Dear Indiegogo backers,

It’s been awhile since our last update. We’ve been working day and night vigorously to finish MicroBot Push production, and now we’d like to share our progress and issues.

Disclaimer: please carefully read this update and then answer our Production Survey. In the survey, you need to:

• Choose colors of perks.
• Notify about shipping address changes, if any.

Please complete the survey ASAP, by August 12th at the latest!

 

Shipping

Originally we planned to ship MicroBots in July, but they are likely to be additionally delayed for a few more weeks. Regrettably, high-quality rechargeable batteries that are essential to the proper functioning of MicroBot Push are for a short time backlogged by the battery manufacturer (caused certification delays as well). Even as you are reading this update, we are working together with the manufacturer to get our batteries delivered as soon as possible. When the batteries come here — we will ship your MicroBots within a very short timeframe. We will be able to start shipping on August 17th at first by processing orders one by one carefully.

We know you hate delays. We hate it, too, so we will do everything in our power to shorten this (hopefully, final) delay.

 

New MicroBot features

 

Calibration. MicroBot Push now can be adjusted to fit any button directly from the app. Instead of swapping physical height adjustment plates, you can set a percentage of how far MicroBot should push. This also increases the lifespan of the gears.

Pairing process. MicroBot got a big security improvement. Now it will only be possible to pair MicroBots with your specific smartphones, instead of any smartphones around.

Black Box. Black Box feature will help us to help you! It will be possible to analyze how many times MicroBot Push has been pushed, lost connection, and how long its battery lasts. If you think that your MicroBot doesn’t work well — we’ll be able to provide you with a clear data-driven solution.

Inverted push / release. This has been a frequently requested feature that is now available. Users can set MicroBot to keep pushing a button indefinitely and release on demand.

Capacitive touch. MicroBot now controls the electric current that is needed to operate capacitive buttons. If you have built in house appliances with capacitive dashboards, you can automate those with MicroBot.

 

MicroBot hardware improvements

Reduced power consumption. We managed to reduce MicroBot’s power consumption tenfold when it’s on standby (power from 0.5mA to 0.05mA and data transmission from 2 bytes to 1 byte).

Stabilized gear box. We’ve improved MicroBots’ internal rigidity. Now even if you drop it on the floor, it’s a lot less likely to shatter inside. Though, please don’t drop it intentionally!

Re-designed surface plate. Thanks to redesigned surface plate, the bottom plate doesn’t split from MicroBot’s body when it’s pushing.

Reduced noise. Huge improvement! We greatly reduced the noise that MicroBot’s gears made while pushing buttons. Now you can barely hear it.

Smaller PCB. Smaller PCB allows us to fit a larger battery and further reduce MicroBot’s body. You’ll be able to enjoy to operate it longer and fit on buttons easily.

Designed for assembly. Because we are manufacturing in Korea, manual human labor is the most expensive factor. We have been trying to reduce it as much as possible by removing all manual soldering processes in every component.

 

Prota Membership for Premium Users

Let us introduce a brand new thing — Prota Membership! Prota Membership will provide its users with unique access to premium Prota apps and services. All backers who ordered Prota hardware will get 1-year Prota Membership for free!

 

We will share more details about the membership later on, but here’s a heads-up.

Access advanced AI APIs. For advanced IoT projects and your custom applications use machine learning powered speech and vision APIs:

• Return speech to text in real time.
• Detect objects and faces in real time.
• Detect and extract text from images.

Wirelessly mirror your screen. Use Prota to stream HD content to your TV or projector wirelessly. Share keynotes, PDFs, and fun YouTube videos on the large screen.

Get new Prota HW for free. If Prota members continue their membership for at least 18 months, they will become eligible for a new version of Prota hardware that we will ship to them for free. Simply put, if you are a Prota backer and will continue to be in membership for 6 months longer (monthly subscription fee will occur) after the special free membership period, you become eligible a new Prota device.

Get discounts on app bundles. We have big plans for Prota and many new apps will be coming. Some of the apps won’t be free yet, Prota Members will always get discounts to use app bundles.

One more thing! Don’t panic — if you’ve purchased the Screencast app during the campaign, it will be available to you with or without the membership for the lifetime.

Prota Protection. Prota members won’t have to worry if they accidentally drop or destroy their hardware. We will replace damaged hardware at little or no cost depending on the country where members will be located.

 

Production Survey

It’s now time to fill out a survey and choose colors of your MicroBots & Prota.

FILL OUT THE SURVEY HERE

Colorful (Grey, Red, Golden) MicroBots & white Prota S will only be available during the period of pre-ordering. After we finish with pre-orders, we will only produce white MicroBots and ink black Prota.

Please keep in mind that we will begin with manufacturing white MicroBots & ink black Protas as those so far have been the most popular color options. If you want to get your MicroBots ahead of anyone else, you should consider these color options. Also, if a color option receives less that 100 orders, we might not be able to produce it. In that case, we will contact you with an alternative.

If someone doesn’t select color options within a week after we distribute the survey — we will send them white MicroBots and ink black Protas.

 

Good news for starter kit backers

We are happy to announce our partnership with Sugru! For a limited time, all pre-ordered starter kits will come with 3 complimentary packs of Sugru moldable glue (approximately USD $12 in retail).

• Use Sugru to attach MicroBot on any surface at any angle.
• Create awesome DIY side projects with Sugru that is left.