Pal Strap - GPS & Extended Battery Strap For Pebble
Created by Powerstrap
Pal is a revolutionary GPS and battery extender smartstrap for Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time 2
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Pal's arrangement in response to Pebble's situation
over 7 years ago
– Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 10:58:14 PM
Dear backers,
It’s been a rough couple of weeks and we
appreciate your patience. We understand your frustrations and we are also very
sad to watch Pebble go. We truly wish them well and now will continue moving
forward with Pal.
These few days, we’ve been working hard to
figure out our productions with the factory and do our best to come up with
some solutions.
Information about factory arrangements:
Arrangement with the factory has been
settled to reduce quantity of Pal / Pal-T2 as a result of Pebble Time 2
cancellation.
Factory charged higher unit cost as expected
and demanded a surcharge for unmet minimum order quantity and extra materials
already ordered. As the total transaction is reduced, factory has reduced the
range of colors. We have signed off the new quotation so that production can
continue without further delay.
About Pal and Pal-T2:
We will produce Pal and Pal-T2 together in
the same lot. They are now all virtually the Pal-T2 model as we have
included the lens, and will work just like the original Pal. We will not charge
any upgrade cost which we mentioned some time ago, but we will not be able to
offer back any price difference for those who pledged Pal-T2.
Color
We are only able to produce dark grey strap-base with grey or red strap, as
these two were the majority in color choice. There is very limited quantity of
white strap-base with white strap, we can still offer it but will be very
limited.
For backers who continue to support our strap, please contact us to reconfirm through
email or KS message your color choice, we will try our best to cater:
- Grey base + Grey strap
- Grey base + Red strap
- White base + White strap (limited in quantities, please provide a 2nd choice
in case we run out of this)
Schedule
With the factory re-arrangement settled, the latest plan is end of
January. Now that all obstacles are cleared, we are pretty confident about
this schedule.
About refund requests:
As most of the cost has already been spent
for tooling and production, we are afraid we are unable to offer a full refund.
However, the best we can do is to provide a small partial refund. We can offer
a refund of $10 (per strap) and it’s shipping cost.
If you accept this refund arrangement,
please contact us through email or KS message (NOT KS comment as it’s very hard
to keep track), with clear indication of “Refund $10 + Shipping” and we will
process it accordingly. Please do so before Christmas or we will count you for production and after which we can hardly offer any refund.
Future of Pal:
Although the timing is bad, but we do
believe in our product and we want to thank you once again to all those who
supported us from the first day they backed our project. It is sad that we are
not able to have Pal work with Time 2, however it is still a great product and
technology. Therefore, we will continue to hold our exhibition booth at the
upcoming CES as we had already planned. We will demo our first few production
samples of Pal there.
Despite the chance of Pal having further
sales, we still hope to let the world see this great product, that you have
helped brought to live.
We will be glad to meet any supporters
there, if you will be there by any chance, please drop by to say “Hi,” our
booth is at Sands Expo 50910.
Thank you again for all your support!
David and the Pal team
Production Update
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Dec 07, 2016 at 10:50:32 PM
Dear Pal Supporters,
We share the concern raised by many backers about the news of Pebble being sold to Fitbit. Some of us lose faith on Pebble, some of us worry if Time 2 will be delivered, and some backers of Pal-T2 have requested refund. The feeling is understood. We also got confused, and have been trying to get a better understanding of the situation, our production and such before getting back to you with some updates.
We’ve been trying our best to sort out information from news/rumors. From our understanding, Pebble will deliver Time 2 as committed, and there are already goods produced or in the pipeline. Despite news saying that Time 2 will be canceled, what we can do now is to await for confirmation by Pebble whether this is 100% true. We have came a long way, started production and 80% through it and we will continue. Please be reminded that Pal-T2 is backward compatible and can be used with Pebble Time.
Regarding our Pal project, we should recognize:
About half of the backers here are Pebble Time users. They are looking forward to Pal as add on to Pebble Time for GPS and extra power.
The project should be operated as a collective pledge from all of us. We have already gone through 80% of our journey, very close to the goal and we should not just give up.
Kickstarter is a platform to help bring projects to life, together with the creator and supporters. Please understand that at this stage we are so close to the finish product, it is very hard to provide a refund, or the entire pledge system will fall apart. However, we will wait for confirmation and decide what we can do for you all.
