Amazing milestone and congrats to all.
6 Likes
Good for those who got in early. I just cried Uncle and requested a refund, as the continuing delays prevent me from getting my LimeSDR - ordered July 5th 2016. I happened to order the LimeSDR with the Aluminium case and that has turned into a real fiasco. Crowd Supply just announced that these won’t deliver until end of MAY. Last month I was assured end of April… more delays, missed promises - a total nightmare of missteps.
Had I not ordered the Al case, I’d have my SDR by now. But, now that the cases are done, they gave out all the 1st run of SDR’s so now you have to wait for more boards to be made before they can fulfill the orders. This is totally unfair and comes after I was told in an email that this would not be the case - more “missed” promises. I’m being very careful to not say they are lying, but I am having a big problem with the huge lack of integrity to their keeping any promises - esp. when I have no insight into what they are actually up to.
Consider yourself lucky if you are one of those who actually have a working LimeSDR and are pleased with the experience. I find it ironic that this campaign is boasting that it exceeded the $1 million mark, yet has struggled to delivered so little. I feel strung along and duped. I’m now just hoping the refund actually goes through.
Farewell
John
I’m almost ready myself to do the same thing and request a refund. It seems that with so few units shipped at a time and having over $1 million I feel like I won’t get mine until later in the year. When I backed this early in February of this year it mentioned that it would ship by March. March turned to mid April, and now late May. While I wasn’t happy I stuck with the mid April date, but now late May? At this point I’m seriously reconsidering,
My line of thinking too at this moment, I was also assured delivery by mid April and now it’s another delay.
I do feel it unfair that I backed the project in August 2016, and have been subject to copious delays and we always get the layout of the problem after the delay has been increased and when there was claimed the problem was sorted along with the new delay.
May I ask if this would continue as the trend for this project?
That is exceptionally encouraging. Really feel I have bought into something that will change the way I live in a very real way. So glad LimeSDR exists.
I was waiting it initially for November ( or October, I don’t remember).
Then it was delayed, and finally when it was going to ship, the problems with freq. range started and they proposed the HF mod.
They told us that they will modify the RX1_L port, and then finally modifed the RX1_W port. The modified boards should be shipping around this days, as they told us.
What happened to our boards? For what I understand, you already had our boards. When did they went so we have to wait for the next Batch?
I can understand that there are delays because it’s a crowdfounded project, and there are difficuties. But at least, I would like an explanation of why are some decisions made and why things happen, like this delay.
Can we have an explanation, please?
@andrewback
I used almost my savings on LimeSDR, and I’m getting very disapointed 
Hi @DPini,
I’m assuming you’ve seen this update:
Finding a solution to improving HF performance introduced some delay and then getting boards modified for those who requested this introduced another. On top of this there have been issues with part sourcing, which is unfortunate, but a perennial problem for anyone who makes hardware in volume. It’s one thing to make a handful of boards, but very different when you get into making thousands. You can suddenly find that one, sometimes unremarkable part, has a lead time of many months after you’ve exhausted the available stock.
But from what I understand, the boards that we have been waiting for ( the ones that were going to be modified ) were on stock. Is that what I don’t understand.
Very surprising to hear you provide more excuses for the multitude of failures. Any engineer worth their salt knows to ONLY use parts that are guaranteed to be in production throughout the production phase of the product you are building. I can’t believe you are spouting this line of reasoning. The way I see it your team has had WAY too many problems, revealing an immature design team that is out of touch with the marketing job done to promote this project. I was initially drawn in to this (mistakenly) thinking that a close association with Lime, and other big industry names, would make this a slam dunk. Instead, I’ve witnessed a circus of poor communications, unreliable answers, back pedaling on spec’s and a general inability to manage the product to ANY schedule. This fiasco is ONLY allowed to continue in the crowd-funded arena. Few if any commercial companies would shamelessly BRAG about “passing the $1M mark” with such an outrageously poor track record of actually delivering the product - to which many are still waiting and or unsatisfied that it met their expectations.
I can understand your frustration, really, but I think that this comment is far from fair. Parts may be available in quantity at the start of a campaign, but they are not guaranteed to be at the conclusion of one and before which time it would be unwise to place volume orders.
Product has been delivered in volume, continues to be and the backlog will be cleared soon.
Again, I understand your frustration and I believe that your refund is being processed.
I was frustrated and that will all be behind me once I see that refund. But I’m addressing your comments not out of frustration, rather from my professional experience as an Electrical Engineer. With all due respect, I don’t believe my comment to be unfair, rather it speaks to the way engineering it done. I have 25+ years of hardware development experience. It is standard practice to consult your parts suppliers/distributors to know how long the parts you are using will be in production and available. CLEARLY Lime was planning to build more that the initial run - you were (and continue to) take orders. That should have at least prompted a design review with production to ensure that the process was still viable. I’m not trying to be harsh, rather, I am saying that I expected more from all the big names/talent on this project that should have known better and made a quick graceful recovery rather than continuing repeated failures.
