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I have been doing network (and all types of) tests with our scale, the one that already has the latest software and almost the latest hardware built in it.
I have to be honest here, this testing makes me really nervous. Every time I step on it and measure myself, I am afraid that something will not work properly. It won't be able to measure my weight or it won't be displayed on our website instantly....
So far we only had issues once. When there was no network, the BodyTrace eScale could not transmit the data (it's normal, just like you can't use your cell phone without coverage). Next time I used it with good coverage it was suppposed to send both measurements but only one was displayed on our site. Of course I could show this issue to the programmers over and over again and the problem is resolved already.
We are getting closer and closer to the manufacturing and I feel the pressure of putting something perfect together. Our expectations are very high, so testing is really a 24/7 work for us. Even though everything seems fine, I am still nervous. The real test is still in front of us.... when thousands of users start to use it.....

This post doesn't have much to do with manufacturing or design but it's a funny story. At least I think so.... :)
I took a little break and went to Las Vegas for 4 days. I didn't gamble, but had a great time anyways, I strongly recommend this trip for everybody.
One afternoon I decided to go and see the Grand Canyon but all the tours were 8-10 hours long and I didn't want to spend my valuable time on a bus. I decided to go on a helicopter ride which was an hour and a half long. Before we were getting on the helicopter they asked me about my weight. Without thinking for a second:

- 76.4 kg or 168.4 lbs.

The guy started laughing, and that made me realize how much testing was involved in creating these scales. Today for example I measured myself about 10-15 times....

I know this picture doesn't look real but I took it myself from the helicopter.

We are in the final stages of the design process. We should have a final plastic design in a few days. I don't think anyone can imagine how much work is involved in something like this. I honestly thought that it's much easier.
We tell them what we want and how we want it, and that is it. That was my idea....
In reality we are talking about 1 mm plastic parts and have a whole conversation about them. Of course it takes valuable time, but we are really focusing on the final product's quality instead of the speed of introducing it to the market.
We are constantly being asked by Family and friends about China, so for me that is the most hated question right now:

Just to give you a few examples of the "issues", here are 3 pictures:Have you ever had a 3-hour conversation about the size of a bathroom scale? We did.

We wanted the side walls to cover the top plastic (here is on the bottom).

We also had a long discussion about the PCB holders. The final method will be similar to this, but it will look totally different. :)

Thank you everybody!

Everything is going well with the plastic design. It really seems like we are on the right track. We have the final design of just about everything. The design process takes about 2 weeks and then we will actually build a prototype to see if everything functions properly. This is our last chance to find out if something won't work properly or just won't look good.
No worries though, we have been testing the scales for over 1 year now. The only major difference between those and the new one is that the test scales are very ugly. I actually have a picture for you, so you can see it with your own eyes. :)