AVA Byte: Smart, Simple, Sustainable Indoor Garden

Fri Feb 22 '19 Announcement
about 7 years ago – Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 03:49:27 PM

Dear AVA Futurists,

It’s all go here at AVA HQ, and are excited to share some exciting production updates!

Our whole team is busy validating production parts, testing hardware, writing software, and integrating smart features. We have been extremely focused on production, testing, parts validation, and pre-certification processes as we ramp up into full production after Chinese New Years. Below, we have a lot of photos to share with you to highlight some challenges and breakthroughs over the last little while.

Most parts are tested and approved for production, but we are focused on getting our two final parts up to our high-quality standards: the wireless water pump connector and water level sensor.

Breakthroughs

Our schedule for production remains on course.

Factories and parts suppliers have emerged back from Chinese New Years, and are back full steam to support us.

Our metal pieces are finished tooling, samples have been received, and we are giving our feedback to the manufacturer to tweak some parts slightly to ensure tight tolerances and fit.

Here is the first look at the camera, as well as the first ever images captured at the lowest and highest positions (unfiltered, unprocessed).

Another huge milestone is that the Byte is officially communicating with the AVA Grows server. That means the app and Byte are talking and we’ll be able to further develop the commands and end-to-end functions. In addition, the water level sensor has been further refined to be even more accurate.

Packaging is also coming along very nicely. We are finalizing the dielines to make a test run in a couple of weeks, and will be conducting drop tests to ensure that the product will survive from the impact and vibration it would take during transit. Everything is designed to be easily unboxed, taken apart, and recycled.

Even our pod packaging is made from a biodegradable bamboo material, instead of plastic packaging that many competitor products use. We have to make sure we think about sustainability each step of the way!

Finally, our app is coming along nicely. Google Home Integration works, and is awaiting final approval from Google’s side. We’ve built in the QR code recognition so users can scan their pod packs into their app. Once our next set of electronics come in, we’ll be validating the onboarding process and connecting our hardware to our software. This will be an exciting step!

Challenges

The wireless water pump connector is a very crucial piece that connects the pump to the electronics in the AVA Byte base. If it is not sealed tight enough, it could leak down into our base electronics, which is what we noticed in recent testing. Since then, we have sourced a new connector that makes a tighter seal without satisfying the magnetic connection and will test again for water leakage.

The water level sensor is a much smaller issue. Our main challenge was getting the magnetic water level sensor to float properly in the small reservoir we have. The magnet was heavy, and we had to go through different variations to ensure it floated properly and read the accurate water level. This one just took some math, a smaller magnet, some fine tuning, and some material selection. We are well on our way on this front.

While we are pointing out challenges, we are confident in resolving them quickly! The connectors arrive this week for final fit, leakage testing, and the water level sensor is being finalized as we speak.

We will be releasing everything for tooling at the beginning of March which will be a huge milestone for the project and will be one giant leap closer to delivering byte to you!

New Hire

Kelsey Snowdon has joined the team to lead the packaging design, website, and branding. Her background in print production and luxury branding makes her a perfect addition to the team.

What’s next?

As you know, we’ve just come back from CES in Las Vegas last month. Now, we are getting ready for the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago. These events are vital for our go-to-market timeline and might help us get more backing and help us on the road to manufacturing. We always come away with lots of feedback and common themes that will help us tailor our product and how we communicate its features.

In the meantime, a lot of our parts should be fully validated and ready for full-scale production. It is a very exciting time, and we’ll share more about it 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

Mon Jan 21 '19 Announcement
about 7 years ago – Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 11:56:21 AM

Happy New Year, AVA Futurists!

January has already been an incredibly busy month and it's not even over yet.

Thank you to all who came to our booth at CES and saw the production-ready AVA Byte in person. We loved hearing your thoughts and answering your questions about how it works, what you can grow, and when you can get your very own in-home smart garden.

Some common questions from CES:

What makes AVA Byte “smart”?

