Andy, where are the Ultimarc Aimtrack guns?!

[helpmebuild]

Any further info on the date and price of these things?

I know the community would love more info on the complete gun/sets and their details, even if not in stone, some more info and an update would be much appreciated!

[AndyWarne]

We have a problem with the manufacturer of the parts. They decided to move factory just before production started. This is now done but they have already missed the promised date post-move.

I will try to get an update as soon as possible. We should have some kits quite soon in advance of fully assembled units.

Andy

[helpmebuild]

Amazing news.

By kits you mean un-assembled parts I'd assume? Hey, if it means putting it together myself but getting it earlier than fully assembled, sign me up!

Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to future updates.

[jtslade]

Yes. Would be ok with asembly for an earlier dlivery date

[jasonbar]

+1 on kit excitedness.

I'd actually prefer a kit greatly over a plug 'n' play product--makes the user understand the product better so he can repair or mod it as needed in the future.

I guess the downside is that there will be plenty of people who have trouble assembling a kit & take up Andy's time & forum resources & might break it in the process...

Thanks,
-Jason

[bigster]

great i cannot wait...

[Dannymh]

*squeal*

excellent

[Dartful Dodger]

Thanks Andy.  Your announcement of the AimTrack lit a fire under my butt so I started piecing together all the arcade parts I've been collecting, and last night I finished my, 10 years in the making, MAME cabinet!!!

All I'm missing is a marquee and your AimTrack gun.

It took me 10 years to build this thing so if I buy your kit I have a feeling the kit is going to sit in a box for 10 years before I do anything with it, what I need is your complete gun set up.

Any new news on that?

Thanks again!

[AndyWarne]

We have all the parts except that the infra-red filter on the front of the gun needs to be re-manufactured as it does not pass IR through well enough. So another delay unfortunately, but hopefully not too many days.

Andy

[FrizzleFried]

Gotta price point by chance?

[extendedplayarcade]

I am just adding myself to the list

[helpmebuild]

I would love a price tag on this thing too. Any way you could drop a hint for us? An Approx. retail value perhaps? 

Thanks for the updates too, it's much appreciated to have the guy behind the product fill the community in on then when and why with some of these products, so thank you again.

I'll check back daily for that announcement!

[gwjrabbit]

Preorders?

[helpmebuild]

Any news, Andy?

[jtslade]

buumper

[docdocdoc]

I think people are just excited. I know I am very interested.
I also just made my first order with Andy and it was excellent

[Dartful Dodger]

... since this thread has already been bumped.

Any news, Andy?

[Joey Butafuko]

Andy raises the price by 5% each time someone begs on this forum 

[AndyWarne]

We have all the parts here to supply a complete kit of parts to fit an existing AimTrak module into a gun. The kit version will not have a flat Infra-Red filter in the nose of the gun, it will use the IR filter which is mounted on the front of the sensor (all modules supplied have this). The kit version implements the trigger (obviously) and one of the two side buttons, unless you want to do some soldering then the second side button can be enabled. Its very easy to assemble.

Eventually the assembled retail version will have an "anti-kid" flat filter in the nose of the gun.

We dont yet have parts for the LED board housing but if you already have the LED board mounted in a cab thats not relevant.

Should have the kits on sale next week. Need to work out a price yet.

Andy

[Dartful Dodger]

EXCELLENT!!!

[helpmebuild]

 

Oh man...this is exciting. I cannot wait..i'll def be getting one of the first kits once up for sale. Thanks for the update!

[fallacy]

I am curious as to how the process goes down between you and a manufacturer. Do you have someone designing new parts that you send to a manufacturer to sell on your site? How much time, money, and people does it take to do something like that? What happens if the product turns out to have problems or does not sell? I don’t even under stand how a manufacturer is even capable of making something so specific.

[AndyWarne]

I am curious as to how the process goes down between you and a manufacturer. Do you have someone designing new parts that you send to a manufacturer to sell on your site? How much time, money, and people does it take to do something like that? What happens if the product turns out to have problems or does not sell? I don’t even under stand how a manufacturer is even capable of making something so specific.

Well yes, that someone is me.
A product like this takes a lot of time and money because there is CAD to do (see CAD wireframe below as an example), then molds to make. There are 7 molds for the gun parts, two of them (the body sides) are large and complex. Plus two fabricated parts and two switch PCBs.

The mold-making and manufacturing are contracted-out of course. Creating and designing a product is a very rewarding activity but actual manufacturing is extremely dull and something well worth leaving to others. This is where I am sometimes jealous of friends who have made their fortunes in software, they dont have to bother with any of that!
Fortunately we have an excellent manufacturing partner.

As for the economics, its simply a matter of amortising the design and tooling cost against margins on sales. Its very unlikely that we will not eventually get back the tooling cost of the guns even though they are not a mass-market product.

We have only ever really had one product which didnt sell, which is the U-HID G (The version of the U-HID with accelerometer on board). The reason for this is we strayed from the market area we know about. This was produced with two markets in mind, pinball builders (for nudge) and musicians, especially guitarists, for an effects unit. neither markets are really there. This does not really matter as the development costs of this board were tiny, so we just took the hit.

[Encryptor]

I'm curious about this as well. When you come up with an idea, say for your spinner. Do you tell a designer what you want the product to do and the other specs (ie.. dimensions, voltage requirements etc) and they design the circuitry and such or do you actually design the circuit boards and just have them manufactured elsewhere?

