LZX Production Status 2018, Updated September 27th
Category: Unknown · Tags: lzx, production · Posts: 81
#1 — creatorlars · 2018-07-21
September 27th 2018 Update: Over 100 Vidiots were shipped in the last week, and we are continuing to build and ship through until everyone’s orders are out there. If you’re waiting on a Visual Cortex backorders, those are in assembly now as well.
August 22nd 2018 Update: Last Thursday we received our Vidiot assemblies and it’s been a frenzy of activity over here. We have a batch of 96 units we’re shooting to have in the mail before Knobcon, with the remainder of our backorders shipped later in September. Passage and Bridge restocks are nearly complete and we’re endeavoring to tie up all our other production loose ends before Knobcon. Visual Cortex assemblies should be shipping to us soon.
August 8th 2018 Update: It was a bit later than we were told, but we got word that our Vidiot assemblies have shipped today, so next week we should be able to finally resume shipments. We’re anxious and ready to get all backorders fulfilled as soon as they arrive! Passage and Bridge restock runs are getting panels and knobs this week and should all be added to stock soon.
July 27th 2018 Update: In the past week, Passage & Bridge SMT are complete and backorders began shipping, a few Vidiots shipped, funds were wired for Visual Cortex PCB assemblies at our contractor, Andor 1 basic units added to stock, and we got word Vidiot assemblies are shipping to us the first of the upcoming week. We will hopefully receive them the end of next week and then Vidiots will begin flooding out the gates the first and second weeks of August.
Originally Posted July 20th 2018: It’s busy days for us here at the LZX workshop, and we’re scrambling to keep up with production and development spread in many directions. We build niche products in very small batches by most electronics manufacturer’s terms, so when many items are out of stock at once it can bog us down for months. Couple this with our decision to transition into managing our own manufacturing and distribution in house again back in April of this year, and it’s been intense to say the least – and at times impossible to successfully gauge the fulfillment time table. It’s important that you know we haven’t forgotten any orders, and that we are working around the clock to get caught up.
We are a team of three and a quarter full time video freaks, not a large company with different departments or vast resources. We like being a small community focused shop that can focus on the specific needs of our niche customer base, and hope to stay that way. Unfortunately that means being along for the ride with us sometimes when production doesn’t go as smoothly as expected or a vast number of projects are on the table at once (currently, both of these cases are true.)
If you’re getting impatient. Please remember that we’ll gladly substitute anything we currently have in stock for what you ordered if you’d like something different. Since June 1st, we’ve ceased accepting back orders on any products we do not have in the building ready to ship, unless it is a large order from a retailer that would otherwise help push the project into production. This policy is helping us get caught up faster.
This is where we are with production as of July 20th, 2018. Please do not expect day-by-day updates to this thread, we’re too busy building stuff! We’ll try to post these updates monthly, or weekly if there’s a lot of news. This is an attempt to communicate proactively with anyone who is waiting on these items in order to reduce the amount of e-mail we get inquiring about the status of orders.
In Progress
These units are in various stages of assembly in our workshop and are expected to be either shipped to waiting backorder customers or added to our stock on the website in the near future.
- 40x Andor 1 Basic (Black), all parts here just need to package them
- 25x Andor 1 Deluxe (Black & Ivory), same as above
- 20x Doorway, SMT is running next week, second half of a batch from last month
- 40x Staircase, SMT and through hole assembly complete, waiting testing and packaging
- 100x Passage, some units in thru hole assembly, some SMT assemblies still in review
- 100x Bridge, first half of the SMT assemblies ran today, currently being inspected
- 100x Vidiot, these are the units we have left from an assembly batch of 100 that didn’t go as well as we’d have liked as an in house job due to the complexity of the mainboard assembly. Since we aren’t shipping any that don’t meet up to our expectations of quality, we’ve ordered and paid for an additional 200x assemblies from a third party company. While we wait for those, we’re working through the units we built in house and testing/shipping them, it’s just very slow going – even with some extra hired hands over the past few weeks.