Ambient light, water level, humidity and temperature sensors to detect your environment and customize your AVA Byte to grow to your surroundings

HD camera that can use machine vision to detect and monitor plants, as well as gives you ability to monitor your plants remotely

Connection to your smartphone AVA App or smart home hubs like Google Home so you can get status updates and notifications at your convenience

Can I grow weed in it?

Whatever you grow is up to you… we do have grow your own seed pods!

Do I have to plug in a water supply?

No need to connect a watering line! The beauty of our watering system is that you can add water once every 3 - 4 weeks right over the tray, and we’ll remind you exactly when to do so.

How is it better / different than an Aerogarden or Click & Grow?

For reasons mentioned above that make AVA Byte a truly smart, indoor garden. Plus, our garden is around the same price as a competitor’s WiFi product (which doesn’t actually have any sensors or integrations) and packed with way more tech to help you grow!

Events like CES are vital to staying connected to the industry, as well as meeting future mentors, investors, and supporters who can all help in our mission to connect people with the love of gardening. We also won Trend Forward Capital’s “Forward Thinker Award” pitch competition, which gave us $10,000 toward that we’ll be putting directly back into getting AVA Bytes to your door!

Production Highlights

Behind the scenes, our team has been even busier. We’ve made some tremendous progress in production:

1. We completed sample production of all of our metal parts! These metal parts are inside the telescoping pole to fix the rigidity and smoothness issues we previously had, LED panel to dissipate heat, and base to make sure the product is sturdy and wall-mountable.

2. We completed sample production of our eco-friendly paper pulp pod packaging. Unlike competitors (and most products really), these are bamboo pulp fibers that actually biodegrade in soil over just a few months. The final pod packaging prototype is also on its way to AVA HQ for drop-testing and quality control before we make the big order! How cool is this? Modeled after the shape of our AVA Byte reservoir.

3. We also added a beautiful gold trim to the light enclosure that makes assembly easier while also giving the garden a much more modern and premium look. What do you think?

4. App development and Google integration continues to progress and go through rigorous testing. For those of you who came to the booth, you saw us demo some of these skills! We can now ask “Hey Google, how’s my mint doing?” for example. In return, the user gets a full timeline of their plant and any status changes for low water and any upcoming harvests.

Production Challenges and Improvements

These are the things we’ve tested in pre-production and production that didn’t quite pass our high quality demands.

1. Our water reservoir needs a little more ribbing to add rigidity and reduce warping. We tested this in our recent 3D prints, and they need a little more thickness.

2. We are tightening the contactless water pump connection so that it is easier to click the pump in and out without affecting the wireless pins.

3. Final testing of the smart lighting and watering features while conducting in-depth plant trials before we push everything to production.

4. Gearing up for all plastic tooling after all these fixes are made.

5. Starting certification activities for FCC, UL & CSA.

6. Finalizing device packaging design

7. Heading into Chinese New Year so all production related activities will be offline for the about a month while we work with other parties to secure parts, to certify, and to finish up packaging.

8. Some parts are on long lead-times because of the global shortage of resistors and capacitors.

Timeline

AVA Byte - Revision A Complete - January 2019

Manufacturing begins Feb - March 2019

Final Confirmation of Your Order and Shipping Addresses - March/April 2019

North American Indiegogo Backers Product Delivery (With Updates) - April -August 2019

Europe and Rest of the World Product Delivery (With Updates) - Fall 2019

Retail Launch - Fall 2019

Next Update

As you may have noticed, we listened to you and are trying a new format that is more thorough! Let us know what you think. As always, the next update will be posted in within 1 month.

Let’s Grow,

Team AVA

Tue Dec 11 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago – Tue, Dec 11, 2018 at 02:26:09 PM

From our family to yours, we'd like to wish you happy holidays and a ​wonderful new year.

Thu Nov 15 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago – Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 02:54:28 PM

Dear AVA Backers, Friends, and Supporters,

Thank you for sharing your comments, ideas, and concerns. We have read them all and want to address them openly and honestly.  First of all, we are sorry for keeping you waiting, and want to communicate to prove that we are truly committed to delivering AVA Bytes to you. We will follow this update with a thorough video next week.

