DIPLE - the REVOLUTIONARY microscope for any smartphone

Update 7
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 01:00:02 AM

Dear Backers,

Here the new monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE

The work keeps moving, but with some obstacles. Nothing serious but it will take some more days to fix.

The shipment of DIPLE with standard stages will have some days of delay on the timing anticipated in the previous updates; the plan was to start shipping in the end of July/beginning of August. Now, we need about 2-3 weeks more. The reason of this delay is a problem with the manufacturing of the external parts of the boxes. As reported in other updates, we decided to make both the internal and external part of the box in plastic, instead of thick cardboard. So, the whole product is much more solid and long lasting than the one showed in the campaign. As you can see in the next video, the samples that we got from our supplier do not fit well. Therefore, we have asked for a change in the mold; it will take about 10 more days. We expect to be ready to ship the units with standard stages within the end of August. These issue will not affect the plan for the shipment of the units with fine stage, as it was already estimated within the end of September.

The other parts making up the product are ready. In the next pic you can see the first batch of DIPLE. Once the external part of the boxes will be ok, our partner in China will ship them to our headquarters; then, we will insert the components (objective lenses and some other components) made in Italy and we’ll be ready to ship the DIPLE units to you in few days.

Thanks for your support and Stay Safe!

The SMO Team

Follow us on Instagram @diplemicro, Facebook @diplemicro, YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TBfhct

Update 6
over 5 years ago – Sat, Jul 04, 2020 at 12:43:22 AM

Dear Backers,

Here the sixth, monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE

We ordered all the parts that we need to assembly the DIPLE units during May and June, to our suppliers.

We have been informed of some delays for parts of the Fine Stage and parts made of transparent plexiglass. These problems are related to: 1. Excessive bending of Aluminum plates during the step of anodization; the manufacturer needed some days to optimize the process, now it seems to be solved. 2. The parts of transparent plastic (slide shifters) have a delayed delivery because there is shortage of transparent sheets in this period, because this material is extremely requested for making shields (for Covid19 related products).

All the molds for injection molding should be completed within few weeks. According to the timing provided from our suppliers, we will be able to test the pieces coming from the molds for mass production in mid-July.

We sent the Backerkit survey some weeks ago; in June we ordered all the materials requested to also prepare the add-ons.

We plan to build and ship the first units starting from the end of July/beginning of August.

The first orders to ship will be the units with Standard Stage; these units have less components, and, in particular, do not have the parts for which we have been informed about the aforementioned delays. For the units with Fine Stage we think to start the shipments in late August/September. We can write this scheduling, following the information from our suppliers, and assuming normal lead time for the ordered components. In May we experienced a delay of 3 weeks for custom inspection on a DHL express shipment; this kind of delays is obviously out of our control.

We will share with you a more precise calendar once will have received all the components in our warehouse.

This week we have completed the lens manufacturing phase (we make the lenses in our headquarters in Italy). Now we have 1000 red objective lenses ready to ship. In the next 2 weeks we will receive other DIPLE red tiles and the tiles for the assembly of the Diple Grey and Black lenses. We have made thousands of lenses, now we have to mount them in the tiles.

Within the next week we should be ready to print also the instruction foils. This point can appear a detail, but it is not. We have improved the system during the last months (DIPLE is now much better than during the Kickstarter campaign), and the description of its components and how to manage them has changed. The instruction must be clear and short (otherwise no one read them, as I use to do…). Therefore, we’ll make some video tutorial, and we will probably improve the instruction in the next months, according to the feedback of the users. We will always share new versions of instructions on our website.

We are now working also on the file management for the invoicing and for preparation of the shipping labels. Our shipping provider has changed its file management system since our previous Kickstarter campaign of four years ago, so we must change the way to prepare these documents. Moreover, in addition to all the Covid19-related problems, we have been informed few weeks ago about the doubling of the shipping cost for small packages to the US, starting right from July of this year (as reported here). Of course, this does not imply any cost for you, but it forces us to further focus on leaning all our logistic tasks.

Thanks for your support and Stay Safe!

The SMO Team

Follow us on Instagram @diplemicro, Facebook @diplemicro, Youtube: https://bit.ly/2TBfhct

Update 5 - May 2020
almost 6 years ago – Fri, May 29, 2020 at 02:13:51 AM

Dear Backers,

Here is the fifth, monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE

On May 4th we re-opened the company, after the long lock-down.

The Covid-related hurdles were not over with the end of the lock-down: mechanical parts from foreign manufacturers that we needed to check and validate were stuck at the custom for 3 weeks as the priority was given to goods for the virus emergency. However, we got the box last week. But I want to make the story short and go directly to the point of highest interest: we plan to start the shipment of the first units before the end of July. About a couple of months of delay, as anticipated in previous updates. Those of you that work in manufacturing or in tech innovation can understand the amount of unexpected problems of the last few months. Extra problems, in addition to all the issues that can be found bringing a hardware product from prototype stage, to mass production.

The first units ready to ship will be likely those with DIPLE standard stages, that have a smaller number of components. From the end of August and September we plan to ship the other kits; we have actually some details to adjust, about mechanical tolerances; the fine-stage is made of 19 different pieces and we found some manufacturing issues in the pre-production batch on two of these parts. You can be sure that we will make our best to ship as soon as possible; any delay is a cost for us.

Said that, in the next few days we will send to all of you our survey via Backerkit. You will find there a showroom where you will be able to upgrade the ordered item with accessories or new parts. We need you to fill your shipping information there, too.

About the product, we are proud to have improved it significantly since the end of the Kickstarter campaign (thanks to your feedback and to our beta testers):

- The box is now made of ABS; the internal and the external part of the box are made of plastic. So, it is tougher and long-lasting.