We are now back to the very fundamental. We have pledged to make Pal – GPS & Battery Strap from Pebble Time / Time2. We will continue to do so, and Pal and Pal-T2 will be delivered.
The tools of Pal are done. Photos at the bottom of the update. We are putting together plastics and electronics from mass production tool for the first time later this month. We will bring some of these first output to CES. We shall ship out the first lot of Pal to backers right after CES.
Yes, there’s a slight delay and we apologize for that. Originally we plan to ship out in Dec and is now Jan. Mainly due to the current uncertainty and we had a change for better GPS antenna to improve GPS reception. This change will enable GPS signal inside a building which the original design cannot.
Thank you again for your support and understanding. It’s a tough time for Pebble and we wish we could foresee that. Their products are still amazing and we are excited that our straps will give Pebble watches a boost, which is what we’ve all been waiting for.
Best, David and the Pal team
Pal-T2 HR Function Update & Original Pal Production
over 7 years ago
– Thu, Nov 03, 2016 at 06:27:25 PM
Dear Backers,
Hope everyone’s well and had a fun Halloween.
We have some exciting news to share today. We’ve just tested Pal-T2 with Pebble’s Time 2, and the HR function works well. You can watch our test here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj4omReQTbc
More updates – All materials and parts for original Pal for first production run is set and we will be closing the order soon. Due to production and expenses, and many backers request to switch over to Pal-T2, we will be migrating and place focus to Pal-T2 after this first production run and therefore will only continue to offer Pal-T2 on Backerkit.
Please note a few things to ensure we are all on the same page:
All backers that backed the original Pal on Kickstarter or pre-ordered on BackerKit will still receive the original Pal as planned, no worries about that, we will deliver. The change will only affect new Backerkit pre-orders.
Pal-T2 is backward compatible with Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel, the difference is that using Pal-T2 with these watches will not have the heart rate function.
No changes to Pal-T2, same black and red color straps will be available, target delivery for T2 remains February 2017.
We have set the lockdown date for the original Pal to November 11 (next Friday) for making any color changes or product changes to enter into full production.
Before November 11 (next Friday), if anyone want any adjustments, such as change strap color or switch to Pal-T2, we need to know ASAP, once passed this date, we will not be able to accommodate any of these changes. Please note, changes such as address change or Pal-T2 color change is still doable.
Thanks again everyone!
Best Regards,
David and the Pal Team
Latest Production Updates
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 01:27:59 PM
Dear Backers,
Hope all of you are well. We would like to provide you a quick update on our production.
As much as we want to get Pal out to you as early as possible, we do have to begin with some bad news. We have just received updates from our manufacturer that there will be some delays unfortunately. We truly apologize for this and we are striving hard to make Pal available to you in December by Christmas. Schedule of Pal-T2 in Feb 2017 remains unchanged. Please find below the production details, photos, and some issues that’s causing the delay:
As mentioned in previous updates, we combined tooling for Pal and Pal-T2 as much as possible for an improved appearance. The latest structural design with recess/opening in the middle, and the re-layout of the flexible PCB to cater to the opening is a significant engineering task and it is now complete. In addition, a latch is added at the 12 o’clock position which is a great improvement in terms of looks and making it more durable than the initial snap-in design.
The production tooling is in fabrication. AGPS function is looking good and very likely to be integrated, which will reduce the initial GPS log time from 1 minute to 10 seconds. Currently we are fine tuning the GPS antenna configuration with the supplier.
We want to provide you the best quality in our straps and making it even better than what you originally saw and pledged. Thank you once again for all your support and patience.
Best Regards,
David and The Pal Team
Pebble Time Watches Are Here!
over 7 years ago
– Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 07:45:13 PM
Dear Backers,
Hope you are all doing well!
I want to drop by to give you all a quick update. We’ve just received our Pebble Time watches today and we will begin shipping the watches throughout this and next week. Thanks for your patience.
Pebble Time watches are in!
Other exciting updates:
We were just in the US showcasing Pal at TechCrunch Disrupt. It was an amazing experience and we had a great time meeting other innovative startups. Best part of our trip? Meeting Eric and visiting the Pebble office!
Pal at TechCrunch Disrupt
Meeting Eric Migicovsky at Pebble
As always, thank you for all your continuous support!
