Here ya go:
Hi Everyone
Another month of steady progress. The production shell is finally ready! It is being sent off for a SLS 3D print for physical testing. This is the version that supports all the production PCBs, camera, buttons, trigger mechanism, recoil solenoid, cable, pump action etc etc. It's been finalised with input from the injection moulding company to ensure compatability and high quality.
The design has come out incredibly similar to the Kickstarter prototype but a little bit sleaker. This stage took longer than I hoped but the long term quality of the project rests entirely on this so needed to get it right. I'll be demonstrating it in my next update. The injection moulding company is a local based company with a quick turn around so I'm expecting this to move quite quick when I sign off. I'll be able to confirm the dimensions with you all at this point.
So lots of other small things to update on, I'm listing these because I know a lot of you are interested in some of the finer details to delivering something like this.
USB identity, so I now have a USB id (known as a VID/PID) that I can use to identify the Sinden Lightgun and give it a custom name. This should mean the device appears to your computer as something similar to "SindenLightgun" in device manager. Windows 10 and Linux (including Pi) shouldn't actually need any hardware drivers other than running the Sinden Lightgun application.
EMC testing, so I've lined this up. It is a requirement for achieving US FCC and Europe CE mark certification. They test your device in a special chamber to detect whether it outputs too much electromagnetic radiation such as radio waves. I'm reasonably confident the PCBs will be fine however I am interested in whether the recoil solenoid will have an effect. I'm sure any issue is resolvable but it would be nice to just pass first time!
Packaging, I've been experimenting with different packages, the main priority is to be safely delivered. Luckily the Sinden Lightgun is pretty sturdy but it's surely going to take a battering travelling across the world. I've got a packaging method I'm happy with now.
Shipping, this is positive as it looks like the charges should come in line with predictions and actually the delivery timelines are reasonably fast. My biggest concern is going to be charges for parcels that can't be delivered. This is why I'm leaving the backer survey to the last minute to make sure the addresses are as accurate as possible. I'm not sure if I said before but you will be able to choose your lightgun colours in the survey too, subject to your country's laws. Standard colours are expected to be black/dark grey,blue,red and orange. Blue and red is quite a classic setup for an arcade machine.
Linux software, I've put a lot more effort into getting this polished. It should improve performance on the Pi and I've also now validated it working well on x86 systems. When I have more time I will experiment with some of the x86 RetroPie/Retroarch builds.
The new version of Corpse Killer was released on Steam. It did work with the Sinden Lightgun which is good, I'm hoping to do a video soon. To be honest the gameplay was a bit disappointing and didn't have the charm of something like Mad Dog McCree. Although I never played it in the past so maybe I'm just lacking that connection.
On another note for the first time on the project I have managed to build up a bit of a backlog of emails, I do like responding in detail as I'm interested in all the different setups you all have and what games are your favourite. So apologies if you have had a slow reply or no reply at all, I am getting through them slowly.
Finally in terms of delivery I am still planning to start shipping units in October but have now eaten away most of my time contingency. Similar to my previous updates I don't have any major blockers but just need to keep completing the milestones.
Best regards
Andy