Stephen

Tues, Mar 24, 2015
New stock loaded on the store... get 'em while they're hot!

Saturday, Mar 7, 2015
OK, 11 headlights and 11 taillights sold since Wednesday, and all of those orders have been shipped now. I have 9 more headlights and 10 more taillights that are waiting to be listed on the store. I'll try to have at least the additional headlights uploaded by Monday evening.

Friday, Mar 6, 2015
Whew! Iced in for two days, but finally thawing out today. Thanks for the great response on the lights! Two days later and the first 10 headlights are sold along with 9 taillights. I should be getting most of these orders in the mail today! UPDATE... got most of them in the mail today. There are a few more that will ship tomorrow.

Wednesday, Mar 4, 2015
Missed my projected time by a few hours, but I've uploaded 19 taillights and 11 headlights to the store tonight. Hopefully more in day or two as I finish up final test and inspection. Was out a bit later than I thought tonight getting to see a pretty special movie, "The Drop Box."

Monday, Mar 2, 2015
OK, got to talk to Scott today, and he's got 20 taillights finished. Out of the 11 that I finished, I'll be pulling 2 out for a couple of international orders. I also have a couple of separate taillights (already spoken for) with custom Lupine connectors that should be finished up in the next day. That leaves 29 taillights completed and available for purchase. We also have 20 headlights that "should" be ready by tomorrow. So if all goes as planned, I'll upload these new units on the store on:

Wednesday, March 4 at 8 PM Central Time.

Click HERE to go straight to the store.


Feb 24, 2015
Stock Status and Snow Days
Looks like I should be able to finish up the 11 taillights that I'm working on, here in the next day or two. Since there are quite a few folks who are looking to pick one up, I'll plan on making another blog post here with the exact date and time that I'll be adding them to the available store inventory. So if you're watching this blog, you should have no problem getting one (I hope). If you miss this batch, don't worry, we've got roughly 160 more taillight housings ready to build up, and will be adding them steadily to the store as they are completed. We're supposed to get some good snow on Wednesday, which may translate into more light-building time (after the snow-ball fights with the kids have calmed down of course )


Feb 23, 2015
If you blinked, you missed it. OK, I just finished up 6 headlights, trying to clear out the backlog, and 5 of them have been shipped. I've got one more on the books that needs to be shipped, but after that, we'll just be building up new stock, to be added to the store. I also have 11 taillights in process + 2 custom versions (with Lupine power connectors) that will be finished this week. Look for the 11 to go up on the store sometime this week. Hopefully Scott will have a batch of headlights for me soon, to be followed by more taillights. Once the remaining 25 headlights are gone, that will be it for the headlights for this year.


******
A big thanks to everyone who's taken the leap and added a DesignShine light to your list of safety equipment so far with the new online store! Over the last 3 months we've sold almost 120 lights, and if you look at the available stock right now on the store, you can see that we're down to zero again. Since this is only a part time operation for me (and still running in the red), I've been trying to break it into manageable chunks. While I've been selling the first group of 120 lights, Robert over at TsgEngineering has been busy cutting new housings, and I'm happy to report that due to the unexpected popularity of the headlight, we've made another 31 headlight housings. In total, I have another 170 taillight housings and 31 headlight housings, anodized and prepared for assembly!

I'm currently preparing all the necessary part bins to deliver to Scott for assembly, as well as pre-checking all of the power cables and re-flashing the controller boards with the improved switch "de-bouncing" code, which was necessary with the new silicon switch cover (all of the build #4 lights are incorporating the improved code). The limiting factor for the upcoming riding season will be circuit boards. I had 400 total built last year, which means that we now have 280 left. If we keep up the existing sales rate of 40 per month, then it looks like we might be able to make it through Sept 2015. BUT, it's very hard to say how sales may go with the new store in place as riding season approaches. I'm getting more and more organic sales (non-referrals), so it really is uncertain how long the current inventory will last. There are a lot of factors that I have to consider over the next 5 to 6 months to determine when or IF I should bite off another large order of circuit boards to try and keep DesignShine running beyond the remaining batch of 280.

In any case, I hope to have the new headlights in assembly by the 16th and ready for sale before the end of the month. As soon as new lights are ready for sale, I'll add them to the available stock on the on-line store, but I'll also try to post updates here as well.
Cheers!