Hi Everyone!
I've got a bunch of great news this week. Let's get into it!
Prototype Status Update
Our PCB fixes were accepted by our CM last week and they are now building 20 production sample units. We expect to get the samples back in hand in 2 weeks. Once I get the samples I'll verify all the features, and if things work, approve the mass production of 2500 units. We will also ship the sample units to folks who ordered one.
So, we're just playing the waiting game right now.
NXP Partnership
I went to NXP Connects last month and got a warm welcome from NXP! NXP is super excited about the OpenMV Cam RT1060 and they are partnering with us in a real and concrete way to ensure that we have access to chips to build the OpenMV Cam RT1060.
Given this, we don't expect to run out of chip stock necessary to build the OpenMV Cam RT1060 ever again thanks to NXP's support. Additionally, thanks to NXP's support we're getting better pricing access for to the MIMXRT106 chip that powers the OpenMV Cam RT1060. So, in the future we expect to be able to offer the camera at a lower price as production ramps up.
Around the Web
OpenMV Cam user Oramafanis from www.oramasolutions.com posted a slick video on how he made an industrial case for the OpenMV Cam - check it out:
IDE Update Status
OpenMV IDE 4.0.0 is coming around the corner. We are now code complete with all the updates and new features. I'm now working on getting the release process operational for Windows/Linux/Mac/RaspberryPi. So, far, the Windows and Linux installers are building. So, it's just Mac and RaspberryPi left to go.
One of the best features for the new IDE will be that we are moving to GitHub actions to build the IDE in the cloud. This will allow us to ship updates faster and more frequently as we add features and fix bugs.
Anyway, the focus right now is on just getting this done. I've been at work all month doing the update from Qt5 to Qt6 and rebasing things on QtCreator10 from QtCreator4.
Firmware Status
Ibrahim finished pushing the initial commits for the OpenMV Cam RT1060 to Github last week. There's still quite a way to go to enable all the hardware acceleration features the OpenMV Cam H7 and H7 Plus have. But, once I'm done with the IDE I'll be able to switch over to helping with the firmware to make this happen sooner.
And Last But Not Least
I am going full-time on OpenMV!
Since the start of OpenMV I have always been running the company and working on the project in my free-time. When I was an individual contributor at my day-job this was more or less possible as long as I spent most of my nights and weekends on OpenMV. However, when I started managing Embark Truck's Electrical Engineering Team I really didn't have time for OpenMV anymore as my day-job became much more demanding and required my nights and weekends too in-order to push our technology forward.
However, things changed in March - Embark Trucks Shutdown.
I've had an amazing time working at Embark Trucks for almost five years. I got to see it grow from ~30 employees when I joined to over ~300. See it go public on the NASDAQ. Enjoy multiple six hour long rides as an operator watching the system drive itself in back-to-back trips between LA and AZ. And, I got to play with high end sensors and systems there and learn what is useful for building real things that will go out into the world.
So! I hope to bring lessons learned from working at Embark to making the OpenMV Cam into an awesome and extremely useful product for everyone.
It's an auspicious time for OpenMV. The chip shortage is more or less over allowing us to build cameras again. And new microcontrollers are set to hit the market powered by ARM's Cortex M55 CPU (and M85 in the future) along with the Ethos U55 NPU. Ibrahim and me are excited for where things go from here!
(I started pushing hard on OpenMV again four months ago when Embark Trucks shutdown. But, I'm announcing this now as last week was my final week at Embark after helping Embark to merge with Applied Intuition).
