The estimated shipping date for successful Kickstarters can often prove to be a bit ambitious, but backers of the Oscilloscope Watch project are finally being rewarded for their patience – almost 10 years after the campaign ended.
Most folks who choose to support crowdfunding campaigns are well aware that it's not like ordering from an established online retailer and taking delivery a short while after. There are many risks involved, for project backers and project creators alike.
Yet when production delays happen, frustration and disappointment can often bubble over into rage – particularly when communication seems sporadic.
Way back in September 2013, Gabriel Anzziani of electronics webstore Gabotronics launched his third Kickstarter with an idea to combine a modern wristwatch with an oscilloscope, waveform generator, logic analyzer, protocol sniffer and frequency counter. A timepiece for the electronics geek.
The campaign proved successful, attracting some 620 backers and nearly US$70,000 in funding. The estimated global shipping date was given as April/May 2014. Beta testers did get early access, but development delays crept in and backer frustrations were soon voiced.
While working on the circuit himself, Anzziani sought the help of a contractor for the overall watch design, but by 2018 had returned to solo development. "I was working with a contractor, a mechanical engineer," Anzziani told us. "He kept on adding pieces and complicating the design, which in turn, would make the design bulkier, expensive and difficult to manufacture. I decided to abandon his design, instead, I designed the watch enclosure for 3D printing."
In early 2020, a few backers reported receiving their Oscilloscope Watches and the project flame was reignited in the Kickstarter community. But shipments were limited. "I’ve been sending out rewards at a lower pace since a year or two, but recently I’ve been able to send them quicker," revealed Anzziani.
"Life has gotten better and I’ve been able to invest some time and money into this project again," he continued. "I had already ran out of money in the first year since the project was funded, 70k was not nearly enough to fund the development of a watch. Many portions of the design were just too complicated or expensive.
"In the last 10 years, the design has seen some improvements. The physical switch to change between AC and DC was replaced by a solid state relay. The enclosure looks better and the watch is easier to assemble. And the firmware has seen a lot of improvements." The latest hardware schematics can be viewed here.
The project creator reckons that all 620 backers will have received an Oscilloscope Watch by the end of this year, after which the device will be added to the Gabotronics webstore.
The wearable sports a 1.28-inch LCD panel with backlighting, the 3D-printed casing in slim or standard options is home to eight function buttons for navigating menus and selecting modes, setting up the watch functionality and the alarm feature, as well as operating the oscilloscope mode. There are analog and digital inputs for the oscilloscope and logic analyzer mode, plus USB connectivity. And the battery is reckoned good for more than a year of use in watch mode, or about 9 hours when using it as an oscilloscope.
Development continues, with firmware updates and a full user manual in the pipe. You can find more information via the link below.
Product page: Oscilloscope Watch
