#4 Prototyping / Pre-Order Campaign

Hardware product prototyping and updates from Mountain Labs

This email contains the prototyping flow that we follow and a quick recap of what we have done so far in Mountain Labs.

Updates from Mountain Labs

🎉 We reached 77 pre-orders for Air Quality Monitor in 6 weeks and counting. If you want to give preorder → mountainlabs.io/preorder

⚒️ Punched-card prototype is ready. Giving us the flexibility to do tests in different environments.

🔋 Attended the first fair with the air quality product. It was pretty fruitful to understand potential customer persona and collect pre-orders.

🎥 Recorded the first video for the YouTube channel. It’s about challenges in starting a hardware startup and a roadmap for prototyping. It will be published within hours after you receive this email. So keep an eye on @mountain_labs on YouTube.

How do we prototype?

Features are set. Components are selected. Now it’s time for prototyping. There are 3 stages we take;

1. Bread-board prototype (PoC)

2. Punched card prototype (Alpha)

3. PCB prototype (Beta)

You need to make sure that the components you picked will work when they come together.

The breadboard prototype is a great start. You can easily plug in new components to the circuit with a couple of jumper cables. You can try different routes, and components by twisting a couple of cables. You can see my breadboard below when I was setting up PoC for the air quality product.

Breadboard prototypes are great for testing different components, trying different combinations, and finding software drivers.

If you’re happy with your components, then it’s time to move to the second stage which is the punched card prototype. If you’re making a portable device then this prototype will help you to take your setup to different places easily. This means testing freely without carrying a large bunch of cables and looking odd.

well, you will look odd with a punched-card prototype too but it’s bearable :)

This is how the air quality monitor’s first punched-card prototype looks.

The next step is covering it with a wooden case and including batteries. This prototype is a great setup for performing tests in different places and gives agility to software development.

The next prototype will be done with the manufactured PCB. We already started doing schematics. That will be pretty close to the final product.

Preorders are important for us to plan the first batch of manufacturing. The target retail price we’re trying to reach is 99$. If you would like to pre-order you can do it here → mountainlabs.io/preorder

Thanks for the support!

These are all for now. If you’re excited about our journey, you can find us on Twitter and Linkedin.

Regards,
Ömer