I love these update posts, for seeing the progress. Have fun sorting those screws. 
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Production Dr Zaber Sentry - Console-sized gaming PC case project
- Thread starter ZombiPL
- Start date
We are thinking about Amazon, but we didn't decide if we will go that way. First of all we have to send all Sentry cases to our backers from indiegogo campaign. Then we will wait a little bit for a feedback from them. If everything will be ok, we will decide if we will go into full retail with external retailers or if we will be sending Sentry directly from us. I hope we will know everything before end of June.
Same here
We can't wait when we will finally be able to send it to you Shipping will start probably within next 2 weeks, but it will depend when we will get unpainted cases from our subcontractor and how long it will take to paint them white in our 2nd paint shop.
7th week of Sentry manufacturing process
Do you remember when in our last update we said that last week was "one of the most busy weeks so far"? We didn't really know what was waiting for us
This time we were sorting those ~98 000 screws we told you about, and we almost finished it. We also received other elements for Sentry accessory boxes, which we also inserted in separate protection bags. What is more at the end of the week we received first transport of black Sentry bodies! We willl be unpacking them and controlling their quality as we proceed with final product completion in following weeks.Like we mentioned, this was still an "accessory box week" with sorting some stuff:
- all types of M3 screws
- plastic feet for horizontal mounting and plastic covers for holes unused in vertical position
We also received some of the last elements of the puzzle:
- first transport of printed carton boxes
- PCI slot covers
- Sentry simplified quick start manual and warranty card (last time we received only samples)
After Easter holidays we will check first part of black Sentry bodies and start packing them into the boxes, while we will still be waiting for the unpainted Sentrys, to send them to the paint shop. If everything goes well, within next 2 weeks we will start shipping packages according to the plan we gave you during the campaign.
8th week of Sentry manufacturing process
Before we move to our usual information about the progress we made this week in production of your Sentry case, we have one request:
Please go to your indiegogo payment section and check if you wrote your phone number in your address field. To do that, log in to your indiegogo account, press your name in the top right corner and go to "My Contributions" panel. We found out that some of our backers didn't write it and because of that we won't be able to gave this information to our transport company, which may cause delays in delivering the package.
Here is an example of filling this field:
"Address: Street, house number, city, postal code, PHONE NUMBER".
You have a chance to write/change this information, until we will start shipping process!!! Thank you.
Ok. Now let's back to our standard procedure
Last time we mentioned we received first transport of body parts of black Sentry cases. Now we moved the transport containers from dark warehouse to our office for the quality control and it was easier to take a photo of what is waiting for us in the following week:
We spent last 7 days mostly finishing accessory boxes for the first 150 Sentry cases. Here is the result:
This week we want to finish assembling process of first black Sentry cases and start sending them to you. It means despite many external delays it looks like we are still proceding according to the original production plan:
What is more, yesterday we received first transport of unpainted elements for white Sentry units, so after our quality control we will send them to our paint shop. We hope we will get them back before our steel parts manufacturer will send us another transport of black cases (Thursday or Friday).
At the end we want to remind you again about filling in your phone number in your shipping address. This is really important!
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I don't remember If I wrote my phone number during checkout or not , anyway ... if I go to "My Contributions --> View order details --> Edit shipping address" there is no Phone Number field !
Should I write it in "Address Line 2" for example ?
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So, what do I do if I can't find the campaign listed in my contributions?
I probably filled out the phone number box (assuming there was a specific box for that), but How do I double check?
I probably filled out the phone number box (assuming there was a specific box for that), but How do I double check?
I don't remember If I wrote my phone number during checkout or not , anyway ... if I go to "My Contributions --> View order details --> Edit shipping address" there is no Phone Number field !
Should I write it in "Address Line 2" for example ?
Few hours ago we made a quick update on indiegogo campaign page where we are explaining how to add your phone number. It doesn't matter if you add it to Address or Address Line 2 field. Just type a comma and write your number. We will be checking those data when we will be filling shippment information, so if there will be some problems with your phone number, we will let you know.
Log in to indiegogo, press your name in the top right corner and pick My Contributions. At the bottom of the new page you should see your Sentry contribution. You should be able to press it and then there should be an option to edit payment details and shipping address. We had one situation when someone couldn't find anything in My contributions page, but it turns out he ordered a case and then resigned. Please double check it.
9th week of Sentry manufacturing process
This is a late weekend update but this is the one everyone was waiting for: shipping process begun!!!
As many of you probably noticed, for the last few days we were locking shipping address change option in your indiegogo accounts. This action was taken for the orders from 1 to 300 with black Sentry cases. You will receive email with tracking number when it will be active, after polish "long weekend". In this moment we have to tell you some good and bad news.
Good news is we filled most of the shipping forms for those first 150 black Sentry orders and we are waiting for shipping companies to pick them from us. We have also started preparations for next transport of cases in the following weeks.
The bad news is we have a "long weekend" in Poland (29.04-3.05, or even to 7.05 for some companies). We mentioned it before and we thought it could be a problem. Many manufacturers simply don't work in this time and we have problems with many things. One of the issues is painting white Sentry cases. This week we sent unpainted steel elements for the another 150 orders to our external paintshop.
