Just skip if you don’t like long posts.

Just got a response from WT to some questions. As usual, not as definitive as I like, but still pretty helpful.

First, my questions, which I’ve talked about here too:

Could you please provide a little more info about the situation? Specifically:

Assuming the testing of the hardware changes goes well, what is the minimal time you are allowing for this testing (this should include the time necessary to convert enough units to test). Right now this could be very open-ended to fix an intermittent problem. We have no idea if we are looking at just a couple days, weeks, or even months! Once testing is done, an idea of how long it will take to convert enough units for TREG testing. All of which would lead to a “best case” estimation of when they would be shipped to testers. And it would have to be clearly presented as “best case” since, until testing is done, there is no way to be sure how long that part will take.

Their response:

We’ll do another post with some tech info after we finish testing, but here’s some brief points.

All testing now corroborates our model of the physics that governs the intermittency.

We’ve also now tested more than one solution, and both work well under the extremes we’ve hit them with, so that’s very encouraging to us. We’re evaluating which method is the keeper, and will install that on all units. So we’re feeling pretty good now that this will not drag on.

The revision to the updated part is not a dramatic change, and will be done on the TREG units by our production staff in California, (they can respond in days rather than weeks). They are supervised directly by our engineers here, which helps it go pretty quickly . The higher volume inventory gets processed at our Malaysia factory.

So we’re marching forward with the solution now, and focused on the immediate goal of getting TREG units shipped with this issue completely resolved. That drives the timing, and we’ll advise as soon as it’s ready.

Thank you,

WayTools Team

Typed on TextBlade

My observations:

We don’t know if they have finished testing, only that two solutions work so far. Hopefully that is enough to take the next step (it’s been almost two days since they told us of the latest problem so far). I’m hoping their testing can get around the “intermittent” issue, which could really drag these things out!

Don’t know how long to make the decision for which one they’ll use, but if it isn’t done this week, I certainly hope they do by Monday (which is the day they review weekend testing).

Good news that the change isn’t “dramatic” - though that isn’t exactly a precise description for how long it will take to make! But they do say “days” rather than “weeks” so that’s good. And we know where the fixes will take place - looks like I was right about that part.

But it does bring up another question - is most of their inventory being shipped to California as they go or are they leaving the bulk of it at the factory? Having hundreds in California lets them have plenty of devices (hundreds that we’ve actually seen in photos) for testing, but leaving the bulk at the factory reduces shipping issues as various problems come up.

Of course, during all this we have to worry about discovering yet another problem! But, barring that, I’m figuring they should be updating units after their Monday meeting, then start the changes and, just maybe, start shipping by next Friday. Could easily be earlier. I actually feel pretty good about that estimate if no issues are found.

So, no, I’m not predicting shipping by next Friday. Only that if no other problems are found, I think that is a good possibility for TREG units and maybe sooner if they don’t wait for Monday to decide.

But we know the record - always a new issue which would completely invalidate my estimates! That should come to an end eventually. Hope it is this time.