soon as possible, and in a fair basis. And, finally:

Jayceekey is absolutely right. We should receive a date. Not only the vague month. That would help to understand what is goin on.

Shipping starts around next week, as stated more than once. What some need to realize is that this is a small company and they cannot- excuse my french- pull the ez b v4 out of their arse. They are pretty much spending every waking moment trying to get everything in order, and they still try to communicate with customers the best they can. As said before, there's still more than a week left in march, so no need to start acting like shippings never going to happen.

I respect your concerns We haven't been ignoring you - we have been working 12-16 hour days to get the first shipment ready - do not worry, we're not stressed. It's quite the opposite when you spend the days designing such an amazing and fun product!

You wouldn't believe the amount of "stuff" we had to learn over the past 7-8 months while designing and manufacturing components. We are determined to complete everything we claim to 110% of our ability... So we sure won't give up! Even though some times were quite challenging. As stated, the EZ-B's and Developer Kits are the first to ship starting very soon (within the next week or two).

The biggest challenges we have experienced have nothing to do with technology or functionality... It's been 100% manufacturing. We designed the pieces on our MakerBot Replicator 2 3D Printers with SolidWorks. Not having any idea how injection molding works and not having funds/time to hire a large industrial design firm to help us - we have been slowly receiving feedback and tests from manufacturers which result in changes to the mold designs.

As the mold designs continue to change, it has added more time to the delivery date - keep in mind, the changes to the molds are required for the product to work correctly. Anyone who challenges that our EZ-B v4 isn't what we claim it to be can talk to Anthony who has a beta board - the technology is ready - the manufacturing is almost complete.

Jason has been putting together a short news letter which will be sent to all pre-order customers - like we do monthly. Every month you have received an update from us, and it also included videos of me verbally explaining where we are. There is no reason for us not to be transparent through this process. As pre-order customers, you're part of the reason why we're able to create this amazing product in the first place. Frustration aside, you can only imagine how we feel as well!

I'll expose a little information here that the news letter will detail... As I stated earlier, the main hold-up has been manufacturing of the plastic components. This was a huge learning lesson for us, and we have achieved some amazing results without needing to spend a million dollars to do it! It sure did take a little more time than expected, but that's the risk we took. The process to manufacture a plastic component is quite elaborate when you start getting into it.

There are so many materials to chose from! It's not as simple as saying "ABS", there are thousands of compounds and derivatives of each. Many of these materials are owned by different companies with patents which result in royalty or licencing costs as well. Now here's a kicker, each manufacturing facility only has access to certain materials. So if you have some parts being made at one factory, the chance of other factories having the same material is slim. Taking time to ensure every part is selected with compatible materials is important. Why does the material matter so much? It has to do with the properties of the material during the injection process and the quality after. Once heated and injected at a billion PSI into the mold, the material shrinks when cooled.

Our clips require high resolution and accuracy to work correctly. There is only so much "simulation" you can do before needing to test the real thing. Creating a mold takes weeks - a CNC machine cuts away metal over a day or two. Finally, a human gets tiny files and spends days filing the surfaces of the molds to the specifications. Testing the mold with real materials in a machine takes time because these machines are scheduled. The machines are in use 24 hours per day making plastic for millions of other products, we have to schedule time and wait to have a single part tested.

Each material has a different shrinking percentage. On top of that, you have sink mark issues. Also, if some points of the mold are too thick the material cools at a different rate causing sink marks in the surface. This also can create stress points which can be the cause of the product cracking over time. Pre-tests and simulations prevent our product from having these issues.

Now the material is also important for how it gets out of the mold. Certain materials stick the mold and require difference forces to get it out. Little pins push the product out of the mold, which causes visual appearance marks that no one wants.

Then we have the mold creation part itself. This is was the largest challenge ever! We have over 50 parts to be injected molded for Revolution - and every part needs to clip together and be compatible. Also, our parts are quite challenging to be molded because they're complicated. This has required the parts to be reviewed, modified, reviewed, modified, over and over again... The things that get modified are based on tests, simulations and feedback from manufacturers. There are so many interesting facts we learned about injection molding... Every time you feel the part is ready for the mold creation, there's a surprise for you...

We kept having to go back to SolidWorks to make changes to the design for the injection molding process. That's what our holdup has been - changing the parts. The most recent simulations and reviews of the parts show that we're ready to spend the $500,000+ USD to begin manufacturing. Wait, what? $500,000? Yes, that's how much money it will cost us to create the first batch of Revolution's plastic components - when you ask why there's a hold-up? Well, the hold-up is I don't want to lose your money or my house on a detail that we overlooked.

It has cost EZ-Robot over a million USD to create Revolution - this isn't an Arduino or Lego Mindstorms... Revolution is REAL robotics right out of science fiction. When you get this thing in your hand, you will understand what the future really holds for Robotics. It is a true game changer!

Anyone who is upset that they don't have the product in their hands immediately can Contact Us to request a refund - that's not a concern of ours at all because +90% are true believers. To be frank, you've stuck around this long, another month or two won't hurt. Keep in mind that if you request a refund that you'll have to take a place in the back of the line later. With the number of orders we continue to receive, it'll take a while for us to catch up!

I guess if you were to summarize our position - We've taken our time to make sure Revolution is done right!

Thank you DJ for the explanation and for ensuring the product is perfect when we receive them Hopefully your headaches with the manufacturing process will soon be over.

thats so thru dj.even ad a color to the plastik can cause huge problems.there are some chops online who color there brakets. and they look nice,but also comes whit problems that is bad for the robot.they bring cracking sound pieping sounds, but most the servo's strugling due to the holes are not perfect round any more.the drying proces is to hard.

jezus 500.000 dollar blush i never saw a 500 euro bill in my life.

Thank you DJ for the update and caveat about going into the mold injection business! To remain transparent, professional and committed to customers is a challenge when the desire is for the absolute best product! DJ's explanation is thorough with the molding/developing process. I am not sure why the EZ-B V4 is "locked in" to the robot products and a release time but if I may presume , perhaps like a PC manufacturer they don't want to ship a laptop with out the processor IC ! I know there are many here on the Forum who don't require the motherboard and accessories but are really just waiting for the " processor" This is my rough/ignorant(without inside knowledge) attempt at an analogy.

The EZ-B v4 is dependent on the plastic parts due to the size and dimensions of the PCB. Also, the developer kit's and EZ-B include the plastic shell.

2 minutes later after my post, DJ gives yet another awesome explanation! Again.....Thank you so much nuff said by me