Vidiot assemblies in reviewWaiting On Subcontracted Assembly
We have all the parts to finish these items in our workshop, but are waiting on a third party assembly company to finish their work and deliver sub-assemblies.
- 200x Vidiot, expecting mainboard sub-assemblies to arrive in ~2 weeks, then we will mate them with rear assemblies we have waiting in house. This means we expect to have all our Vidiot orders out the door in the first half of August.
Fresh SMT assemblies for Passage and BridgeReady And Waiting These production runs are currently waiting for a spot in the schedule, but are otherwise ready to go in terms of special and long lead time items such as frontpanels and through hole components. We plan to contract SMT assemblies for these units as soon as we can, but may have to space them out in series due to being stretched so thin in terms of production funding right now. Hopefully we can move a good nubmer of these to “in progress” before the end of the month. Listed here in order of production priorities:
- 100-200x Prismatic Ray
- 50-100x Shapechanger
- 50-100x Visual Cortex
- 50-100x Navigator
- 50-100x Curtain
- 50-100x Sensory Translator
Carts loaded with through hole components and Vidiot assembliesPre-Production
Your preorders for Orion series modules have been going directly into components purchasing for Memory Palace, Escher Sketch, Diver and TBC2. We had 2500 sliders and slider caps that came in this week, as well as all our switches and illuminated pushbuttons. It’s been exciting to see all the parts start arriving, and to be putting some time into finishing the project in general. We plan to begin assembly some time in September.
Thank you very much for your continuing support of the work we do here at LZX. You are an essential part of our team and are appreciated by each of us here on a personal level.
Lars
#3 — Maytoast · 2018-07-21
Making anything is so incredibly hard. Kudos for feeding our video lust.
#4 — jjplano · 2018-07-21
already placed my order for a memory palace. thanks for all your hard work!
#5 — destroythings · 2018-07-21
I notice preorder is now closed for shapechnager but really wanna get my hands on one. Whats the best way to ensure i get one from the scheduled production run of 50-100?
#6 — creatorlars · 2018-07-21
@destroythings Just keeping an eye on the sales page and this forum for news is all we can offer right now. We used to take backorders in situations like that, but right now we’re just trying to whittle down the backorders list in general until we’re caught up. We plan to use this subforum (the LZX switchboard) to make announcements on restocks and so on – you should find an option to subscribe to updates, so that you get e-mail notifications when we post here.
#7 — drumasaurusrex · 2018-07-21
Great update! You do amazing things.
#8 — creatorlars · 2018-07-28
#9 — creatorlars · 2018-07-28
#10 — creatorlars · 2018-07-28
#11 — drumasaurusrex · 2018-08-10
Excited for the Vidiot flood. :-]
#12 — northerntao · 2018-08-16
These new modules look great, but I’m still waiting for the Vidiot I ordered from Perfect Circuit back in May. Any update on when those will ship?
#13 — creatorlars · 2018-08-16
@northerntao Yes, if you read the original post it provides a full update. We just received the assemblies in question yesterday and are hard at work on them now.
#15 — 128harps · 2018-08-24
Hey Lars! Is there a rough estimate on when the Shapechanger modules will start entering production, or is it unknown at this stage?
#16 — creatorlars · 2018-08-24
Shapechanger and Prismatic Ray are up next. We have both projects queued up with our CM, and all the frontpanels/other components are here and waiting.
#17 — Bonefish · 2018-08-28
Trying to get a vidiot. I keep seeing mention of backorders, but I don’t see a way to order it here. Are you referring to backorders from other retailers? If I pre-ordered from a place like Perfect Circuit, how realistic is it that I’d get in on this “vidiot flood” before they’re gone? Is there a better way?
#18 — creatorlars · 2018-08-30
We’ll be opening up for new orders shortly. Production on our current batch of 200 units is progressing rapidly, but they’re all already spoken for. We’ll open up orders at the point we’ve purchased components for the followup batch. Perfect Circuit have a large number of units on order with us so if you preorder from them now, your unit would ship ahead of one you would order from us after we open orders back up.
