Mon Aug 19 '19 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Aug 19, 2019 at 06:38:13 PM
Dear AVA Food Futurists,
We have heard your questions and feedback!
So, we wanted to send an update solely on timeline to address your questions before the next full update at the end of the month.
Right now, we are still on track for hitting the tail end of the timeline we provided last time (Aug/Sep - Oct/Nov) contingent on everything going smoothly.
In order to make sure we continue to stay on track, we are at every certification test with our engineers, and are flying over to our plastics and metals manufacturers in Guangdong to look over fit, quality, and finish in a couple weeks. We are bringing a Quality Assurance specialist to check over each stage and make sure the Byte meets our high standards. You will be the first to be updated should there be any complications during manufacturing that would jeopardize the timeline.
The shipping timeline will release in this order with 1-2 weeks in between:
- Earliest local backers (BC)
- Earliest backers (West Coast)
- InDemand Backers (Rest of US & Canada)
International Backers, please check your email for more information regarding your shipping dates.
An updated timeline will be released by backer number in a further update.
A final reminder that we are still missing Backerkit surveys. We have held this open as long as we can before it affects everyone else, so please make sure to lock your address and choose your colour & pack type. If you miss the cut-off date of August 31st, then you will have to follow up with us separately to have your shipment scheduled after the rest of the backers get theirs.
We have emailed you individually if you haven't answered the surveys yet, so please fill this out so we can send you your Byte as scheduled instead of your neighbour or the person who now lives in your old place :).
As always, we are here to answer any questions you may have at [email protected].
Let's Grow,
Team AVA
Fri Aug 2 '19 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Aug 02, 2019 at 04:31:02 PM
Answer this 5-minute survey to tell us what pod packs and microgreen varieties you want us to launch next!
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Dear AVA Food Futurists,
We’re having a sunny summer here in Vancouver, even though we’ve spent most of it indoors working on the Byte! At least our plants are getting everything they need to grow even when they’re thirsty, thanks to our wireless pump.
Without further ado, here’s the latest news on our road to production.
Certifications:
Good news, we have officially passed pre-certifications and FCC certifications (emissions safety certification tests)! Round 2 of certifications for North America started in the last week of July. We’re well on our way with a few certifications left.
Manufacturing:
During the first phase of testing, the metals and plastics didn’t pass our rigorous standards for fit and finish so, we had to make some minor tweaks. The revised production samples for metals have been received and we’re halfway through the tooling for all plastics & rubber parts stages with the new updates. Now we are waiting for the next batch of samples.
We’re already making test assemblies with all the parts every step of the way to make sure everything fits and works as intended. The next step is to test our PCB builds in the system. We already have initial parts for a first PCB production run, which we are really excited about and we are starting the first batch next week!
Pod Packs:
Pod packs are well on their way. Our newest batch of pods with updated nutrient profiles are arriving to our office next week. We’ll be running a final test run to seed and package them up.
As we wrap up this cycle, we’d love to hear from you on what pod packs and other crop innovations you want to see next. Please help us answer this easy 5-minute survey so we can launch the pod packs and microgreen varieties you want most!
New Website:
Our new website is nearly ready to launch. It will be full of useful information about the Byte, its technology, our plants, and our team. If you need help with set up or have questions about how it works, we’ll have a full FAQ, set up video, and customer service team waiting to assist you. Here’s a sneak preview:
App, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa:
App: The timelapse feature is now up and running with the AVA Byte app. The device will take a photo of your garden once every 12 hours and generate an HD timelapse video once 60 photos have been taken. So once every month (30 days), you’ll be able to share a neat video of your plants sprouting and growing right from your phone! Pretty awesome, right?
Google Home: The development for initial skills is complete, and awaiting the Google team to approve of all the skills so we can launch. Because we are the first ever garden to be compatible with Google Home, we had to create a lot of custom skills but we will launch more skills in collab with the Google team over time. The first round of skills will be limited to the following:
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Hey Google, how much time is left in my mint?
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Hey Google, what cycle is my basil on?
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Hey Google, how is my basil doing?
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Hey Google, is my mint okay?
Amazon Alexa: Alexa Skills development has just begun. We’re starting with the more basic skills for now, and moving on to more as we figure out the baseline:
- Alexa, when can I harvest my plants?
- Alexa, what’s growing in my AVA Byte?
The Plants:
We’re having some great success and exciting flowering fruit in our prototypes right here in our office. Can you guess what we’re growing? Which plants do you want us to grow next?
As always, we are here to answer any questions you may have at [email protected].
Let’s Grow,
Team AVA
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Answer this 5-minute survey to tell us what pod packs and microgreen varieties you want us to launch next!
