Latest shipping update and impact on pre-orders

Hi,

So I am a little but confused about your update. You mention yet more issues with Photon shipments and another 5K units going out by 6/29 or early next week. Does this cover all pre-orders or will certain orders suffer yet more delays? If it does not cover everything can you provide a sense of when the balance of pre-orders will ship?

Sorry for my annoyed tone, but I (and many others, I am sure) am frustrated with the ongoing shipment delays. My Spark Core is awesome, and I am very impatiently awaiting the arrival of my three Photons. While I understand that some of these issues are beyond your control, the delays don't reflect well on the company as a whole.

Thank you.

Continuing the discussion from Photon Manufacturing/Shipping Update:

Hey there @JL_678,

For others' reference, the issue with Photon shipment is the same one that we've been dealing with for nearly 6 weeks now--the availability of authentic, low L/T voltage regulators. This issue is described in the first post of the "Photon Manufacturing/Shipping Update" thread, described here:

The RT8008-33 is the voltage regulator on the Photon, produced by a manufacturer named Richtek. We purchased stock for this part through a couple of authorized distributors near our manufacturing facility in China. The initial shipment of modules, which we used to manufacture a small batch of about 3,000 Photons that were shipped in late May, passed IQC with flying colors. The following shipment, however, had abnormally high quiescent current draw (current consumption when the Photon is in deep sleep) which would mean significantly reduced lifetime for projects running on batteries.

As far as pre-orders go, we're estimating there will be a balance of about 2,000 Photons with Breadboard Headers in Matchbox packaging that are unfulfilled after the wave of 5K units are sent out due to the challenges we're having with the voltage regulators. As I mentioned in the most recent shipping update that you've quoted above, we'll provide more frequent updates on the sourcing effort for that part since it impacts our ability to fulfill remaining pre-orders, and hope to identify additional stock in the next few days that will unfreeze these units.

I completely understand the frustration--we're frustrated with the performance of our CM as well. Unfortunately, these kinds of issues arise during hardware manufacturing, and though they don't reflect well on anyone, the only thing we can do is provide consistent, transparent updates to our community, which we've done our best to do. We sincerely appreciate the patience, and look forward as much as you do to the upcoming weeks when we're actively in stock and Photons will pour out promptly and effortlessly from our fulfillment center in the US :slight_smile:

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Hi,

Thank you for the update and the transparency. It is really much appreciated. From my perspective, the only reason I vent is because I care. If I did not, I would not bother. Thank you for your thorough response. I will keep waiting…impatiently. :smile:

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Silly question… What does CM stand for?

In today’s email from particle:

We are currently expecting 3,200 orders to ship within the next two weeks, 1,000 orders to ship by the end of July, and the final 1,800 orders to ship within the first two weeks of August.

CM=Contract manufacturer.

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Newbie here, waiting, but happy I won’t be getting potentially hazardous products that might be one day powered on at all times in my house. So good on ya Particle team!