What exactly has the AVA Team been doing to push the delivery of our product?

Although it may not feel fast, we have been moving and pushing for things to get done. In previous posts, we’ve mentioned “design updates,” it does not mean “new features. “We mean updates to product for the DFM (design for manufacturing) phase. For example, we’ve been 3D printing to validate if parts can withstand heat and water, checking with suppliers around the world for parts inventory, testing for heat emitted off of our LEDs to ensure we have adequate cooling, and running the watering cycle to ensure plants will be properly hydrated. We have needed to make adjustments to the design at every step of the way, especially when parts we have designed fails our rigorous product quality testing or if there are worldwide shortages in certain components. The new product we have been sharing with you is a necessary result of testing, not an attempt to add in extra features. However, in the process of testing and modifying, it means we have vastly improved on the original design for way better performance, safety, and ease of use.

We have been busily planning, designing, building, troubleshooting, redesigning and working toward bringing the AVA Byte Smart Garden to your homes. The path to completion has been longer than expected and we're still very much headed in the right direction.

Why is AVA Byte late? The Bad News and the Good News - We’re almost there!

The bad news: In all honesty, as first-time hardware founders and crowdfunding campaigners, we have made many mistakes:

We launched a little too early.

We realized our prototype was not viable for commercial manufacture.

We were overly optimistic about the timeline.

We had manufacturers drop out on us.

We had parts to source that are on huge lead times around the world.

We were stuck in this “hardware startup valley of death” of needing to produce more units than we could hand build at good quality and pace, but fewer units that we can manufacture at a reasonable cost. Although we are not alone in startups and founders experiencing similar issues, it doesn’t make the delay any more palatable and for that, we apologize.

The good news: We will be shipping a product that is leaps and bounds above and beyond what was  originally promised:

The integration with smart home devices (this was intended to be an update later after the release, but we are developing Google Skills for launch!)

Expanding the database of plant growth recipes

The evolution of the now one of a kind encased water pump module with 0 to 100% water level sensor

Our seeds and nutrients are sourced organic

We have tested our seeded pods to improve germination rates, and incorporated nutrients to last 2 months.  

We have replaced many lower quality plastic parts with durable metal parts to increase rigidity.

We have the funding to produce and ship the product to you.

We’re finalizing packaging for pods and devices.

We’re arranging shipping and logistics.

What are we doing to compensate for being late?

• We're including a FREE HD camera installed into every AVA Byte.
• Refunds for those who really want it, in line with Indiegogo policy (see more on this below).
• A WAY better product (a comparison video will be posted).
• Free bonus 2-3 months of growing with an additional pod pack on top of your order (we will be activating on Backerkit closer to delivery).

When will it actually be arriving? What’s the new timeline?

We have mentioned October first shipping to local backers for beta testing. After some backer input, we decided it would be good instead of random selection to give all our local backers the ability to sign up and come into our offices to give us full feedback and talk to us in person. We will have the app and device ready for your testing and will send out an invitation in the next couple of weeks. We welcome you to share your thoughts and help us to make the Byte what you hope/imagine it to be.

Our new timeline is:

• First Local Beta Testers for Feedback - January 2019
• AVA Byte - Revision A Complete - January 2019
• Manufacturing Feb - March 2019
• Final Confirmation of Your Order and Shipping Addresses - Feb  - March 2019
• North American Indiegogo Backers (With Updates) - April -August 2019
• Europe and Rest of the World (With Updates) - July-August 2019
• Retail Launch - August 2019

Will European backers get their AVA Bytes?

We can ship your AVA Bytes, but users cannot create personal accounts. Due to the requirement of being GDPR compliant, we are legally not allowed to collect any personal data in Europe until we are certified. This affects the creation of your user account, collecting sensor data, and storing photos taken from your Byte. The process to become GDPR compliant is expensive and can take 6 - 8 months minimum, and costs tens of thousands of dollars. This means that the AVA Bytes we ship will be on offline mode to the affected regions until compliance is attained and we can unlock the European app.  The offline mode will still be able to grow your food using a standard lighting and pumping schedule, but it cannot be customized until the app is unlocked.

