Hi all, Nikki on the week notes this week.

Where do we begin?

Now that Chris is wrapping up the CNC work on the Ackers Bell we’ve been taking a slightly wider look at it. We had a good planning session about what’s left to get it into a product that you can buy.

As part of that there are a couple of minor tweaks to make to the PCB for it. As part of the design work we’ve moved the status LEDs and reset button a few mm closer to the edge of the case so that they aren’t tucked so far under the bell. And because we’re making some changes there, Adrian is wondering if we should look at the connector to attach the solenoid (which is what strikes the bell) to the PCB. The connector we’ve got works, but can be a bit fiddly to assemble. So we’ve found a couple of possible alternatives and got a few of each ordered so we can make a decision on whether to change things or not. Then we can get some PCBs made up to check and build a few sample units for marketing and testing.

I’ve been doing a lot of research into marketing plans and where the best options to promote Ackers Bell will be so that the people who may actually want to buy it will see. As well as expanding on ideas of potential applications to go alongside that.

Chris is continuing to look for a suitable manufacturing partner to get Ackers Bell manufactured for us. He also started work on the charging unit for the Joyride lights that use My Bike’s got LED