#19 — 128harps · 2018-09-01
Is it possible that we could see a restock in Shapechanger by late September, early October?
#20 — creatorlars · 2018-09-01
Prismatic Ray assemblies have now been paid for, and Shapechanger is up next. We have both projects queued up with our CM, and all the frontpanels/other components are here and waiting. That’s the update for now.
#21 — Bonefish · 2018-09-01
Great! The order is in. Thanks!
#23 — creatorlars · 2018-09-06
All Vidiot backorders are on track to be in the mail before the end of the month. We have 3 guys working full time on it right now, and it’s going great.
Regarding our exchange policy, you’d have to talk to Switched On about that. If you placed the order through us we’d be happy to do that, but in this case Switched On is our customer and the pre-sale arrangement is between you and them. I can confirm they have units on order that will be shipped soon, though!
#25 — creatorlars · 2018-09-06
Don’t be too upset with them, we’ve face planted multiple times this year with the Vidiot supply chain and shipping expectations – so it’s our fault, they’re likely just communicating what we told them. First, our initial production run with a 3rd party company dragged on months longer than was contracted. Then we brought production in house for the second run because we had to completely change our expectations. At that stage we stopped taking orders entirely to give us time to catch up. That second run crashed and burned because we weren’t equipped to handle an in house project as large as this with our in house machines – so we ended up with about 80 units which will probably never work. It took longer still to get a third attempt rolling, with two other companies helping us out – thankfully that effort has been fruitful and we’re cranking through them now. Some other details/context in the OP. Thanks for being along with the ride for us, and we really appreciate your patience.
#27 — creatorlars · 2018-09-06
Yes, we are on track to have all backorders (including Switched On) shipped before the end of September.
#28 — creatorlars · 2018-09-06
More numbers if you want them. We’ve got about 200 backorders going into this production run that started in late August when we received SMT assemblies – 20 have shipped already, and there’s another 120 units built, awaiting final testing, packout, and shipment (which we’ll be working on next week after returning from Knobcon.) Meanwhile the assembly team is continuing to assemble units throughout this week and beyond. Given that Switched On are near the front of the backorder list we’ll hopefully have them in the mail with our next outgoing round of shipments, a week from this Friday.
#30 — dni_br · 2018-09-14
i ordered a shapechanger and a staircase late april, five month ago. Do you know when they ll be ready? thx
#31 — creatorlars · 2018-09-14
Hi guys! All our most current production updates/priority queue are in the OP (module production queue), as well as instructions on what to do if you’re tired of waiting. @dni_br Your Staircase is being held until Shapechanger is ready to ship – it’s the next project up, since we now have Prismatic Ray going. @7pip No, I don’t have an update for you at this time. Check back in a couple weeks if you don’t have your unit in your hands before then.
If you have a question about your order which has not been addressed in this thread or OP, please contact us via the form on the website. The purpose of this thread is to pro-actively communicate about production status to reduce the amount of individual correspondence we have to address, so we can get back to work!
#32 — northerntao · 2018-09-14
They are too busy concentrating on new modules to be concerned with modules that were bought and paid for months ago. I wound request a refund if I were you.
#33 — creatorlars · 2018-09-14
You couldn’t be further from the truth. If you want to come over and see what things look like around here, you’re welcome any time!!
#34 — northerntao · 2018-09-14
It’s not my intention to be a troll, but when you have customers that have been waiting nearly 6 months for an order while you are off promoting new modules at a convention, it comes off wrong. I realize a business needs to keep fresh irons in the fire, and maybe you have enough happy customers to meet your targets, but for those of us who are recent customers and have had to wait months for items we expected within a much shorter time frame, we are not happy.
For the Vidiot I ordered from Perfect Circuit, I don’t have an idea where I am in the queue. Only vague commitments from the vendor, which have stretched from late June to late July to the last week of August. Meanwile they are still taking orders for Vidiots (??!!) and pimping the Orion series on their home page.
