In our last update we explained how we have had 0 support from the China team. Because of it, what could have maybe taken us a short amount of time has ultimately taken much longer. The reason for that is because we have had to go through lots of trial and error. Regardless, it hasn’t stopped us and we have been progressing well.

Since our last update, here are the major issues we’ve resolved or made progress with:

1. The exterior Camera
   
   Our camera includes a 'Night Mode' feature designed to improve visibility in low-light environments—something the Chinese assured us was not part of our camera. When it gets too dark, instead of displaying a black screen, our camera has an additional infrared (IR) LED to provide illumination (which we were unaware of at first). This IR LED ensures the image captured by the camera appears in greyscale rather than completely black and dark.

    

   The Chinese never coded this feature (the camera's IR LED), nor did they inform us about it. The issue arose when the IR LED activated during the day or in well-lit conditions, causing the camera to produce a red-tinted image of poor quality. The main challenge was that not all cameras exhibited the red tint, and we couldn't identify why some were affected while others were not. Since this was never disclosed to us and the feature wasn't coded, the only way to control it was by manually toggling a component on the PCBA—a solution that took time to discover and was entirely impractical.

    

   Obviously, this wasn’t acceptable. We’ve since identified the issue, fixed the coding, and automated the feature. Now, the system intelligently activates or deactivates the camera's IR LED based on ambient lighting, ensuring optimal performance without any manual intervention. You can see in this video that we have successfully coded the camera's IR LED, and here we demonstrate manually turning it on and off (7mb video below):

    

   
   Since we already had six IR LED lights on our safe to support night vision capabilities, having an extra LED was nice to have, but not important to have, especially since it was never mentioned to us. Initially, we feared the red-tinted images were due to defective cameras or a firmware issue. Because it caused the imagery to appear red, we had to prioritize fixing it while simultaneously addressing other issues.

    

   With this fix, the camera now seamlessly adapts to lighting conditions, providing reliable performance and consistently clear images—day or night.
   
   
   

2. The Most Important One of All: The Motor
   
   As we previously mentioned, the motor's functionality had been removed, rendering the safe inoperable. We’ve since resolved this issue, and the motor is now fully functional, allowing the safe to operate normally again.
   
   
   This is fantastic news for us, as it means we can move forward to the next step: advancing trial production units.
   
   
   

3. Writing Unique Serial Numbers 
   
   It took us about three weeks, but we’ve finally figured out how to write unique serial numbers onto each safe’s PCBA. This was a time-consuming and frustrating process, as every solution we tried initially failed. After extensive troubleshooting, we discovered that the main issue was the Chinese had locked our ability to write serial numbers in an unusual way, which created a significant challenge for us.
   
   This was a major roadblock because, without fixing it, we would not have been able to move forward with mass production (MP). Thankfully, we’ve now resolved the issue, and the process is working as intended.
   
   
   

4. Clock and Time Zone Issue
   
   We encountered a clock and time zone issue that has now been resolved. Previously, the safe was unable to automatically select the correct time zone based on its IP address, and manual adjustments wouldn’t stick. Instead, it would default to a time zone five hours ahead, and even if we manually corrected it, it would revert to the incorrect time zone shortly after.
   
   This was a significant problem because the activity logs were never accurate, and the Safe’s screen would display an incorrect time, leading to confusion and operational issues.
   
   Thankfully, this has been fixed. Now, within three seconds of connecting to WiFi, the time will automatically adjust to the correct time zone. Additionally, if you manually change the time, it will no longer revert to the incorrect setting.
   
   
   

5. The interior lights are now fully functional again, providing proper illumination inside the safe.

The good news is that the overall system and electronics are working “enough” to move forward. As we fix other outstanding issues, we will update the system with an OTA.

Anything else we should be aware of? Yes, unfortunately as we’ve been testing the serial numbers, we’ve noticed that once we do an OTA, the serial numbers were wiping. While this wasn’t happening when we would do manual upgrades, we noticed this was happening whenever we did OTA upgrades. Our team is going back to the OTA to figure out why specifically when OTAs are happening, the serial numbers are formatting. For obvious reasons, unique serial numbers are extremely important to have on our safes, both for warranty purposes, and also because our backend only allows whitelisted serial number to connect to our system. This means if the safe was not created by us, and the serial number was not provided by us, then a safe will not be able to enter our system. We estimate that this will take up to 3 weeks to figure out and fix with trial and errors. Once we get this working, then we can finally ship out the trial production units.

We kindly request your cooperation in refraining from sending emails requesting delivery dates and any negative messages, as we no longer plan to respond to those individual inquiries. Rest assured, we're actively working to expedite the process and will provide updates as soon as they become available. Your understanding and patience during this time is greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the delay. Thank you for your unwavering support, your understanding and patience during this time are greatly appreciated.

We want to remind everyone that crowdfunding is a unique opportunity to help fund ideas that you care about, and be a part of bringing projects to life. We understand that it can be discouraging when a campaign you have funded experiences delays; such as ours. However, as with any early-stage project, crowdfunding campaigns may take unexpected turns, which can include changes, delays or unforeseen challenges; which you have all seen from our updates over the last three years. While your contribution helps to bring something new closer to reality, we ask that you continue to have patience until our project is complete.

TLDR - SUMMARY

• Lack of support from China caused delays and required extensive trial and error.

• Resolved Issues:
  
  • Exterior Camera Night Mode: Fixed issues with an unexpected IR LED causing red-tinted images during the day. The system now automatically adjusts based on lighting conditions.
  
  • Motor Functionality: Restored motor functionality, allowing the safe to operate normally.
  
  • Unique Serial Numbers: Resolved the inability to write unique serial numbers on the PCBA, a key step for moving to mass production.
  
  • Clock and Time Zone: Fixed time zone errors that caused incorrect activity logs and screen times. Now adjusts automatically within 3 seconds of WiFi connection.
  
  

• Serial numbers are being wiped during OTA updates. Fixing this will take approximately three weeks and is critical to fix this before shipping trial production.
  
  

• Next Steps: Trial production units will be shipped once the OTA serial number issue is resolved. Further updates, system enhances, and fixes will be provided as OTA updates.
  
  

• If all goes well, we estimate the trail production will ship out in 1-2 months.
  
  

• Mass production won’t start to ship before May 2025.