New Tool

Good chance people recognize the tool in the screenshot. We’re shifting our planning out of a custom Google Sheets document and into Jira. Why the change? Easier to access, easier to work with, and most importantly, it’s a tool we both use for work at this point so we know it pretty well.

Last Meeting

This past meeting we tweaked our original list of goals for v2.0 and decided on priorities. We also decided that meeting weekly for this stretch of Thursday night is working well and we’ll continue for the foreseeable future. We may change to a less frequent cadence once planning is complete, but until we get everything planned we will continue at the weekly pace.

Next Meeting

Much like the last two, we’re going to continue planning this week. Now that we have overall goals, we need to setup the stories that define them and the bite size pieces we’re going to use to eat the elephant. Planning continues, same bat time same bat channel. Thursday night 9:30 – 10:30 Eastern (6:30 – 7:30 Pacific) on our Discord server (leave a comment if you would like to join us). If you don’t currently have access and would like it, please either reach out to one of us directly or post a comment and we will send you an invite.

Thanks again for all of your continued support! #ExerfyYourGames

The post Planning a way forward – Setting Priorities appeared first on Model B.

Planning is done, so it is time to get PY19 started.  Our iterations are going to be shorter than normal during the Alpha Test (hence the 4 week cadence on the burn down chart).  Look for more, smaller tasks geared toward running the test and becoming even more active on social media.

Backlog – See Kanban 1.1 tab for current sprint plan and Backlog tab for full backlog.

Reports

J.

Did

• n/a

Will Do

• Get required social media account set up
• Publish first Alpha Test Guest Blog Post
• Communicate with Alpha Testers about starting up the official Alpha Test (play testing and social media)
• Schedule new stand ups on Holoseat Calendar

Blocks?

• none

Bryan

Did

• n/a

Will Do

• Work with J on required social media account
• Post first FB prompt to Alpha Testers
• Business research

Blocks?

• none

The post PY19 Kanban 1.1 Stand Up 0 appeared first on Model B.

While 2017 was a huge success, I was completely surprised by the specifics of how we accomplished our goals.  As a quick recap, here are our goals for 2017.

1. Finalize the hardware design needed to address the key feedback from demos at SyndCon 2016.
2. Run a private beta test program for Holoseat to vet the design before releasing version 1.0.

So, what happened?  We started the year with some less than great technical and business assumptions.  On the technical front, we were convinced we needed to upgrade out of the Adafruit Feather to a full on system-on-a-chip controller board.  And on the business side, we allowed ourselves to be caught up in the siren’s song of crowd source campaigns too soon.  Sadly, these assumptions took us down rabbit holes most of the year.  Fortunately we caught ourselves in time for a great SyndCon 2017.

Finalizing the Hardware Design

We started 2017 chasing down two seemingly unrelated design issues:  profile management and Holoseat’s sensitivity to pedaling activity.  Profile management covers things like trigger cadence (how fast an individual has to pedal to trigger walking).  And Holoseat’s sensitivity to pedaling actions impacts how long it takes Holoseat to recognize changes in pedaling.  Bryan and I focused the first half of 2017 on addressing profile management.  This effort took the form of redesigning Holoseat around a brand new family of development boards:  the CHIP/CHIP Pro.   Moving to the CHIP boards involved redesigning basically everything about Holoseat and led to an enormous amount of scope creep.  I could write pages retrospecting how exactly we got to that point, but that’s another blog post.

We were still testing the fundamental technologies we needed for a CHIP based Holoseat with only 8 weeks to go until SyndCon.  To say we were off plan is an understatement.   Things turned around when Bryan took charge of designing a custom tone ring to use with a new sensor.  Within four weeks we had a working prototype for these sensor upgrades, versus the four months we spent working on the move to CHIP.  More importantly, the new design’s improved sensitivity yielded unexpected benefits.  Namely, Holoseat was now responsive enough to calculate trigger cadence in real time.

We quickly realized this “adaptive cadence” capability meant we could drop profile management and go back (again) to our original Feather based design.  After conducting additional testing we also concluded we had arrived at our minimum viable product (SyndCon prototype shown above).  And what became of all of the effort we put into researching the CHIP boards? A large chunk of that work went into mastering Python in IoT applications. It didn’t take us long to realize the bulk of that work could be re-purposed into the development of a brand new, and feature complete, desktop configuration app. Further, thanks to Python’s portability, the same app will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. And should we need to revisit a CHIP based Holoseat, it will work there, too.