When I read comments from customers who have been waiting for other items even longer, I begin to lose faith that the Vidiots will ship by the end of Sept, which you have stated here.
#35 — creatorlars · 2018-09-14
Absolutely, you’re right, we look terrible right now! We had a complete fall out of our supply chain at the most inopportune possible moment this year – while onboarding new customers, who have now had to wait several months longer than expected. Actions speak louder than words, which is why we’re throwing all available resources into resolving it, and have tried to deal with the issue in many ways since. We’d prefer to just stick our noses in the job until we can tell you your order has been shipped. When we’re done, some of you will just be so soured on the experience you won’t be customers ever again. Some of you are going to hate us until you’re holding your Vidiot in your hands, and then realize it’s been worth the wait. And some of you are happy to be on a journey that you know we’re all in together. We understand your position and share your frustration, no matter which camp you’re part of.
The reason I’m replying to this thread so quickly is because I do care, and a prompt reply is the best I can do until I can say “your order is in the mail.” My phone dinged in the middle of QC’ing a batch of Vidiots we are packing into boxes today (some of them may be to Switched On), so I stopped what I am doing to reply. And
after I’m done writing this, I’ll be getting back to it.
Orion series modules have been in development for 2 years; making them happen for the 4th quarter of this year is essential. Different people (engineers who are paid more than assembly technicians) are working on those tasks. Meanwhile we have an assembly team across multiple locations with multiple new hires tackling Vidiot and module restock projects. For me right now almost all of my dayjob time is spent administrating the team and ensuring successful production. In the evenings after I’ve put those hours in, or sometimes in the early morning before others arrive, I do what I can to make progress on the Orion series stuff – and our engineer in Sydney is likewise working on it in the evenings. A new release cycle at this time isn’t a reprioritization of our attention, despite how it may look. It’s an essential strategy for pulling our business out of our loss in supply chain and ensuring that everyone’s orders do get shipped. It’s all hands on deck right here. The only way out is through.
Your concerns are an ethical imperative to me, and I don’t ever mind providing an explanation. I also understand at anyone who’s disappointed or upset with us about the timeline of their order fulfillment. That’s perfectly fair and understandable. What I can’t do is refund your order, because that funding has already purchased components being used for production and given a job to the guy building it – and in the wake of our supply chain dropout, there’s nothing to spare. A refund would only delay us further, which hurts everyone. This is part of why we have a policy of no refunds for products willingly purchased on presale or backorder.
The good news is that being in control of our own supply chain and anticipation over Orion series modules is showing very good things in the numbers, and we expect to rocket permanently out of fulfillment woes sometime in the next quarter. I’m very proud of how efficient our team is operating together right now.
Thanks for reading. Back to work for me.
#36 — northerntao · 2018-09-14
Fair enough, thank you for the quick and detailed reply.
I think part of the frustration for me is that I want to buy some of the Orion modules, the Bell Chamber and Memory Palace in particular, but I’m hesitant to invest more at this point. I’m a relative latecomer to hardware video synthesis, at least beyond pointing a camera back at itself.
I hope that you can get through this backlog as quickly and sanely as possible, and that I can look forward to buying more LZX modules in the future.
#37 — pbalj · 2018-09-14
from what i understand, vidiot has been a pretty popular product. its also a pretty unique product in terms of manufacturing for lzx. its in its own hardware case, with some unique component mounting situations. so it’s taking time to get through for them, as lars mentioned the supply chain fall out. anyway, i imagine that once all these vidiot back orders are taken care of that future module productions should be breezy. of course, you can always wait to see what the supply situation is like for orion before purchasing. ask dealers if they have something in stock before ordering, etc. im saying all of this from the outside of lzx manufacturing, so take that for what you will. im just outside watching this stuff unfold.