We still didn't receive them back. What is more, because of this long weekend we predict we won't receive them before the end of next week. Even in case we will be able to pick them on next Thursday or Friday, it still means we won't have enough time to check them and pack them for the next transport this week. What we want to say is that, even if we kept our promise and we started shipping process in April, we predict there will be a delay with sending packages, mostly because of the long waiting time for white cases being painted by our external paint shop. This is an issue we discussed many times in our forums, and this is also a reason why we see white Sentry cases as limited edition. We apologise for this situation and we hope there will be a possibility to compensate this delay within next weeks.
Ok. Now is the time to explain why we had this small delay with this update. On Thursday and on Friday we had online meetings with ladies who were teaching us how to use shipping and customs services software. It takes a lot of time to fill your shipping details and this is why we didn't have time to make this update earlier.
Here are some bonus photos:
Looks like you guys are making great progress and keeping with your deadlines, really a model of how others can break into the sff game. I didn't pull the trigger during the campaign, but am anxiously awaiting retail availability.
I wonder how well my Sapphire Nitro RX 460 would perform in a case like this, sadly they didn't make a blower-style RX 460, but I wonder how well this open-air 460 compares to a blower 470 for thermals in this case.
10th week of Sentry manufacturing process
Just like we predicted, this week wasn't as productive as it could be, mostly because of the "long weekend" in Poland. We couldn't contact with our subcontractors, shipping companies or even customs services, but first things first:
Last week we started shipping process of first 150 orders with black cases. We divided the transport into 2 parts: transport inside and outside EU. Worldwide shipping was registered as "Posted" yesterday. Today we have found out that our transport company may not sent you tracking data for your packages, so just in case we sent you those numbers. Now is the time for EU shipment, which is a tricky part.
In EU we have planned faster and cheaper courier shipping than what we have from national post. We are processing those shipments through a single intermediary company that is giving us a batch order discount. We started the shipping process of this 2nd part of packages and yesterday it turned out it was stopped as a batch. The reason is quite simple: in this transport there were 6 people who didn't give us their phone numbers. It shouldn't be a problem, but... we are ordering a transport with insurance. In that case most courier companies require direct phone contact with the recipient of the package. We sent messages to those 6 people with missing phone numbers and when we will get them we will also get new tracking numbers for all of those packages. That is the main reason why some people from first black Sentry cases transport didn't receive their tracking numbers via email. We hope we will solve this problem on Monday. If not, on Tuesday we will send this transport without those 6 packages.
Next subject: white cases. On Friday we contacted our 2nd paint shop to ask if the metal parts are painted. Unfortunately this is one of the companies whose long weekend ends after this Sunday, so they will start painting first 150 white units on Monday. We have no influence on that
On Friday we received 2nd transport of black Sentry body parts.
Finally, we were asked to show some photos from last week how we prepared your packages. Here you are:
We also have some bonus photos from yesterday. We didn't want to waste time on waiting and we started the production of stands for 2nd transport of Sentry cases:
Hello, is possible to have a list of vga 1080 ti compatible? I would put inside an EVGA FTW3 1080ti otherwise no problem, i choose another vga.
I would want put my hands on this wonderful case, when is it possible for retail? I stay in Italy.
Thanks a lot.
I would want put my hands on this wonderful case, when is it possible for retail? I stay in Italy.
Thanks a lot.
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11th week of Sentry manufacturing process
As you know, because of external factors last weeks weren't good for us in terms of making progress with the production. Because of that, this week we tried to speed up some things. This is what we achieved:
- First transport of Sentry cases, which were sent to countries outside EU, left polish customs zone. We had to fill all the documents 4 times, because your packages are being transported to different countries by different ways of transport and are being checked in 3 different customs services offices (at least this time). Luckily everything ended ok and most of the packages from this part of orders are on their way to you.
- For the last few days we are getting information from our backers (mostly from EU) who already received their Sentry cases. Some of them are posting photos with their builds in our forums topics. We won't reveal you their results. Just go and check them by yourselves
(links to our topics as usual are at the end of this update).- We prepared accessory boxes for the next transport of cases.
- We finally received first transport of body parts for white Sentry units:
- We locked editing of shipping address information for first 150 white Sentry orders and we are filling transport forms for those backers.
- Without wasting more time we started assembling those cases and before this weekend we were in the middle of this process.
- What is more, this week we received another part of unpainted Sentry body elements and immediately we sent them to our 2nd paint shop. Maybe this time we will receive them faster.
After this weekend we will finish assembling process of first transport of white Sentry cases. We will pack and send them to you. Hopefully this time without any surprises.
No. There are no recomended 1080ti cards. There are some limits for such small pc cases and if you wish to use 200W+ GPUs, you have to know what you are doing.
At this moment it is hard to tell, but originally we planned to start retail in September. Maybe we will be able to start it earlier. We have to wait to the end of indiegogo shipping process.
Wow those white cases look awesome. Might look into painting mine after it arrives...
