iCP2: They're throwing in the towel.


The boat sailed on transparency a long time ago. My guess is the silence is due to legal matters being settled. Hoping some news come out of the courtroom, or else-wise. Messages on here probably have to be vetted by lawyers first.
 
I think this site needs to be shut down. No one wants to see the name 'iControlPad' again.

Honestly, I should be grateful. Your blunder has opened my eyes to the ills of crowdfunding and never again will I ever contribute to one, despite not having a hand in this one.

In fact, I wish I could rescind what I've already spent on other projects. I no longer want to involve myself with them until the product is complete.
 
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Who is "Your".. And why do we need to shut down the open Pandora forum as well..
 
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That's fine, I agree there.

But I don't think the iCP website has any purpose anymore. They stopped making iCPs in the anticipation of the iCP2, which is dead. Seems like the whole thing is a waste now.
 
But the iControlPad.com website is being owned by iControlPad Ltd., we cannot simply switch it off.
 
Don't kill the ICP2 support forums here, it's the only place any of us can get "real" news and updates to go tell people over on the Kickstarter page forums. :p

At least not until the fiascal is over. Then nuke it away. It's not even fit for the archive.
 
DrCJBoduma said:
Sorry for the grave dig, but.....anyone in the know care to share the update info

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1703567677/icontrolpad-2-the-open-source-controller/posts
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Update #39



I've been in contact with Craig twice over the last week.   I'm relaying an update from him:

Hello Backers,

I'm sorry for the lack of communication, the set up of the icp2 project involved multiple companies.

As I'm sure you're aware the project failed due to a series of unexpected factors:

Some unexpected price increases dropped on us at the last minute. Issues with finishing the product to 100% reliability in a reasonable time. Part shortages leading to lengthy delays. Stopping production of the iCP1 (our cash flow) too soon in anticipation of the iCP2 being ready to ship.

Until recently I was still trying to raise enough money (around $25,000) to try to finish the project but this is looking increasingly unlikely.

You will have to give us time to deconstruct the setup in order to see how much money can be refunded to backers.

We do have enough iCP1 devices to cover any backers which involved these.

We will contact all backers when we have details of a refund procedure.

Thanks for your patience,

Craig
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, it's good he says something. That's more than I expected, probably more than anyone expected..

Probably not very satisfying though. Just a claim that prices went up suddenly without any explanation why.

If an additional $25,000 would really be enough to finish it then he should ask the backers to see if they're willing to pay on average about $12 extra per-unit. That sounds more desirable than getting a partial refund. But the problem is convincing people that their extra contribution will actually result in anything. Getting the money from anywhere else seems impossible, I doubt anyone wants to gift such a big amount.
 
I don't think I trust Craig enough when he says he only needs $25'000 more, and I know a lot of people that definitely don't.
 
Another meaningless update. For those of us in the United States, Mark Linkhorst is on the LLC, not Craig. Nothing Craig says has any meaning for us, and he doesn't need to follow through on any of it. I'd like a real update from Mark, not whatever "Craig" relayed to him via smoke signals. It's time for Mark to take responsibility for a project he put his name on, whether he wants to or not.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
It won't work.

The nubs are out of production, so he'd first need to redesign the PCB and case for new nubs, scrap the old PCBs to produce new ones...

One of the unexpected costs might've been the keypad. When investigating solutions for the Pyra, I found out that those domecaps are incredibly expensive (over 10 USD per unit) because they need to be assembled manually.

Maybe he found a different solution (I just had a quick chat with a manufacturer, as we were talking about the Pyra keyboard), but it's still probably a lot more expensive than a rubber keymat.
 
lemondragon said:
What actually are dome caps?  individual plastic tops of "keys"?
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Dome caps are those small copper pads (bowed) that are sticked onto the PCB. When you press them, they make a contact and spring back into their original shape.

It's those tiny clicky keyboards from smartphones.
 
EvilDragon said:
It won't work.

The nubs are out of production, so he'd first need to redesign the PCB and case for new nubs, scrap the old PCBs to produce new ones...
Click to expand...
I'd like to hear the excuse for why he didn't order those nubs in 2012. I kind of wonder if it would have impacted the Pandora supply if there were 4000 fewer nubs available, or if they would have just agreed to make more.

Quotes for every single part should have been secured before funding was even complete. There is not a single PCB component which shouldn't have been ordered as soon as the funding was received, except for the LEDs which shouldn't have even been added. This isn't wisdom from hindsight, this is basic common sense.

I wonder if any kind of project revival is even feasible. What I mean is, for someone to, before starting: hire MWeston and DaveC (or someone else who can do/finish the case) and if necessary secure the design rights, and get a proper prototype 100% finished and heavily demonstrated. Then put together a very detailed project plan, complete drawings, BOM, quotes, and source code and make it free to download to the public. Come up with a price structure that explains exactly where the money would be going and what initial funding would need to be repaid from it. List what things still need to be paid for vs what's already in store. Cut out any involvement from Craig (he'd have to be willing I'm sure), then have a website where KS orders can pay for the upgrade.

I might be willing to fund that first part of this if I were confident I'd actually see at least a lot of the money again. I don't have that much personal interest in iCP2 (I'm not a backer to begin with) but I think it really sucks that all this work went to waste and that everyone is getting burned like this. Does anyone have any idea if such a thing has any chance at all, or if the iCP2 team and/or the backers wouldn't want to push for it?
 
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