#38 — creatorlars · 2018-09-15
@northerntao Your hesitation is perfectly fair, and I’d encourage you to wait until you see that “in stock” notice on the site and purchase with confidence. Most of our presales so far come from people who’ve been happy customers since long before the Vidiot supply chain woes we’ve experienced this year, so they know we can deliver. It is sad that Vidiot’s been so difficult because the R&D team really knocked it out of the park in Q4 2017. We hit every deadline and we had everything signed, sealed, delivered, by early December. We passed it off to the contract manufacturers on what was supposed to be a 6 week max lead time that drug out into 16-20 weeks. In any case, thanks for listening to me ramble. Good news coming soon.
#39 — 128harps · 2018-09-18
That’s not too bad. I ordered my Shapechanger module November of last year (basically a year). Still waiting on mine unfortunately
#40 — creatorlars · 2018-09-18
We currently have about 30 backorders for Shapechanger, and are building 100 in the upcoming batch. This project was queued up with our former CM right behind Vidiot, and has been subject to the same production queue whiplash as the delays in that project. If you’re tired of waiting, there are instructions in the OP about what to do.
#41 — 128harps · 2018-09-18
I’ll continue with my back order on Shapechanger though. Really want one!
Have waited this long, so pulling out when back order restocks are just around the corner would be silly on my part.
Just a little longer wait than I expected when I originally made the purchase … That’s all.
I’ve actually had dreams about checking my emails and getting the Shapechanger shipping confirmation email from you guys lol
#42 — creatorlars · 2018-09-18
Thanks for hanging in there with us. It’s been a much longer wait than we expected as well. The new production batch is a revised version from the Summer 2017 release and we’re very happy with it.
#43 — 128harps · 2018-09-18
No problems at all Lars. You guys are doing great things and I’m really happy to be along for the ride.
In regards to the new upcoming Shapechanger units. Would the revisions be noticeable in the performance or just the way it’s manufactured?
#44 — creatorlars · 2018-09-18
It’s mostly mechanical. The second PCB is lower profile, like the Marble Index assembly. There’s also a revised power entry circuit and we’ve switched to 4-layer boards on everything now. If you’ve got a great power supply in your system already, you won’t notice a big difference – but if your power is suboptimal you’d likely notice a significant improvement with noise floor and bleed. Functionally speaking there are no changes.
#45 — sprthhfk · 2018-09-18
My order status for the vidiot shows that I am #326, and I started at #322. Does this mean I am moving further back in line?
#46 — Vdot · 2018-09-18
I had the same thing happen a few weeks ago…reminded me of a scene in the Simpsons where the clock starts going backwards.
Could we get an idea of what the daily Vidiot output is? Do you have all the parts to build and ship them now? Are you prioritizing distributors or direct orders?
#47 — creatorlars · 2018-09-18
Definitely not moving back in line! In fact, that part of the site (waiting list position) should have been deactivated, we have about 250 shipments to make – not 320. The system calculates waiting list position based on an order tally that takes into account quotations and unsuccessful order attempts. In the case of orders placed where you saw your number scoot up it’s probably because someone paid for an order before you, but we had to confirm the payment manually afterwards.
We have ~250 units to ship, about ~170 of those are backorders that we’re on track to deliver around the end of September, and the other ~80 are new direct customer and dealer orders (since we opened ordering back up) that will ship in October. We can take another 30 orders before we need to close down orders again to reassess and get caught up. On the production side we have ~80 units undergoing final QC and packaging right now and another ~90 with their main assemblies finished out. We had about 2 weeks of incredible output, then the team here had to go do the KnobCon event, and the week after returning our assembly team was on break. Everyone’s back at it full force as of Monday this week.
We’re building these in 100 piece sets, in phases, rather than a daily output. Ask me again about 6 weeks into continual production and I can give you some numbers on daily throughput, but while it’s a big assembly project, it hasn’t been the build times slowing us down, it’s been access to labor and purchasing/funding related to meeting the batch sizes required to meet demand. Those issues are now resolved and we’re plowing through the backlog. The overall milestones we’re making decisions by right now is all the pre-September backorders shipped around the end of this month and any orders placed this month shipped by mid/late October.
Everything’s being shipped exactly in the order payment was received, whether dealer order or direct customer order. We’re not sure of a more fair way to do it.
