Hello wonderful Auricle backer,\xa0

and welcome to the April 2024 update.

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Electronics

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Production yield fix:Even though our current iteration is fully working as a final electronics iteration, we were faced with yield issues in production due to some of the component choices made in the early development days. In order to increase the percentage of devices successfully produced (and avoid electronic waste), we had to remove and modify some of the most problematic components in the board. We have now just received this production- optimised iteration and will be assembling it in the next couple of days.

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Power button repositioning:The power button had to be slightly repositioned in the board for a better button-press mechanical performance.

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Production jig for stencil:In our current production setup, the stencil printer is the most prone production step for errors. Besides modifying some of the circuit for better production yield (as mentioned before), we have 3D printed our own stencil production gigs, which should make the stencil step considerably more precise. We’re testing these production jigs in the next couple of days as well. If this works well - we’ll update these jigs for metal CNC’d production jigs, for the ultimate top-of-the-top accuracy.

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Design

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Cable overmould:The aesthetics of the cable are now looking much better with the cable overmould in place. Even though it looks very decent already, after testing we have decided to make some final adjustments to the mould, so that it mounts (and looks) without small imperfections. This mould adjustment will be done throughout May and we’ll have the next version of the samples after that.

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Hard plastics injection molds production in progress:Now that we got the investment, this part of the production could be continued and is now officially in progress. These moulds will be manufactured throughout May and June and we will get the hard plastic production parts in July.Reminder:These are the only production parts missing, to have every part of the device fully finalised.

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Company

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Lab equipment upgrade:Another positive thing about getting investment is that we can now afford a few more tools for our electronics lab. These are mainly for electronics testing. Here's happy Diego and his shiny new lab equipment.

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New office:Yet one more positive thing about getting the investment, we moved to another office with a little bit more space (still in the same building).

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As always - thank you for tuning in, for following the journey, and for remaining patient and understanding.\xa0We will see you in the next update.

GV (good vibrations),

Pedro & the Auricle team