The Reveni Labs Spot Meter is a compact, affordable spot meter for precision reflective metering. A great companion to a large format field camera or even your 35mm.
August Progress and Beyond
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 05:29:39 AM
Hello Everyone!
It's been a long month but I've been able to build over 1000 meters in the past 5 weeks, and now the last remaining ones will ship on Monday!
I will confess I had a shipping software mix-up and temporarily cancelled about 40 backer's orders, but I got them un-cancelled and they will be going out Monday. Some of them should have shipped earlier and I'm sorry for the error.
Many of the meters have already been delivered but as they make their way to the further corners of the earth I hope that you will be patient as many countries are dealing with overwhelmed postal systems due to COVID. If you are in a country that you know COVID has had a negative impact on your postal system, please be patient as it may take some time for it to arrive. If there are any issues, we will work them out together.
There are still 14 outstanding Backerkit surveys that never got completed!! I have reached out to these backers many times attempting to get a hold of them, to no avail. If you are reading this and were a backer and are thinking "What is Backerkit?" please send me an email! [email protected] and I will set you on the right path. Your meters are waiting for you!
As of today from the last batch I built I have some stock that wasn't already spoken-for and put 100 units into the reveni-labs.com store for purchase. I'm already partway through the process of building another batch of meters as they keep selling! It's been really amazing so far.
Continued Support for Your Meter
In the event that you have an issue with your Reveni Labs Light Meter, please let me know and we can try to resolve it. If it has become damaged, send me an email at [email protected] and if it looks like it can be fixed, we can arrange to have it mailed back for repair.
My Thanks
I have a lot of people to thank both for the campaign's success, starting with the backers who took a chance and made Reveni Labs possible. You've changed my life and I owe you everything.
For helping get the word out about the campaign to make it as successful as it was, as well as their ongoing support. I also want to thank the early testers who gave their valuable feedback, anyone who suggested the campaign to their friends, shared it on Facebook or Instagram, and spread the word. There are hundreds of people who deserve my thanks and I truly appreciate every one of you.
The Future
I'd been preventing myself from getting hooked in to any new projects until the Kickstarter fulfillment was completed and I had some runway on orders, which is the place I am nearly at. Now I can start to work on some of the ideas that I've come up with over the last 5 months. Maybe there will be something interesting by the end of the year. I think it's likely that another Kickstarter campaign will be involved because it was a fantastic way to get the upfront capital and purchasing quantity, confirm there was an interest from consumers, and get some exposure.
The best place to keep up with Reveni Labs is on Instagram at @revenilabs, Reveni Labs on Facebook, and by signing up for the Reveni Labs newsletter at the bottom of https://www.reveni-labs.com/. I hope you'll be interested in what's next!
Feedback
I've heard from lots of people over the past 5 months and I'd like to hear from more. What you liked/didn't like about the campaign and fulfillment process, so that I can do better in the future. I want to know! Leave a comment or let me know at [email protected]. Thanks!
- Matt
Reveni Labs Official Mascots
July Progress and August Plans
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 11:34:20 PM
Hello all!
I hope everyone is doing well out there and enjoying the good summer weather as best they can.
July Progress
July has been pretty busy here. I received an initial batch of 120 assembled circuit boards and about 500 cases, along with all the accessories. I assembled and shipped about 120 units to the first 100 backers or so in the 2nd week of July. At that point I had to wait for the remainder of the assembled PCBs to arrive before I could assemble more units.
This early bunch of shipments seems to have confused some people as they may have seen online that some people had received theirs already, but had not received any email about their own rewards shipping. Sorry for this confusion.
120 meters boxed and ready! These shipped in the first half of July to about 100 backers
As these units reached backer hands there were a couple mentions that they were not fitting well in the camera shoe, and also very tightly into the 3D printed accessories. I found that in some instances there was excess print powder jamming the bottom springs in place, making the camera fit extremely tight. I am now manually clearing this powder with a tool and blowing the remainder free with compressed air, and this is working well to resolve the issue. A little bit of "working in" on your camera's shoe helps to get the fit better.
A Big Announcement!
With all the parts received and production ramping up (and September on the way!) I decided it was time that I resign from my day job of 6 years so I can focus on Reveni Labs full-time. The support that the Reveni Labs backers has given me enough runway that I can dedicate as much time as possible to developing new Reveni Labs products once the Reveni Labs Light Meter rewards are shipped and additional meters are in stock on the website. There will be lots in the future from Reveni Labs!
My wife made me some Reveni Labs cupcakes when I came home from my last day at my old job
August Plans
As of this week it's full time assembly and shipping mode. By the end of this week (Friday, July 31st) I expect to be shipping what I've built this week to about 200 backers. I hope to have all the rewards fulfilled by the end of August. If you added extra items to your pledge via Backerkit, they will all ship together as one.