#48 — creatorlars · 2018-09-18
These are (some of) the units waiting packout and shipping.
#49 — resincum · 2018-09-18
I’ve been vigilantly looking out for a box from LZX for the past month or so even though I haven’t received a tracking number
hope I’m in the next batch!! longest I’ve waited for gear, but I’m so sure it’ll be worth it 
thanks for the updates!
#50 — Jonos · 2018-09-18
I ordered my Vidiot in Feburay - it’s been a painful wait to say the least! However I’m not hear to add fuel to the fire, just to say I appreciate the honesty in the posts above - and fingers crossed I’ll have my Vidiot soon!
#52 — creatorlars · 2018-09-19
@7pip Let me break it down for you:
- Up through February, we were expecting new orders to ship in March or April. We were well past sales of our first production batch at this point, which was still in progress with our CM, and had already completed purchasing for all of the consigned components for the second production batch, which we assumed would be handled the same as the first and begin right afterwards, sometime in late February or March.
- Completion of the first production batch drug out past February, March and well into April. By this time we’re sweating a bit, because we were already heavily invested in components purchased for the second production batch, but orders were coming in faster than the CM was making progress. At this point we were in a pickle, because we’d committed to a second run of 300 units and spent all our funding on components; but without a manufacturing solution that was going to have them built fast enough. We decided to undertake some assembly in house while our CM was finishing up the first batch.
- Most of May was spent just trying to set up new machines and processes; most of which has stuck with us and is a huge help to us now (new inventory system, website, erp, etc.) as we prepared to take distribution and manufacturing management back in house. Bringing the timing of everything under our control seemed like the only way to pull through and get everything shipped, but with any new process comes a lot of lag time. At this time we thought we were only weeks away from getting caught back up finally. We were just going to power through it, as elbow grease was the only good option.
- In June our first production attempts crash and burn and we’re only able to get 1 out of 5 units through QC, and lack the endless hours of inspection and rework required to push them all through fast enough. Around this time we stopped taking orders for Vidiot entirely, since we were going to be dealing with yet another delay. We got another contract manufacturer involved for SMT assembly, someone who’s fabricated our PCBs for us in the past. We placed the order and wired funds for complete assemblies, meanwhile organized parts and tried to squeeze a few more units through here. We had to tell all of you it would be not just a few more days, but a few more weeks, before we were shipping (and this was the second time we’d had to backtrack on expectations, for anyone who had ordered in Feb/March.)
- In late August (3 weeks ago) the assemblies arrived for the second production cycle and we immediately got to work with a new team that was ready and waiting. Everything’s passing QC beautifully and we’re handing more and more parts of the process over to the builder team each day. We have all the parts to build 300 in this second production run, and any orders placed now are part of that run. We’ll close orders when we sell out of what we’ve already allocated to build (we’re pretty close now) and open orders again once all the purchasing of components is done for the third production cycle.
When it concerns pre-orders placed through dealers, we’re shipping the dealer’s order based on the date they ordered and paid for it, the same as we do direct customers. I’m not sure what date Switched On’s order was exactly placed, but it’s not worth worrying over at this point since everything will be in the mail soon.
I know it may seem like LZX should be doing much better, with such a successful product. The truth is, despite how expensive our products may appear from a synth gear consumer perspective, our margins are lower than most others in our synthesizer industry – even for a small module, the upfront cost of a production cycle can be daunting. So when timing and fulfillment in our supply chain go awry, it really screws us up, and we have to double time it until we’re caught up. We may consider refactoring the pricing on some of our products at the end of the year, but only if we have to. We’d prefer to run a tight ship and get more of our work into others hands than raise pricing.
Thankfully the juggling act is much easier after having pushed through the Summer and with a new production era in full swing around here.
#54 — peloazul · 2018-09-19
Just chiming in to say that I appreciate the candor, and the insight into running a boutique electronics business.
Also, 7 vidiot orders shipped last night! \o/
#55 — Jesse · 2018-09-20
Man, I remember waiting a year plus for LZX modules I’d ordered back in the olden days.
