Chirpsounds Update – February 2022!

It was a complicated time for the Chirpsounds project. If the last update (September 2020) lead you to believe finished product was right around the corner, it’s because despite several setbacks, that’s what we believed. Alas, that was not to be, and this update will explain some of the head winds we’ve faced in building the Chirpsounds TX1 transmitter.

In that last update, I said we were chasing down a few improvements suggested by the Beta Test Team. As it turned out, that process was much more involved than we expected and while it took well into 2021 to pin down, we got good results, cleaning up the design as we went. The last iteration really sounded great!

Once we had a production-ready design to build, the next few months were spent interviewing prospective manufacturing partners. That was nearly completed when the manufacturer of a critical component announced that it was being discontinued, leaving us high and dry. The only viable path forward is to redesign around a new chip.

So, while we hate to have to deliver this news, we’re back in hardware design mode again. We’re not starting over, but it’s going to be a significant effort. Once a new chip has been selected, it will be integrated into the design and we’ll be back on the path to building these for you.

Like you, we’re disappointed by this setback but we’re hoping for strong tail winds to push us along more quickly this time. We appreciate you hanging in there with us while we work through these issues and make sure the product is as good as we can make it.

Thanks!