But you’re then losing the UART port. So, just saying. It’s still ass. And I don’t mean A.S.S., I mean “ass” 
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Maybe sell here first using a secret/different link and limit the number of purchases by address/payment method?
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@shaman Why not just take preorders for a batch? Then you can get an idea of the demand, keep a check on how many any one individual orders and it may even help with distribution. I’m sure a lot of people on here would rather pay upfront and then wait patiently knowing it would eventually turn up.
Do you have an eta for the next batch? I know your talking about changes to the Bluetooth etc. I hope this isn’t going to slow things down.
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Preorders always sound like a good idea, but rarely are.
I like Shaman Systems too much to see them risk their survival like that 
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Sounds about perfect. Btw. the Pint controller box is approx. 26.6 mm deep, so if the v2 is about 25 mm or less, it should be a nice close fit.
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Its not preorders that’s the problem. Its the discipline of the vendor - don’t use the money from pre-orders to pay debt or finance a loan and you’re fine. Basically set aside the money until you actually ship that order. For people like Jason with the discipline of a 3 year old, preorders bad.
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Preorders also cripple the company so that they no longer have the ability to make changes or important engineering decisions, which can also directly lead to untenable situations later.
Problems that wouldn’t exist if there was no preorder.
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I’ve historically not wanted to do preorders because of how risky that can be. I’d rather play it safe and keep whatever mishaps contained to only myself and not you as the preorder customer. I’d rather just get a business loan and scale properly.
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Well you could at least create a wait list, so people know they will get it when the next batch comes out if they really want have it ASAP. They don’t kneed to wait on the product page pressing refresh constantly. And then you know how much to order for each batch so there is less risk for you.
Might even help with a bank loan if you have X demand already documented. Although they may want to see the potential customers have some skin in the game, not sure. $1 deposit?
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Great idea @LR-designs
Maybe selling non-transferable line tickets for like $5 would work. Then each person with a line ticket could have a week to order before sales open to the general public, with priority going to the earlier ticket numbers, and unused line tickets could be used in the next one future batch only, after that they become void and unrefundable.
That could be better for all parties involved — and not require jackhammering the F5 key for days on end.
Not sure if shopify is set up for that, though.
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I wholly support the idea of some sort of a waitlist or at least perhaps an email notification when they go for sale. I am simply not able to check the thread more than once in a day or two and the fact I might miss the next batch is kinda stressing me out already…
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That’s actually a great one! Hope Shaman can figure something out, but I completely understand if it’s safer and less problematic for him if he cannot do any different than this batch!
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Shopify doesnt support that natively, but it’s possible to accomplish this manually by sending invoices through shopify.
Basically put up the “line tickets” as an item for sale (you could even limit them to one or two per customer) as an “electronic good” so you don’t have to ship/mark it as fulfilled. Then when the stock comes in, you can can just go through your list of orders and send each person an invoice for the FOCer at whatever pace you like.
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Limiting purchases per person or zip code can happen. Still pondering about how to go about the waitlist. Announcing available “tickets” or waitlist opportunity, Having people purchase that ticket or waitlist spot, and then wait for the controller to be available doesn’t sound much functionally different than announcing the availability of new stock, purchasing the product on the website, and waiting for delivery.
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Could be easier to go through and vet the “line tickets” for bulk ordering and cancel/refund those, rather than trying to police the real orders of product once a lot of money has changed hands.
I also dont think the line tickets actually have to cost anything.
The minimal cost would not only cover the labor of administering the system, but also make sure the tickets were held by serious buyers only. I think that’s an important part of making it work. If they’re free, then everyone wants one.
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Just to confirm, it’s not possible to preorder and there’s no waiting list?
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Not right now. Still thinking about it.
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If I were you I would just limit them to one or two per customer, and hope no one goes through the trouble of spoofing addresses and names and credit cards 
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Oh shit just saw this new post. Congrats on the launch! I know you’ve been working really hard.
Mind if I ask:
- How many units you sold for your first batch? * About how many for your next batch?
- Eta on next batch?
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