The important things to understand: Lars & the LZX family are SUPER dedicated to this shit. There’s so much completely out of their control that it’s amazing they pull this off so cleanly and in such a big way. Ya just have to be patient, approach the game as a lifelong hobby not a shiny new toy to get this second and forget about in 3 months.
Like I get that y’all have/had expectations but it’s through no fault of Lars/LZX that they haven’t been fulfilled. If they could have foreseen any of the myriad obstacles best believe they’d have kept your expectations in-line with reality.
Just the way it is with small batch boutique electronics.
LZX DELIVERS
/amen
#56 — Jesse · 2018-09-21
Also, you’re a VALUABLE member of the team. Your dough, and patience is what allows the badass wizards of LZX to bring all these amazing ideas to fruition.
So when you get bummed on timelines… get super psyched instead because you’re part of making magic happen. You’re gonna love your new gear and so will we the community. We’re all in this together.
Everyone should just send LZX all of their money. 3rd mortgage your houses, work 80hrs of overtime, sell your grandma’s pearl necklace so we can get banging digital video delays and more TVFKG’S to play with. Forget about deadlines, just paypal LZX all the money in your damn bank account right now so they can realize you some amazing gear you didn’t even know you needed.
-LZXFANBOY1
#57 — creatorlars · 2018-09-21
Hahaaha, @Jesse gives the best testimonials.
I wouldn’t say we’re blame free when it comes to fulfillment issues on Vidiot, after all we’re the responsible party here. That said, we certainly haven’t been negligent and we certainly haven’t been lazy when it comes to navigating our supply chain woes this year, and we’ve certainly learned a lot and made a lot of proactive changes in response. The big one is that to make this all work and prevent delays in the future we need to be managing the flow of materials and projects in and out of our queue as an in house process rather than putting everything production and distribution related in the hands of a single external contract company.
Another thing that we’ve learned is consumer expectations have changed, especially dipping our toes outside the modular world. When we first started selling modules in 2011, the industry was a fraction the size it is now. It was a natural offshoot of Synth DIY traditions. Waiting 6-12 weeks or longer for an order to be built and shipped was a natural expectation when dealing with a manufacturer directly – it was more like commissioning a specialty instrument than a retail purchase where you expect next day shipping. We need to adapt around our current customer base’s expectations and find ways to do that.
Full house in the LZX basement today, very proud of everyone who’s been helping us get caught up, they are a bunch of badasses.
#59 — creatorlars · 2018-09-28
Switched On’s units were shipped.
#60 — Bonefish · 2018-10-02
How about the Perfect Circuit orders?
#61 — creatorlars · 2018-10-02
Perfect Circuit’s order has not yet been shipped.
#62 — drumasaurusrex · 2018-10-02
creatorlars wrote:
In fact, that part of the site (waiting list position) should have been deactivated, we have about 250 shipments to make – not 320. The system calculates waiting list position based on an order tally that takes into account quotations and unsuccessful order attempts.
So, is the waiting list position # listed on an LZX sales order correct?
#63 — creatorlars · 2018-10-02
Should be now. I cleared out all the old quotations last week, so there shouldn’t be any erroneous tallying going on at this point.
#64 — creatorlars · 2018-10-02
Going into September we had about 200 backorders (from before closing down orders in late May) and the first half of those have been shipped now. Your order was entered May 3rd and that would have been shortly before closing the orders, so your current list spot of #84 seems correct to me.
#65 — drumasaurusrex · 2018-10-02
Great! Thanks, Lars!
#66 — sean · 2018-10-02
creatorlars wrote:
Perfect Circuit’s order has not yet been shipped.
Good to know! (Was starting to worry a little again when I hadn’t heard from them yet.) Thanks!
#67 — northerntao · 2018-10-03
On the bright side, the Sensory Translator and Bridge I ordered from Perfect Circuit shipped today after ordering it last night, so when the Vidiot finally arrives, I’ll be ready to integrate it with less fuss.
