As mentioned in update #15, from October to November, we’ve been focusing on the production start-up and mass production management of ZimaBoard, covering works like patch production, assembly, and product quality control. From December to January, our focus is on mass production and delivery.

In this update, we’ll cover the following topics:

• Completed ZimaBoard’s first small batch SMT, testing, and final assembly. Shipping will follow in January
• CasaOS App Store is online. Install more Docker applications with one click
• Follow-up plan

Completed ZimaBoard’s first small batch SMT, testing, and final assembly. Shipping will follow in January

We’ve optimized the quality of the die-casting heat sink. Materials are coming into the factory in succession.

We found a color difference in the final screen printing process on the die-casting heat sink earlier this month. Compromise is not an option, so we revisioned the screen printing quality once again, for the last time. At the same time, we began to schedule the die-cast covering, packaging, protective plates, and other related materials for the first batch production to be sent to the factory. All the above materials arrived at the factory before December 14.

Completed first batch production of ZimaBoard, and comprehensive quality control is in progress

When choosing the material of the PCB, we decided on the matt black board and then matched it with the procedure of the whole surface mounting to make sure that the quality and appearance met our satisfaction.

Before the formal mass production, we decided to produce a small batch of ZimaBoard first and check the quality control with the manufacturer. We have set up a problem filtering mechanism to confirm that the problems are solved within the phase through staged quality inspections. To maintain control quality standards at every level, we’ve built the following necessary steps:

• IQC-Incoming quality control. Material source verification and warehousing arrangements.
• PCBA-PCB assembly. This part contains SMT, DIP, and other process quality inspections.
• Testing-quality control. This part mainly includes connectivity, interface, and specific test operations.
• Final assembly-upper heatsink and lower plate + packaging + machine inspection. This part mainly contains system burn-in, aging tests, and specific test operations.

We aim to maintain more test item lists in each phase. Unfortunately, we can only coordinate the factory remotely for guidance instead of on-site supervising due to epidemic and policy reasons. This process makes our production time longer than we estimated.

Luckily, the team has been working hard to overcome related problems. We have now begun the aging test, which is the final phase. We believe that the aging test is the basic standard for quality control, so we decided to prolong the duration of the aging test to 8 hours to test the reliability of ZimaBoard further. 

These tests also revealed some problems. We found an 8% product defect rate. But don’t worry; this is a common outcome of NPI. Our purpose for the first batch of NPI is to expose as many problems as possible and solve them to ensure that ZimaBoard runs steadily during your later usage. It is worth mentioning that increasing batches and decreasing defect rates accompany all hardware products. The team conducts active “debugging” and problem tracking for the exposed issues without affecting the overall mass production schedule.

In terms of mass production, as the first batch of 2500 pieces of ZimaBoard, the current materials, Die-casting heat sink, and product packaging have all arrived at the factory before December 26. The related operation process and production schedule arrangement have been completed with the factory in recent days. The burn-in test is nearing completion, and we plan to start mass production of 216/432 as a priority shortly.

Pre-installed CasaOS (Based on Debian 11)

The team put two weeks into defining the prefab system for ZimaBoard.

It should be compatible with mainstream ZimaBoard peripherals. Although it is a product for developers and geeks, we still hope to deliver a complete product experience out of the box.

• The pre-configured CasaOS settings allow you to get started and configure the diversified applications of the home cloud in 3 steps.
• The self-discovery function through mdns and wsdd allows you to automatically discover ZimaBoard’s Samba file sharing under macOS and Windows, access your network, and one-click synchronization via CasaOS. 

CasaOS App Store is online. Install more Docker applications with one click

We have received many fantastic feedback and suggestions in the past development period, and discussions in Discord are also very lively. The version of CasaOS has now been upgraded from 0.1.x to 0.2.x. The user interface, system settings, multi-language support, widgets, synchronization, and other functions and experiences have been continuously revisioned.

CasaOS Github Repo has received 2.6k Star and was first placed on the trending list in November. 

So much gratitude for your love and support!

The following is a summary of the development progress of CasaOS during this period.

Updated search engine, multi-language support, CasaOS Sync, widgets, and other functions

• Search engine, multi-language support, WebUI port setting update

You can now choose from search engines and switch between multiple languages and WebUI ports.

• CasaOS Sync based on Syncthing

Follow the instructions and complete high-speed file synchronization on multiple computers and mobile phones within three steps via CasaOS Sync.

• Widgets functional update

Expand CPU&RAM widget to view application details and quickly get detailed device resource consumption information.

Big thanks to @dbtech @mastoras @mx10.ac2n @Walkx @sebseb @ASVPxSheebz @carnby77 @fjctp, and everyone else who gave us feedback and suggestions in Discord. We appreciate your participation!

CasaOS App Store is released, bringing a one-click installation experience to more Docker Apps

Let’s check out the design first?

Many people shared their love & recognition on the previous one-click installation of Featured Apps. We further designed the AppStore to bring more Docker Apps available with just one click. Featured Apps are retained simultaneously, and you can check out detailed application information.

Everyone is welcome to give it a try!

Follow-up Plan

As mentioned before, we will begin shipping from the beginning of January. All logistics information and shipping lists will be finalized after returning on New Year’s Day. In parallel, mass production will also be carried on. We will import these data and materials into 3PL in an orderly manner to settle logistics-related matters.

CasaOS will continue to maintain the current iterative rhythm, and we welcome everyone to participate in the discussion in the Discord server. We will soon organize some group surveys. If you are interested, feel free to join!

Finally, we wish you all a happy new year! See you in 2022!