2021

Nov 12th 2021

Hello again!

It's been some time since my last update. With the ramping up of the Invader V2 beta, and the rapid development of the Invader build kit, I've had a lot to do and keep up with. At this time there have been some completed builds from the beta testers. I've gotten some really good feedback on the designs and more importantly, the kits themselves. Here's the latest on the products and some updates with the store including the Invader PDW kits and the FDM-9 Kits (or lack thereof).

Invader PDW Kit

I'm incredibly grateful for the support of the invader kits. I've been working to improve the quality and consistency of the kits with the help of the early orders. The first batch of kits included hand-made 3mm x 10mm pins that I had cut, filed, and chamfered by hand. I'm happy to announce that I've found pre-made steel pins that will allow me to get these kits together faster and have a higher product quality.

With the arrival of some of the earlier kits, I've heard good things as well as some not so good things. A few of the kits have arrived with the steel bars slightly bent. The recipients have been gracious enough to work with the bent items to try and make them work. Going forward I'm looking at updated packaging to prevent the bars being bent in-transit.

Currently the kits are being sent in a bubble mailer envelope. I've ordered a batch of custom mailer boxes to send the kits to prevent damage to the parts:

Hopefully this will protect the bars going forward.

I've also added the bars themselves as an option in the store if you want to source the rest of the parts yourself, or use parts you already have.

I've also been working with testers to ensure that the invader design is working as intended. Many testers have finished builds and with the above issues in mind, things are going well. I think we're getting close to a public release:

Here's a some images of the tester builds:

I've also been working with some bigger names in the community to generate some more interesting remixes of the Invader, namely Chairmanwon. He's remixed the invader into this absolute work of art:

I've been working on this design to test the functionality and I think it's in a good place and we're on track to release this along-side the DNL version:

FDM-9 Pre-Orders:

If you've been following along with Digital Nimbus Labs' troubles with hosting, you know that I recently changed web/payment providers. The new provider merchant account required me to remove all of my pre-order items from my store. Unfortunately, I will not be able to offer any pre-orders going forward.

Fear not, if you pre-ordered the FDM-9 kit I plan to honor your order. I'm working along-side the development team of the FDM to contribute to the design in order to help with the acceptance of off-the-shelf parts. So far, the frame has undergone a few changes to allow for some stronger springs in some key places. Because of this, finalization of the kit is still in-progress. As soon as the design of the FDM-9 is finalized, I will add the kits back to my store for orders.

Once the invader gets a full release, I'll be able to focus my attention back towards driving that development again.

Until next time,

Digital Nimbus Labs