Starting from the PCB assembler, through programming, final assembly, and calibration, the meters live inside silicone ice cube trays to keep them safe
Thanks for your patience as I move into the fulfillment phase of this campaign as more rewards are making their way to backers. They are assembled and shipping weekly in bunches of 200-250 and are in order of pledge, so if you pledge earlier, you will receive earlier (excluding variations in shipping time).
Thanks for reading and I hope you are excited for the future of Reveni Labs too!
- Matt
Update on June and plans for July
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 06:23:17 PM
Hello Everyone!
I must say that June really flew by. I honestly can't believe how fast it went.
June Progress
I've been running a little ahead of schedule in the previous months but it is starting to catch up with me now as the assembled PCBs have taken a longer to put together than expected. I've received a small set of them but most are still being completed. I hope to be in full production with 100% of the materials in hand by 2nd week of July. In the meantime there were a few little things that came about from the pre-production testers that I was able to resolve.
50% of the 3D prints have come in, including 100% of the accessory prints, so I have what is needed to begin shipping meters once they are assembled and ready.
Increased screen responsiveness, less chunkyfont
I improved the screen responsiveness, it seems that the screen data bus was not running at the maximum available speed so that has been improved, and much more user friendly. The speed increase deserves a proper video clip and I will have to shoot one soon to show the improvement over what was shown in the Kickstarter video. For now here is a picture of the new less-blocky font.
Improved font (left) vs. old font (right)
Glare issues with chrome-top cameras
It was found by some pre-production testers that in overhead sunlight, some light was bouncing off the top of chrome-topped cameras and throwing off the meter readings. I did some testing myself once the situation as described and did find up to a 3.5 stop error when the sun was in a particularly bad position to bounce light right into the sensor opening. I redesigned the sensor shroud to help protect from stray light coming from below, as well as added tiny baffles which bounce any light that hits the walls of the sensor opening back out and away from the sensor itself. The difference was from a 3.5 stop error down to a 0.2 stop error!
Below is a photo of the sensor opening through a microscope, showing the tiny light baffles. The texture of the 3D prints is more pronounced under magnification, but it is nearly microscopic to the naked eye.
Anti-glare baffles
July Plans
Shipping addresses have been locked down so July is all about assembly and getting meters out the door. Backers will receive an email with their tracking information as their meters go out.
That's all for this one! As always, thank you for all your support!
- Matt
Update on May and plans for June
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, Jun 02, 2020 at 04:53:39 AM
Hello Everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well and keeping healthy.
As of May 30th there are still some incomplete surveys. I have reached out to these backers several times and they have not responded yet. Some surveys have been partially completed, such as entering a mailing address and purchasing an add-on but not providing payment information. If you're reading this and it sounds like you, please sign in to your Backerkit survey and complete it! Otherwise your meter remains stuck in limbo and I can't ship it! To access your survey go here and enter your kickstarter email address to get started.
I'm really happy to see that 31% of backers purchased add-ons in the form of accessories and even some additional meters. I'm really happy that I was able to create some accessories that people really thought were interesting. A lot of them were at the suggestion of backers, and so I thank you for the great ideas!
May Progress
May was a slower month than April, as some of the tasks are in progress at the various suppliers, but that leaves less for me to do at the moment. The shipments to the pre-production test group were received on average 7-10 days to USA and Canada, 2 weeks to the UK, but the remaining ones to Europe have not been marked as arrived after 30 days. I'm not sure how much of this is due to COVID-19 and the strain that has placed on countries' mail services. It seems that all that can be done is wait for those to reach their destination. Of the ones that have arrived, the response has been overwhelmingly positive! The packaging held up well and the meters arrived in good shape.
Additionally, all circuit board parts were received and delivered to the assembler in Ontario, who is using their machines to place the components on the circuit boards and solder them in place. I built quite a few units by hand and it took nearly 1 hour each, working under a microscope, so I am happy that the quantity of meters makes paying for machine assembly possible. Otherwise it would take me a year to get these done!
Completed surveys have been locked so making changes to add-ons is no longer permitted. If you selected add-ons, you should have received a payment notification email or a payment error notification if your payment was not successful (credit card error, etc).
If you want to take a look at the online user manual, check it out here!
June Plans
In the first 2 weeks of June, the first batch of assembled circuit boards will be arriving, as well as the first batch of 3D prints. Assembly and shipping will happen in blocks, going by backer number. The block will be sent address lock emails through Backerkit, giving you time to update your address if you need to. After that they will ship! This will be the plan for July and August as well as I suspect it will take quite some time to complete.
Backerkit has been taking pre-orders from new customers as well. These will ship after the last batch of Kickstarter rewards have shipped. Once the pre-orders are finished, then the meters will go on sale through www.reveni-labs.com, however there may be limited stock initially as there have been more pre-orders than I expected!
That's about it for this one. Follow along on Instagram @revenilabs to see more behind the scenes, and feel free to leave a comment or message!