#68 — creatorlars · 2018-10-04
Edit to my previous reply: I found several more old dealer quotes that needed to be cleared out of the system. So you may see your waiting list # drop from somewhere between 1-60 spots just now, depending on how recently you ordered.
#70 — creatorlars · 2018-10-04
@7pip Hey there! Full thread on that issue here:
Thanks, I’ve closed it back up and spent all evening jamming with it. The footage available online don’t do it justice, there’s so much in there! You can close my ticket.>
We’re posting some photos of how to fix it yourself this morning.
#71 — Jonos · 2018-10-06
Hey Lars, it’s great to see that Vidiots are flying out the warehouse - any ETA on my order and when orders will be open again?
#72 — creatorlars · 2018-10-06
The next 100 units are mostly done, we’re waiting on more PCB assemblies to arrive (China had a holiday last week, so they’re shipping a little later than expected.) We probably won’t open orders again until next year.
#73 — 128harps · 2018-10-09
Hey Lars, just noticed my Shapechanger back order position move from #7 to #6. Is this an update from the old schedule from a few months back to the new schedule?
#74 — creatorlars · 2018-10-09
Hey Jonus, I recently cleared a bunch of old pending quotes out of the system (as explained above), so there must have been one Shapechanger in there that was quoted (and adding to the tally) but never paid for, hence the change in the waiting list slot.
#75 — 128harps · 2018-10-10
Awesome! Thank you for the update on that.
In regards to the Shapechanger modules. Have they reached production at this stage or is it still in pending status? No problems if it is. Mainly just curious, that’s all.
#76 — creatorlars · 2018-10-10
We’ll let you know when it ships Jonus!
#78 — 128harps · 2018-10-10
No problems at all. Thanks Lars!
#79 — MoireMotion · 2018-10-17
Hey guys, the speed that vidiots are being shipped seems to have slowed right down this week and last. Any updates?
Sincerely, #64
#80 — creatorlars · 2018-10-17
The PCB assemblies that are holding us up (referenced above) shipped on Sunday finally – they were held up due to the Chinese holiday earlier this month. So should be moving right along again before the end of the week.
#81 — Agawell · 2018-10-19
@creatorlars any update on visual cortexes??? Looks like some are finding their way out (to schneidersladen for example)
#82 — creatorlars · 2018-10-19
Yes, that’s the update! We’re shipping Cortex. All units from this batch are sold out, but we still have a few left to ship.
#83 — Agawell · 2018-10-19
fingers crossed mine is in there!!!
(ordered mid august from MidiAmsterdam)
#84 — creatorlars · 2018-10-19
I’ll check in on that today.
#85 — Agawell · 2018-10-19
brilliant, thanks Lars!!!
#86 — northerntao · 2018-10-19
Well, I must be really glutton for punishment, because I ordered a Memory Palace, even though the Vidiot (via Perfect Circuit) is still in assembly hell. I’m either a complete vidiot (sorry, couldn’t resist), or I’m going to have a kick ass system shortly.
I tried to order a couple RGB mini snakes to my order, but I get a server error. Is there anything special about those cables, or are they basically mono 1/8 cables of the Eurorack variety in convenient colors?
#87 — luix · 2018-10-20
they are standard mono minijack cables… they are just really nice for modules that you need to patch 3 channels like
staircase -> color chords -> cortex
on the other hand the RCA cables from LZX kick ass because they are right angled and good for skiff cases if you need it
#88 — Agawell · 2018-10-22
Hi Lars did you manage to check this???
#89 — creatorlars · 2018-10-22
Yes I did, but I am not seeing a Visual Cortex on order with Midi Amsterdam. I’m sorting it out with them today, don’t worry: we’ll make sure you get your Cortex.
#90 — Agawell · 2018-10-22
thanks for the feedback Lars… that’s good news!!! hope you have a great day Jim
#91 — creatorlars · 2018-10-22
I’m going to close this thread in anticipation of a larger recap/production update towards the end of the month. If you have specific questions about your order which you don’t feel are adequately answered by this thread, please e-mail sales@lzxindustries.net.