Thu Jun 27 '19 Announcement
almost 7 years ago
– Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 03:20:15 PM
Dear AVA Food Futurists,
First of all, congrats to Plant Guy finally getting his “Kawhactus” housewarming gift to Kawhi Leonard! As a Canadian company, we are so happy to see Torontonians sharing the gift of growing with our Raptors superstar.
via GIPHY
Speaking of the growing gift, thank you so much for those of you who checked to see if your backer surveys had been successfully completed. These surveys help inform us how many of each colour, each pod pack to produce, and how to organize our shipments.
Manufacturing
Check out our production samples! We are so excited that production is beginning. Team AVA is working hard to prioritise local suppliers to reduce our carbon footprint, shipping distances, and to support Canadian businesses, which is why we’re so happy to have chosen a local manufacturer and evaluating local packaging companies to manufacture our packaging as well.
Our longest lead parts have arrived, all the parts have been ordered from our suppliers, and we have been able to put some together for initial testing. Batch 1 is scheduled to begin for our first local backers starting just a couple months from now! Batch 2 will roll out shortly after. Provided we don't run into any problems in plastics or certifications, we should be well on our way. For every sample part, we are checking and testing to make sure everything runs smoothly when they reach your doors.
The manufacturing timeline is at the top of all of our minds. We are cutting time where we can by air shipping some key components, and working around the clock to speed things up. All the while, we want to keep maintaining the highest build quality and ensuring all the smart-home features are tested and tested again ahead of launch. Challenges include the plastics, which have also taken longer than we wanted, however, they are of superior quality and have solved a couple of issues with the strength of the reservoir. Here are the three colours we have made from our sample batch:
Plant testing
As plant testing continues, we’re pleased to say that using the Byte has proven to use much less water than traditional gardening methods. While we can’t share the specific data in case our competitors are listening (shhh!), it’s certainly encouraging to see that by giving the plants their optimal growing conditions, they can be much less resource hungry.
Some of the new plants we’re testing include chili peppers, which sure are spicy little ones!
Timeline
We’re well on our way this time around, but inevitably there may be external challenges that come up (in our plastics tooling, procurement, and certification results). We waited a little bit longer to lock down our Backerkit surveys as well since there were almost 100 people who hadn’t replied yet.
Despite these setbacks, we’re working with our suppliers and manufacturing partners to speed things up wherever possible and are pushing hard to reach a moving finish line. We are also able to test new pod packs, lighting, and watering recipes which will ultimately go toward growing a much wider variety of plants.
We completely understand that waiting for a new product to arrive can be frustrating, which is why we’re making every effort to make sure it’s a truly incredible way to grow. Finally, here is the updated timeline. The backer order fulfillment is given a large window because oftentimes, there are issues with shipping addresses, missing buzzer codes, customs clearance… etc., so depending on where you are located, the timing may have a wide range.
The stages remaining are:
- Electronic pre-certification testing: Early June
- Packaging drop testing: July
- Full product testing and certifications: July - August
- Backer order fulfillment starts - Canada/USA - Batch 1 (2017 backers): August - November
- Backer order fulfillment starts - Canada/USA -Batch 2 (2018 backers): September - December
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Backer order fulfillment starts - International Batch 1: October - December
Almost there! And as always, we are here to answer any questions you may have at [email protected].
Let’s Grow,
Team AVA
Mon May 13 '19 Announcement
almost 7 years ago
– Mon, May 13, 2019 at 03:56:27 PM
Dear AVA Food Futurists,
Things are really warming up here, and we’re not just talking about the weather!
We wanted to go over some “housekeeping” items to make sure we have everything we need to deliver your Bytes to you safely and soundly.
What You Need to Do to Get Your Byte
If you haven’t already done so, please be sure to fill out your BackerKit Survey by:
1) updating your email and shipping addresses, and
2) confirming all the perks you want (including colour and pod pack selections).
We still have almost 10% of backers who have not yet filled out their surveys. We aim to lock in your Byte colours for production this month to stay on schedule.
We will do one final check in our next Backer Update to make sure your surveys are properly filled out, and from then on, it will be up to you to make sure details are accurate and final. Please make sure you confirm your details, or the remaining 90% of backers will be waiting for you!
For those of you having trouble, the BackerKit Team is available to help you with your purchases, and we are also available at [email protected] for any problems you may be facing.
Delivery Timeline
We’re excited to say that our long lead time parts are starting to arrive one by one and our factory is getting set up for our first ever full run! There are still a few long lead time parts we are waiting on, but we hope to expedite the process with our suppliers.
Early units will be put together for testing throughout June and July. Upon certification, we will start shipping out the units. The big bulk of deliveries will start to roll out August - October depending on your geographic location. Overseas countries need ocean shipping so it may take longer to arrive.
