A lot has happened since we were in the US so here we are with a short summary about how things are currently going with the Yaw2 project.
Production update
We expect to start the production of the standard edition soon. We made the decision to start with the standard version because that's basically ready, only a few more little refinements are needed. With the pro and arcade models there is still work to do and we find it beneficial to kick in production and deliveries with the basic version and in the meantime continue the development of the other two. As soon as the Pro and Arcade simulators are ready for production, we will switch to the manufacturing of those.
The preparation for production has already begun and we have also started making the equipment and templates that are necessary for manufacturing. Production processes were optimized, new tools were tested, and the accuracy of welding has been improved for some components and a couple of parts were replaced with 3D-printed ones.
We have been making smaller changes on the device to make manufacturing, assembly and setup as simple as possible. All of these help to reduce potential problems and faster production will lead to more devices manufactured per month.
Progress with prototypes so far
In the past couple of weeks, we've been testing the latest V5 and V6.1 prototypes, running their 168-hour continuous roller coaster simulation test while the V6.2 prototype is under assemblage. Some minor issues have come up but luckily most of them are fairly easy to fix and we are still working on some improvements. If all goes well, that will conclude the development of the Standard edition Yaw2.
We have worked on making the process of future troubleshooting seamless. We optimized the frequency of telemetry data savings which tells if the simulator was working properly or not. The new telemetry logger (if it’s switched on) saves data up to 4 gigabytes to the SD card so you can upload this data to our server with a few clicks then our support team will be able to help.
Motion compensation is also a big question and kind of a big deal to be able to enjoy the game that you're playing. That's also a territory that we're continuously perfecting. We always recommend to the Yaw1 owners to use our own game engine because that's the easiest way to get motion compensation working properly.
Final color options
One of the stretch goals was color options. During the campaign we showed some visual plans on how we imagined each color variation and based on that you could select the design for your Yaw2.
We have tried a couple of variations, finishes, paints, which elements to leave just black and which ones to color, etc. With these tryings some problems have come up so far and unfortunately, we were not able to find a solution for them. We had to make the decision not to offer the all-white option and the colored ones with white bottom parts. The reason for that is that the paint is thicker in case of the white coating and even a few mm difference matters.
The current color choices available for standard and arcade/pro editions are listed here.
G-platform
It is still under development but we can confirm that it will be a separate unit, therefore everyone will have the chance to get it later no matter what you ordered so far. Once the G-platform becomes available, we'll share more about it and add it to our webshop.
Many of you also asked about its future price but at this moment we are not able to provide that information. The cost of materials, parts and manufacturing is still unknown for us, because this unit is still under development.
Assembly instructions
We will enclose a detailed instruction to every shipped device. It includes photos of the parts and tools and a step-by-step description on how to set up the new Yaw2 simulator. Even a video tutorial is in the making that will be available on our YouTube channel and on our website. We want to make it easy-to-understand and generally user-friendly. No professional knowledge will be required, anyone will be able to setup the device.
Yaw2 prototypes available for trying
We did leave some devices in the US and some of them will be available for you to try if you happened to be in the area. One will be in Tampa, Florida and another on the West coast for sure. More details are coming, but we wanted to share that in fact there will be opportunity for you to try Yaw2 before your simulators are delivered.
For more technical details and developments visit our Kickstarter page for weekly updates.