Expression pedal update

I’m really sorry that you still didn’t receive the footswitch. I believe that you were already contacted in order to proceed with the subject so you can get yours. (If you were not yet contacted, you will be soon)

Yes, i recived the first e-mail, when they askme if i whent to recive the footswitch, but i said no. Howeaver in the moment i prefer to recived now. Whith whom i have to talk to get it?

Is there any update on the expression pedal?

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indeed : update time !
@James anything you can share ?

Yes you’re right, I meant to update you guys last week but I ran out of time.

After repeated failed prototypes from the current supplier, we opted to cut ties with them but they requested that they could make one more attempt and that they would absorb the tooling costs. They recently showed me some pictures where they were able to get the bend radius correct. This was the main problem with the previous samples. So they are working to finish this sample now to send to us for the last chance.

I’m of course sceptical that this round will have all the problems fixed so I am actively pursuing a new supplier

We have been introduced to another supplier in Latvia who are far more professional and have experience making parts for music hardware. From what I have seen they seem very capable of making really nice quality parts. Also having the production in Europe makes things easier since we can quickly visit the factory if needed and there will be less delays with shipment.

So basically we will first see if the current supplier can pull through with their final attempt. If not, I will be happy to move to a new supplier and I’m confident the onboarding process won’t be too difficult

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Thanks for the update @James,

So am i correct to say that the mechanical issues are the last hurdle you need to take? Changing supplier is not something you do overnight, what will the impact be on the delivery timeline ?

Also …
Is the electrical and software side of things 100% ready to go ?
Do you already have all the electronics in house ? in the quantities needed to supply all backers with a pedal ? what quantities are you talking about, and will you be doing final assembly in house, or will it be done externally ? If you do it externally, do you already have a trusted supplier? or will you also have to go trough a prototyping process with this supplier ?

Soooo many questions

i’ll go back to waiting and dreaming about what compensation goodies will be in the box …

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What I also would like to see is kind of a rough timeline.
When do you plan to have this sorted out, maybe give us an estimate for the best and the worst case.
Also a commitment from your side, until when we can expect further updates would be nice.
It feels so tiresome to wait for weeks to get any news and in the end someone needs to stand
up and bother you again… Just 5 sentences on the first of every month would be enough, even if nothing happened. Please help us to rekindle our enthusiasm for this project and show us that you really care.

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Hi @Thijs_van_severen, indeed the mechanical parts are the bottleneck in the expression pedal project.

Regarding the electrical parts, these have been ready for a bit and all we have to do is give the green light to our manufacturer to start the PCBA.

The production of the electronic parts will be handled by our trusted manufacturing partner, who has already been doing the PCBA for the MOD Duo, DuoX and Dwarf.

On the software side of things, I would say the firmware is about 90% ready. The prototype I have here is already fully functional, including the device self-test used during manufacturing. We might still do some aesthetical tweaks to make the display graphics look neat, but nothing that can’t be managed in a day’s work.

Also for those who have been following our Github, we have been adding features to the ControlChain protocol over the past few months (Footswitch update 0.4.0 coming soon :eyes:) which will all be available on the expression pedal as well.

In short, as soon as we have a supplier that can provide us with proper mechanical samples, we can kick off production, and handle the last software bits in parallel.

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Thanks Jan, that all sounds promising - exciting that we’re finally nearing the end of this long wait!

Oooh cool, so what will 0.4.0 bring?

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CC related updates listed on Control Chain Releases - MOD Wiki

coloured lists and momentary toggle (something new in 1.10 in general) plus “feedback” and tap-tempo. (feedback is simply saying we can change plugin value while assigned to CC)

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@falkTX
Will these new CC features also be brought to the arduino library?

Good question.

At the moment, no. We will have to revisit this for v1.11

At this point in my life I’m just hoping I live long enough to drag all my equipment out of quarantine and crank it up. Getting my hands on the expression pedal and the Dwarf are WAY down on my list of concerns.

It’ll happen someday. Hope springs eternal - but my biggest hope is probably the same as everyone else’s - stay safe, stay healthy, stay alive.

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I just recieved a video from the current supplier with a new sample that looks promising

Hopefully we can get it here soon to test fit it.

In the mean time, we have also sent the production files to the new manufacturer for evaluation. We are making this thing one way or another!

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I’m not an original backer but a hopeful purchaser, I’ve known falktx for a long time and would have killed to have been an original backer but I was dead broke when the Duo fist launched it’s campaign. I’m now the happy owner of a Duo and I know things like this can get people down, but I’m still blown away by this team. I’ve dreamed for years of what you guys are accomplishing and it’s no small feat. Keep up the good work, don’t let the bastards grind you down and know, you guys are doing something novel and cool. When speculating years ago why open source isn’t in commercial products it was pie in the sky and reality is, some one has to blaze the trail and you guys are. Now enough idolizing you guys, get back to work I need this damn thing on my rig ASAP. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the kind words Daniel, it is tough at times to make sure we are doing the right thing by the community while also trying to do the right things for the company so that we can continue to keep doing the right thing for you guys :sweat_smile:

I have a bit of an update. I received the final samples from the previous supplier and though I’m not happy to say this, I’m also not surprised that the quality is still not there. I say final because we really can’t give them any more chances on this.

After 4 samples there are unfortunately still obvious problems with tolerances. It has also taken them a very long time to get to this point and I’m afraid it could be a lot longer for them to get to an acceptable level. Just to explain, we continued with this supplier until now because they could do the full process including powder coating and laser engraving. We had another supplier that could make the metal parts with better accuracy but we had no way to get them coated and engraved in the same way as our other products. Well recently we have found a company that can do the powder coating and engraving for the better quality metal parts. As discussed in the previous update, we are also in communication with a new supplier which can make the parts with all processes as well.

So we will drop the old supplier who continues to waste ours, and your time. Moving forward we have these 2 new options. I know it seems like a step back to change suppliers now but I have experience working in sheet metal fabrication and after speaking to these new suppliers I am confident that they are 10x more professional. They have already made suggestions to improve the manufacturability which shows me that they know their industry well and they know how to do things efficiently. I will push for a new sample as soon as possible so I can show you guys

Sorry to keep you waiting again but this is product development. We will keep going until we get it right!

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Great update! I know from other crowdfunded campaigns that poor component suppliers are common, but I’d much prefer a high quality product later as long as I know the reasons for the delay, so you’re doing the right thing :+1:

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Thanks for the update. That is unfortunate news but it’s much better knowing what’s going on than being in the dark!

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Hey that look very good. Good work!!! I hope the problems will be fix as soon as possbile. I will get it!!! But one question, is it possible to get more switches, with plug in or midi? :star_struck: :star_struck:

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Not completely sure if I get your request. As the MOD Expression pedal is a MOD Control Chain device you will be able to chain it with another MOD Control Chain device, like the MOD Footswitch. You can even connect multiple MOD Footswitches and Expression pedals. Does that answer your question?