Challenges and Risks
[link to GIF]
Delayed Backerkit Surveys: As we mentioned, this one is in your hands - it wouldn’t be fun for the rest of the backers to have to wait! The faster you can cooperate to fill out your Backerkit surveys, the faster we can ship these out to you. If we still don’t receive these, then we will set a cut off date so the rest of the backers don’t have to wait any longer.
Certifications: Certifications give everybody peace of mind, and done by a third party. Because it is a third party, we have less control over this timeline. The certification process can take 4 - 8 weeks, but they are there to ensure safety, reliability, and durability of the devices. This also includes the approval process to be listed on the Google Home and Amazon Alexa platforms. Since we are the first ever “garden” to be approved on the platform, there are some tests they have to run too.
Transportation of Parts: There are some parts that have taken longer to get here than we hoped, primarily capacitors and resistors. As ready as we are to begin, we cannot until all the parts arrive, and that’s primarily up to our suppliers and shipping providers. We will stay on top of them every step of the way to reduce the risk of slow delivery.
App & Software
All features are functioning well through our internal tests, which include the automated adaptive lighting, QR code scanning, watering cycles, live readings from our environmental sensors, and HD camera. Everything works together seamlessly to give you the easiest growing experience. Here is an example of our Pod Recognition process:
[link to GIF]
Certification and Testing
Pre-production AVA Byte gardens have been assembled, and we’re shipping the two below to a rigorous third-party testing procedure to ensure that we deliver you the best possible product. This includes drop testing, temperature testing, safety testing, wear and tear, and other procedures.
Pod Packs
Every week, we are testing different plants to ensure that they grow to their full harvest potential. Each seedling type requires slightly different lighting, nutrient, and water recipe and the only way to gather the data is to test, re-test, and test again.
[link to GIF]
Our plant-growing experiments are providing valuable insights into the best environments for a number of different herbs and salad greens! Check out our beautiful dwarf basil plants with beautifully pigmented leaves, healthy white roots, and 100% germination.
Packaging
AVA is dedicated to sustainability and waste reduction. The first device packaging samples have arrived and are thrilled that everything fits well and unboxes nicely. With a passion and commitment to our environment, we carefully consider the use of plastics and non-recyclable materials in all of our packaging to ensure we’re as green as we can be!
We’re proud to share that our device boxes will be fully recyclable. The big box that houses the device is completely made from paper and can be recycled with the rest of your cardboard, and the box handle easily slips off so you can recycle that in plastics as well.
Perhaps the most exciting piece is that our pod packs are home compostable in soil within 90 days! Our pod packs use a mixture of paper and sugarcane fibers that are biodegradable, eco-friendly, compostable, natural, and non-toxic. You can see both the device and the pod pack in the image below.
(after 30 days)
As always, we are here to answer any questions you may have at [email protected]. Poke anybody you may know of who hasn’t yet answered their Backerkit surveys. We're really looking forward to getting these Bytes in your hands!
Let’s Grow,
Team AVA
Thu Mar 28 '19 Announcement
about 7 years ago
– Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 10:55:34 AM
Dear AVA Futurists,
We’re celebrating the first days of Spring here in Vancouver, BC. The sun is out at last and things are really warming up.
Our office is full of growing experiments and sprouting plants as we work out the best lighting and watering recipes for a range of plant pod packs which will be available to you once we ship the AVA Byte smart garden itself.
Production Updates
Structural Packaging & Drop Testing
Our first round of structural packaging is ready for vibration and drop testing! We have already noticed some minor refinements that will be required to increase structural integrity to keep your garden safe while keeping in mind how we can limit the use of plastics. So far, we are proud to say that our pod and device packaging are plastics free other than the box handle. Where possible, we are using biodegradable materials and are making sure that all other components are easy to recycle.
We have also started to assemble several test units with our production parts and are very happy with the telescoping pole as well as how the high germination rate of our seeds.
Device Growing Recipe Programming
With our assembled units, we are beginning to test some different growing recipes and fine-tuning the water pumping mechanism. This includes testing the pods under different wavelengths of light, intensities of light, as well as different water pumping speeds and durations. We need to balance the ability to hydrate the pods, without washing away the nutrients too early into the reservoir.
Challenges
Metal Tools
We noticed some small details in our bottom metal bracket that are not up to our quality standards. Every millimeter counts during the assembly process to ensure that all 30 parts come together seamlessly. We have already given this feedback to our metal tooling vendor to make the necessary changes and will be getting the updated parts in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, our team is busy validating parts and getting ready for full-scale production. Long lead time parts have been ordered, so now it is a waiting game before we get the fully manufactured units at AVA HQ to test! It is a very exciting time here at AVA, and we’re happy to share more about our progress next month.
As always, we are here to answer questions you may have at [email protected]. Stay tuned for the next update!
Let’s Grow,
Team AVA