Encryptor

[Joey Butafuko]

Since we're being curious, I'm pretty curious about the actual number of sales of each product to understand how big this market is
I assume Ipac's and joysticks will sell more than light guns and videocards. What kind of numbers should I be thinking of, 1000, 5000, 10.000?

Are pushbuttons the real bread and butter and the more exotic products keep the market fresh and alive? How does this work? 

[AndyWarne]

I'm curious about this as well. When you come up with an idea, say for your spinner. Do you tell a designer what you want the product to do and the other specs (ie.. dimensions, voltage requirements etc) and they design the circuitry and such or do you actually design the circuit boards and just have them manufactured elsewhere?

Encryptor

The actual SpinTrak is not a good example because thats one of the few products which I didnt design. I specified customization of a manufacturers existing device. We dont buy anything else from this manufacturer.
All the other PCB type products I designed in full. The PCB plot files and Bill Of Materials go to the manufacturers and they work from these. The manufacturers we use do not have any knowledge of what the product does, they just make them.

[AndyWarne]

Since we're being curious, I'm pretty curious about the actual number of sales of each product to understand how big this market is
I assume Ipac's and joysticks will sell more than light guns and videocards. What kind of numbers should I be thinking of, 1000, 5000, 10.000?

Are pushbuttons the real bread and butter and the more exotic products keep the market fresh and alive? How does this work? 

The MAME-related market is not huge so we, and other suppliers in this market are on tight margins on some products because pricing is relatively low for what are essentially market-specific items.
But we also sell some more generic products outside of the MAME community in relatively large numbers, which is more profitable.
Also do client USB project design, one example is this:

[Encryptor]

I'm curious about this as well. When you come up with an idea, say for your spinner. Do you tell a designer what you want the product to do and the other specs (ie.. dimensions, voltage requirements etc) and they design the circuitry and such or do you actually design the circuit boards and just have them manufactured elsewhere?

Encryptor

The actual SpinTrak is not a good example because thats one of the few products which I didnt design. I specified customization of a manufacturers existing device. We dont buy anything else from this manufacturer.
All the other PCB type products I designed in full. The PCB plot files and Bill Of Materials go to the manufacturers and they work from these. The manufacturers we use do not have any knowledge of what the product does, they just make them.

Very good. Thanks for the info Andy.

Encryptor

[AndyWarne]

These are now in the store:

http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/section.php?xSec=2

The information page (not linked from the rest of our site) is here:

http://www.ultimarc.com/aimtrak_gun.html


Note we dont have as many of these kits as we would like. They will probably not be here very long.

[jasonbar]

Sweet.

To make sure I understand, if I want 2 full sets, I'd want to order the following:

2x Aimtrak Light Gun Kit: $44 each

2x Gun Housing Kit: $39 each


Total: $166


Am I interpreting that correctly?


Thank you very much,
-Jason

PS--The kit & gun look sweet.  Assembly looks easy--nice instructions--I'd definitely prefer to do this assembly rather than buy the finished gun!

PPS--Can a clear polycarbonate or acrylic window be added to the front of the gun to protect the Aimtrak, without affecting performance?

[AndyWarne]

Sweet.

To make sure I understand, if I want 2 full sets, I'd want to order the following:

2x Aimtrak Light Gun Kit: $44 each

2x Gun Housing Kit: $39 each


Total: $166


Am I interpreting that correctly?


Thank you very much,
-Jason

PS--The kit & gun look sweet.  Assembly looks easy--nice instructions--I'd definitely prefer to do this assembly rather than buy the finished gun!

PPS--Can a clear polycarbonate or acrylic window be added to the front of the gun to protect the Aimtrak, without affecting performance?

Both kits are $44, but if you are using two guns on one PC there is a lower-price variant of the electronics kit which does not have the LED PCB.

Not tested with any clear window but I dont think it would cause a problem.

[Joey Butafuko]

It's $49 now  

I don't think it's a good idea to ship this gun assembled, the thing looks too much like a real gun.
Customs might destroy it and give you a hefty fine  

edit: $44 again 

[jasonbar]

Ordered!

Thanks,
-Jason

[AndyWarne]

It's $49 now  

I don't think it's a good idea to ship this gun assembled, the thing looks too much like a real gun.
Customs might destroy it and give you a hefty fine  

edit: $44 again 

This is something we thought about. I dont think there would be any risk of a fine though. We will eventually be making some blue and red ones in case.

[Dartful Dodger]

For two guns on one PC what needs to be ordered?

[Shoegazer]

Andy, I don't see the force feedback motor mentioned anywhere.  Just want to be sure it's there before I buy the casing/kits.  Please let me know, thanks!

[ids]

So, on the eve of the G20 showing up in my backyard, I order two.   
Perhaps wisdom is not my greatest trait.

[gwjrabbit]

Well, there's a hundred bucks gone (grin).

[ids]

Well, there's a hundred bucks gone (grin).

shhh, don't tell the wife!

[helpmebuild]

And..... purchased!

Thanks again Andy. I love that you took the forum feedback and sold the kits to the people who needed a full solution but didn't mind piecing it together. You could have just waited until the full assembled kits were done but did right by the community, so thank you again!