Setting Up Our Testing Program

Great Read for OSHW Start Ups

One of the things we have to keep in mind is Holoseat is more than just a technical project. It is also a business and an investment of our time and money. This means we divide our effort between technical and business matters. For example, 2017 included research into preparing for and running crowd source campaigns. One of our conclusions from this research was we were not ready to run a crowd source campaign in 2017. We simply did not have a large enough online following to form the foundation of a successful campaign.

What we did have was a supportive core of fans asking us when they could get their own Holoseats. The value of this core group of supporters became apparent to us after reading Building a Hardware Business.  The authors discuss different growth strategies including building on a small core of passionate users.  This strategy resonated with us and we decided it was time to organize our core fans into a testing community.

So, we put together our Alpha Test Program and offered 5 slots at SyndCon. We came home with 8 deposits for Alpha units. One fan even tried to give us his money during our annual Holoseat presentation! #winning  Having 8 high quality testers is going to be significantly better for us in the long run.  Now the race is on to complete v1 Alpha so our testers can get their hands, er feet, on Holoseat.

Stay tuned for Part 3 where we lay out the 2018 plan and cover how we are doing so far.

The post There and Back Again: An OSHW Project’s Tale – Part 2 appeared first on Model B.

Alpha Prototype Progress

First, we’ve got our prototyping done for most of our design changes.  And, we have some nice pictures so you can see for yourself how we are coming along.

The article picture shows our updated prototype setup on a breadboard using the new TRRS cable to connect the controller to the sensor and the new Cherry MX key switch for enabling Holoseat.  Using a network jack (look in the upper right corner) we connected it to the existing setup from one of our SyndCon demo units and I used it for a few hours.  Worked just as smooth as our assembled units, so we know these changes didn’t mess with a good thing.

Speaking of the key switch, did we happen to mention that we’re doing a custom keycap with the holoseat h?  Here’s what it looks like lit up on our couple of test key switches we were trying out:

That covers the main electronics review.  But what about the little bit of magic that pushed our accuracy up to the point where everything smoothed out?  The tone ring has gotten a bit of a makeover too.  We have split it into two pieces.

Tone ring parts, fresh off the 3D printer

Assembled tone ring

Why’d we split it?  We wanted  to have a cover over the magnets so they couldn’t come out.  It wasn’t an issue during the demos, but we felt that was a poor choice to have them pressure fitted like they were long term.  These are straight 3D prints from the drawings, so they’re still a little rough looking.  But you can get an idea for how the final tone ring will work.

Next Steps & Getting Involved in the Alpha

So that covers our progress so far.  But it still leaves quite a bit left to do.  And the majority of the remaining work is less about hardware development and more about getting ready to take on testers, getting our redesigned desktop software into shape, and sorting out a few things on the business side.

Moving forward what we need from those of you who follow this blog is some help.  Here’s a few spots where can make a difference for Holoseat:

• Do you have some ideas for questions we should be asking our Alpha testing users during the test program?  Post them here <link to google form for submitting questions>.
• Enjoy 3D modeling?  We could use your help porting our mechanical designs from Solidworks to  Autodesk Fusion 360.  Our volunteer mCAD modeler prefers Solidworks, but it is not an open platform, so we need to move our mCAD models.  If this sounds like something you would like to help out with, please fill out the volunteer form indicating you want to help with mCAD <form link>.
• Do you have a knack for python and enjoy development? Consider volunteering to help with the desktop application.  Again, the volunteer link is here.
• In the DC or Blacksburg, VA area and want to help with final assembly and shipping?  We’ll take volunteers for that too!  I’m guessing you know where this is going.

TL;DR

We’re behind (no Holoseats for Christmas), but we’re moving forward at a good pace.   We would rather be a couple of months late with a Holoseat you will love than ship something substandard on schedule.

Looking at the novel I’ve just written, it’s time to get back to work.

The post Alpha Status Update appeared first on Model B.

This past February we posted about our progress during 2016 and our plans for 2017. In that post we identified two key goals for 2017, to be completed by SyndCon in August. Those goals were:

1. Finalize the hardware design needed to address the key feedback from demos at SyndCon 2016.
2. Run a private beta test program for Holoseat to vet the design before releasing version 1.0.

So how did we do? We got back from SyndCon a few weeks ago and I am happy to report it was a complete success. But I must admit, the way we achieved that success and the Holoseat we took to SyndCon were quite different than what I envisioned when we wrote that post back in February. To understand why it is best we take a look at each goal one at a time.