Well Andrew, congrats on the $1M mark!
My 2 boards that I bought second round (unmodified) are now in UK Customs and being delivered on Saturday.
I couldn’t be happier, I fully understand that this is a crowd funded product and I fully understood what that meant when I place my order.
It is a shame that so many others have the idea that this is a finished product sitting in a warehouse ready to go, they clearly did not understand what they were buying and have apparently worked themselves into a lather over it.
Shame.
Best they don’t use Crowd Supply or similar then in order to reduce the stress they create in their lives.
I however as I said am very pleased that things are starting to smooth out for you and I look forward to picking up another couple of these in the future for other projects I have in mind.
Congrats and can’t wait to see what you guys and gals come up with next.
2 Likes
+1
Second to that.
Here using one Lime SDR and when my time allows, hope to order the second…
Good work and congrats on $1M mark.
73
Djani
I was clearly aware that there may be delays. And I have been okay with this, until I don’t understand the reason of this delays. If there are not parts from a provider: I can understand.
But what I don’t understand, is why a board that was able to ship disappeared because wanting a hardware mod. I really don’t understand this. When I had to decide if I should take the Lime HF Mod or not, I thought about the risks of doing it by myself, and the approximate date.
I thought: The board sitting on CrowdSupply should be sent to Lime, where they will remove the inductor, send the board back to CrowdSupply on USA, and then it would be shipped. I thought that 6 weeks would be more than sufficient.
Again, what I don’t understand, is what happened with that board.
Maybe by my order number, my board was not yet produced, then there were a communication problem, and I was wrong.
I just want to know about the status, thats it. It’s part of the funny part of CrowdFounding a project. It can have delays, it can have changes, but you feel close to the “maker”.
Thanks, and sorry if you feel shame about my thoughts.
David
I don’t feel any shame at all about you misunderstanding your decisions.
Why, do you?
I don’t think the aluminum case is the long lead item. because I ordered the board alone 6/21 and still do not have my LimeSDR. The delays make we wish I would have picked a more established product.
@e2jw you clearly do not understand the project or crowd funding. It’s quite distinct from old school funding. They first “sell” a product then add that “sold” item to the list of boards to make. It’s not like a consumer targeted product where they can place an order for 500,000 boards and all associated parts. No one will deny you your right to express your disappointment but your decision to post it on this thread is questionable.
And in general to all the posters expressing their disappointment, you’ve waited some months already and all of the sudden when you have to wait a little longer it becomes too long a wait? Doesn’t add up. Money can’t be the issue because you paid already and committed that money to the board.
For others, contact crowdsupply for order info. They are the fulfillment house and every board comes from them and only they know.
Also I don’t think threatening to cancel your order is having any desired effect. I’ve seen plenty of people say that but then they get their board and are actually glad they did.
One last thing crowdsupply ain’t amazon and isn’t targeting amazombies. It’s a different niche and a small operation and really they’re doing pretty good.
I didn’t order extras but I’d be glad that they are insisting on high quality even though it means delays. I’d rather get good stuff that’s late than bad stuff sooner.
I’m sure you sit comfortably well with your LimeSDR and are very happy with your crowd funded experience; however, some others not enjoying such satisfaction. I fully understand how Crowd Supply works - you don’t know me, or what I do or don’t understand. I’ve sponsored other such campaigns, some got funded and produced, some didn’t. You are welcome to question my decision to post, but you seem to do so as if your experience and perspective is the only correct one. It may surprise you to know I paid my money upfront just like you did to join this campaign, but I continue to wait beyond a reasonable time for my delivery (even the folks at CS acknowledge that). I joined last July 2016 and ordered a LimeSDR with Al case. The board that I “should” have gotten was apparently released to someone else who didn’t order a case. The case are now ready, but no boards are left… so, now we wait for another manufacturing run. Maybe this funding model is so “new school” they forgot that people like being treated fairly and in the order of the queuing. I question why we weren’t offered an option to get boards and then follow-up with cases separately for those who don’t mind a little hands-on work. But, nope. I leave you with my best wishes for the Lime project to overcome these challenges and hope that the forum learns to embrace those who are struggling to get a fair deal rather than dismiss them. In the old school business world, successes are made by understanding your customer and making them important. The new schooler’s who ignore such truths are destined to repeat them at their own peril no matter how abstracted they believe their new school model to be.
It is puzzling how this is playing out. Good luck - if you are more patient that me, perhaps you will reach a good end soon. Best of luck.