- The box has stopping features to solve the issue of the stage that shifts off the light source, as reported in the review of Paul Struss of Technabob (https://technabob.com/blog/2019/12/15/diple-smartphone-microscope-review/).

- The second problem reported in the former review was solved too; the blocking elements that keep the tile in position can be now regulated, tightening or releasing a screw. We provide a little screwdriver in the box, for these little adjustments, too.

- The fine stage can be used also as a standard stage or used with non-standard glass slides. In the current, final design it is possible to remove two parts that keep a standard slide in position.

- We provide also a box with glass coverslips, for properly preparing your own experience.

Moreover, we are preparing the instruction booklet and we have almost finished a manual with examples of experiences to share with you.

Thanks for your support and Stay Safe!

The SMO Team

Follow us on Instagram @diplemicro, Facebook @diplemicro, Youtube: https://bit.ly/2TBfhct

Update 4 - April 2020
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 11:46:51 PM

Dear Backers,

Here the fourth, monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE

One month ago I mentioned that we suspended part of the works, due to the Covid-19 related lock-out. Unfortunately, our Country (Italy), has been severely affected, and the lock-down is still active. According to the current available information, we’ll be allowed to re-open on May,4.

This will lead to a delay. We will do our best to keep this delay as short as possible. The last part of development of a hardware product and its rump-up production are not easy steps even in normal conditions. For providing you backers with more details, we mention here some problems that we have faced in these weeks (obviously unexpected during the Kickstarter campiagn): 1. stop of our internal manufacturing of optics, due to lock-down; 2. some of our Italian suppliers of custom-made parts are on lock-down too, or have addressed their efforts toward the manufacturing of parts urgently needed by hospitals; 3.  delays in the shipments of components (not all the couriers are working in Italy, and all of them have delays); 4. we canceled a travel in China for organizing part of the procurements (mentioned in the update of February; at that time it was only postponed), due to the travel limitations and quarantines; 5. we had to dedicate more time for managing urgent aspects directly, or indirectly, related to the health emergency, so limiting our time for the product development.

Nevertheless, there are good news 😊:

- We have ordered molds for injection molding for the mass production of many of the parts

- We have received and tested the pre-production batches of the metallic tiles of the objective lenses (from 2 different suppliers) and of the stages. We’ll order the mass production of these parts in the next few days.

- We have selected all the suppliers for the components of the systems (accessories included)

- We have decided to add a box with cover glasses for microscope (100pcs) within every DIPLE box. During the Kickstarter campaign we though to provide thin, transparent foils, in the place of coverslips; we have noted that their quality is not good enough for microscopy at the magnifying level of DIPLE. It is an important accessory in the use of the system, so we will add this component.

- We are preparing a manual with experiences for exploring the microscopic world using DIPLE and some examples of use. We plan to expand it in the future, also with feedback from DIPLE users who want to take part in it.

In conclusion, we can estimate a delay of about 8-10 weeks, that is approximately the duration of the Italian lock-down (March,8 – May,4), unexpected during the campaign. We plan to send you a survey for collecting your shipping information and for offering possible upgrades of your rewards before the end of May.

Thanks for your support and Stay Safe!

The SMO Team

UPDATE 3 - KEEP WORKING
about 6 years ago – Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 10:41:37 PM

Dear Backers,

Here the third, monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE

It is a tough period because of the new coronavirus, as you know very well too. This fact has slowed down our plans, as well as it has slowed down large part of business worldwide. Our headquarters are in Italy, a Country strongly affected. Nevertheless, we keep working, within the restrictions by the Authorities, for the health of us all.

We have now suspended the production of the lenses, because part of our team is not at work now, due to the overmentioned reasons; we plan to restart the manufacturing of the optics within a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, we have got the first sample of plastic box made by injection molding, as anticipated in the update of January. Moreover, we have found a good manufacturer for a plastic, rigid external side, too; this point was still in doubt in our last update of February, but we confirm now that also the surrounding part of the box will be made of a rigid and long lasting material.

Here below a preliminary sample of the whole container. We are very happy about it; the weakness of the initial box, that for DIPLE is functional part of the system, was a point highlighted from many backers. So, we have followed your tips (thanks also to the good result of the crowdfunding 😊) and we’ll provide a solid box, without any doubt.

In the last period we’ve engineered the Fine Stage and the lighting system of DIPLE LUX. We’ve passed through many different designs. There are (apparently) little differences among the versions, but in a space-constrained system like DIPLE, little changes can make big differences. Some of these mechanical prototypes have been made by SLS printing. Here below we report some few elements (only a little part of the whole) designed and made in the last weeks by rapid manufacturing, for first, fast tests.

During the last few days, we have completed the designs for the next step of manufacturing of the Fine stage: in particular, for the CNC manufacturing of the metallic parts and for the mold of the plastic parts.

The development of DIPLE Lux is proceeding as well. Here below the electronic board and its (open) box, designed to offer a good level of lighting on opaque surfaces, independently on the environmental lighting. The light intensity can be changed using two buttons.

The first pre-production batch of the metallic tiles for the lens objectives has been already ordered to two different suppliers. These parts should arrive within this month.

We’ve received, checked and selected some of the commercial accessories, which are part of the system.

We are trying to manage the work at the best of our abilities, organizing the tasks in tight collaboration with our partners in China, that are greatly supporting us. Nevertheless, both China and Italy have been heavily impacted by the covid-19 virus, and our scheduling has been affected as well. We want to keep the delay as short as possible, as it is one of yours and of our highest interest. We’ll make all the efforts to start shipping with a delay of about one month, with respect to the initially estimate delivery dates.

Thanks for your support!

The DIPLE team

Follow us on Instagram @diplemicro, Facebook @diplemicro, Youtube: https://bit.ly/2TBfhct