Goal 1 – Finalize Hardware Design

Two pieces of feedback drove the hardware design work called for in the first goal. The first piece of feedback was an unanticipated need to tweak Holoseat’s settings every time we changed players or games. One setting in particular, trigger cadence – the pedaling speed required for Holoseat to recognize a player is walking, took half of the demo time to dial in during most demos. Our intended solution was to migrate from an Arduino controller board to a significantly more powerful one, the CHIP Pro.  This change would enable on board management of player specific profiles. These profiles would capture each individual player’s settings per game enabling players to switch out Holoseat settings as easily as they switched between games.

The second piece of feedback driving Goal 1 was a desire for faster response times from Holoseat.  Take a look at the video below to see the v0.3 response times for yourself.

While not captured in the February blog post, we had a line of research lined up to address this request.   But, we prioritized this research lower than incorporating the new controller board. The irony of this decision will become apparent in Part 2 of this series of blog posts.

Goal 2 – Run the Beta Test

How would you fund the development and manufacturing of a beta design for a new hardware project? If your answer is “KickStarter!” you are very close to where we were in our thinking last February.

Sadly, running a successful crowd source campaign takes more time, and a greater social media presence, than we had in 2017. Thankfully we came to this realization (through careful research) before we got too far into the year. At the time we thought we were completely blocked on this goal.  So, we spent most of 2017 assuming we would have to wait at least a year before we could engage outside players as testers.

But in agile projects like Holoseat, being blocked does not mean things are hopeless. Blocks are meant to be resolved and once they are you can get back to working on implementing your plan. Sometimes the trick to resolving blocks is to recognize how a completely different solution, one that is not blocked, can achieve the stated goals.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we share what actually happened in 2017 and Part 3 where we lay out the 2018 plan, which has us coming full circle in our quest to find the right controller board for Holoseat.

The post There and Back Again: An OSHW Project’s Tale – Part 1 appeared first on Model B.

The Big Picture

Sprint 1 of 2017 is off and running.  Each sprint builds upon the work of the last to move Holoseat closer to our annual goals.  For 2017, the goals are to finalize the v0.4 hardware and to set up Holoseat’s beta testing (see the last blog post for more details about the 2017 goals).  Our previous sprint was Sprint 6 of 2016.  Leading up to Sprint 6 we had some scheduling setbacks.  We decided to work on a more focused set of objectives for Sprint 6, with the goal of completing all unfinished documentation for v0.3 in order to have a strong foundation for the development of v0.4.  Our yard stick for completing our documentation was submitting v0.3 for certification as Open Source Hardware (OSHW).

How We Did Last Sprint

So, how did we do?  I am happy to report we completed all Product Backlog Items (PBIs) for Sprint 6.  In even better news, the Sprint 6 work also resulted in v0.3 receiving its certification as OSHW.  Not only does the work publicly demonstrate our commitment to open source hardware, it also taught us invaluable lessons about the state of the project.  We learned what features are ready to go (e.g our cadence calculation algorithm).  We also identified the features which need some tweaking (like the logic voltage bug with our sensors).  Finally, we discovered which features need significant development for v0.4 (the most critical of which is the controller hardware).

Fix for Logic Voltage Bug – SparkFun Logic Level Converter (CHIP Pro for Scale)

And what lessons did we learn during Sprint 6?  One of the major lessons was that we got a little lucky.  Life finally settled down for both of us after the insanity that was Sprint 5, which was a significant part of why we were able to complete all of our PBIs.  But, we also recognize we planned well and that going forward, solid planning would be key to successful sprints.  That is why we took our time in developing the road map for 2017 and preparing the Sprint 1 plan.

What We Are Doing This Sprint

Speaking of 2017’s first sprint, let’s take a look at what is on the plan.  Sprint 1 started on Feb 22 and runs through April 19.  The sprint covers administrative items necessary to keep Model B running, development items to address the highest priority questions about v0.4, and planning items for the beta testing crowd source campaign.  That sounds like a lot, but we measured twice before committing to the sprint plan and we feel confident this list is just the right size.  You can see the full list of PBIs on our Sprint 1 plan (click the Sprint 1 tab) and our complete backlog (click the Backlog tab) in our 2017 planning document.

As always, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to keep up on all things Holoseat.  And you can follow the week to week details of this, and future sprints, on the Holoseat project News page (Atom feed).

The post 2017 Sprint 1 Kick Off – Finalizing v0.4 Hardware appeared first on Model B.