What do I do if I want a refund?

We completely understand that if you would no longer like to wait, and if you would like a refund, we have been issuing refunds according to Indiegogo policy. Our promise to you is that if you change your mind down the road when our product is launched to eCommerce, we will be happy to honour your original backer price when you purchase from our website. If you would like to learn more or request a refund, please email your request to [email protected].
 

AVA’s Commitment - Going Forward

We owe a lot to you, our incredibly valued backers, and are grateful for your patience and feedback. Trust us, we're as eager as you are to get our hands on the future of in-home gardening. We intend to build a product that lasts and will commit to communicating more frequently and look forward to a long, fruitful relationship.

Let’s Grow,

Valerie, Chase, and the AVA Team

Wed Sep 26 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago – Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 03:25:27 PM

Hello, AVA’s Food Futurists,

It seems like every update brings even bigger news, and this one is no exception!

We’re working tirelessly to deliver the perfect AVA Byte we envisioned. As a result, your AVA Byte smart garden has been upgraded with amazing features that make it a much more advanced device than we originally showed you. We’re also heading into production very very soon.

Let’s start with what is growing at the AVA Labs. Can you guess what it is? They form beautiful yellow flowers before bearing fruit:

Next, the design. As you can see, the Byte has been updated with a sleek curvature, giving it a much more modern and premium look and feel. The reservoir is now also made to be easily removable from the light stand, giving you the freedom to refill the reservoir by the sink and harvest wherever you like! No need to bring the whole device with you. We also reduced the height of the water reservoir to make it easier to carry and take up less visual space on your countertop.

We briefly mentioned this in the last update, but the internal structure for Byte’s light stand is now made completely out of metal parts instead of plastic. This significantly increases the strength and stability of the entire product. We’re calling this the Spaceframe, and are very excited to show this to you since no other garden is made quite like it:)

Byte’s LED lights are now designed to be even more powerful and efficient with a two-panel design instead of one large panel. They are angled directly at the plant canopy (the topmost leaves of your plants) to maximize the energy towards the area your plants need it the most. Both your plants and your eyes will be happy about this improvement! The team at AVA have tested time and time again for the perfect light ratio and optimized wavelength to increase the overall growth performance of your plants for a full and healthy harvest.

Another exciting upgrade to the device is the new touch power button with haptic feedback located at the front of the light panel, which includes a very cool RGB edge-lit effect that glows around the button to let you know the status of your garden. This is a much more innovative and intuitive way to keep you visually updated on how your garden is doing!

The water pump is also an area that we’ve made some incredible progress on. Previously, we had the pump wire that travelled from inside of the reservoir that had to be connected to the back of the device. Instead, we came up with a novel “pump module” solution that we’re really proud of - a silent, self-contained pump and water-level sensor module WITH NO WIRES, capable of reading 0-100% water levels that is complete with a 0 to 100% and a filter that simply clicks into the inside of your water reservoir. Not only does it look awesome, but it also reduces the minimum water level to run, AND makes it easy to add and remove when cleaning the inside of the reservoir.

Finally, the pods have also experienced a completely new redesign. This one we will keep as an epic surprise - we’ve made some enhancements to the aesthetics and functionality to reduce the risk of your roots tangling in the water reservoir. We’ve also made the pods slightly bigger so the nutrients for your plants will last longer, without having to add any chemicals to the water. It even features a really cool lip for easy gripping and other cool benefits as a result. We finished off with an updated pod dome design to mimic the ideal greenhouse effect for your seeds to significantly increase the germination rate!

Our entire team is committed to delivering the best product to you and are working day and night to make sure that we are giving you the best year-round gardening experience possible. The first devices with all of the upgraded improvements will start to be sent out to our earliest backers at the end of October and the rest will be heading out in the new year.

We’re so proud of the AVA Byte and work that we’re doing to bring gardening to the smart home generation. The advancements in the product design and manufacturing process have taken longer than planned but as a result, a much more beautiful and advanced product that we ever imagined at the start of our journey.