Hey, Dustin here from MakeMHz with another update.
First and foremost, I want to address the lack of blog posts. As a very small company, my daily job is divided between engineering tasks, fabrication, testing, packing, shipping, social media, and support. With very little time between everything, the focus for updates has inadvertently shifted to Discord. This was a mistake on our part, and we will be shifting our focus, of being fully transparent, back to making weekly updates on the site.
Since our last blog, we’ve taken all of the community feedback received and implemented the following changes.
- Dedicated support ticket system via support@makemhz.com
- Add a help button to the site.
- Add a contact page to the site.
Fabrication Status
We wrapped up the fabrication of the boards on November 16th. Even after losing power for a few days due to a tropical storm, we’re happy to say that all of the XboxHDMI boards are completed.
This will allow us to focus our attention on testing, shipping, and ultimately increase the number of orders shipped every week. We’ve manufactured an extra 500 boards to keep stock and cover for any possible RMAs.
Shipping Status
Currently, we’re caught up to around order #1600, with exceptions to DHL and 1.6 orders. Our last shipment was on Friday with a USPS pickup, and we expect those packages to be scanned in this week.
This week, due to Thanksgiving and catching up on other tasks, we plan to ship an additional 100 orders with the following week, increasing to 200 orders a week. We understand that this is a lot lower than previously stated, but after the last few weeks, this number is more realistic as we try to dial back the 16-hour workdays.
Moving forward any changes to the schedule will be posted on the blog.
1.6 XboxHDMI Kit Status
Orders including an XboxHDMI 1.6 kit or a replacement 1.6 flex have been held back from shipping. This was initially due to wanting to perform more testing and ultimately resulted in finding some graphical issues.
Currently, we do not have an expedited date to when the issues will be resolved, but it looks to be at least four weeks out before we can start the investigation process.
As we work with members of the community to solve this issue, we ask that customers bear with us as we take the appropriate time to re-evaluate and thoroughly test a working solution.
We’re asking everyone who has made an order including a 1.6 kit or replacement flex to chose one of the following options and to let us know via our support email, support@makemhz.com.
- Hold order until the issue is resolved. (Existing shipping label will be canceled)
- Replace 1.6 items with 1.0-1.5 items
- Refund 1.6 items
If we do not hear back from you after two weeks, we will automatically cancel any shipping labels attached to your order. And after four weeks of no response, we will automatically refund your order.
Installation Manual Released
We’re happy to announce that the installation manual has now been made publicly available.
https://makemhz.com/xboxhdmi-install
Please feel to reach if you have any questions or concerns with the installation process!
XboxHDMI Config App Source Code Released
We’re also happy to announce that the source code for the XboxHDMI config homebrew app has been made open source under the GPLv2 license.
https://github.com/MakeMHz/xbox-hdmi-app
Xbox GPU Encoder Schematics Released
As another piece of our commitment to opensource and sharing information, we’re releasing our internal schematics for the Xbox GPU encoder section.
https://github.com/MakeMHz/xbox-hdmi/tree/master/research/schematics
Future Commitments
Over the next week, we will be implementing the following changes based on community feedback.
- Clearly listing our business and support hours on the website and in all of our emails.
- Bringing more transparency to current shipping times.
- Working on improving our ticketing system.
- Improving the installation manual.
- Resolve orders with inadequate/incorrect shipping addresses.
- Improve the default wording on Shopify’s ‘Shipping Notification’ emails.
Final Thoughts
Words can not begin to describe how thankful we are for the community support. As a manufacturing small business currently being run out of a two-car garage, our gratitude can not be expressed as to how fortunate we feel every day to be able to bring a product from concept to market, build a community, and to be able to do all of this in the USA.
We ask our customers and the community to work with us as we wrap up some of the first milestones for the XboxHDMI and just the beginning of MakeMHz. We understand the frustration of delayed orders, and at the end of the day, we will do everything we can to make it right. Our goal is to provide quality products and services.
FAQ
Q: Why did I receive an email saying my order has shipped, but the tracking number still says ‘pre-shipping’?
A: Orders are processed in batches of 250 orders at a time. This allows us to print the labels and invoices using a single roll of labels. In addition, this allows us to catch any orders that may have an incorrect address and fails to generate a shipping label.
Q: You said that my order was shipped on Friday, but it’s Monday, and there’s still no movement.
A: Due to COVID, USPS budget cuts, holiday season, a large number of packages, etc. please allow up to a week after the shipping schedule for the package to be scanned in. In the case of a lost package, please contact support@makemhz.com to resolve the issue.
Q: Are orders processed first in, first out order?
A: Yes, and no, if an order is international, has a payment-gateway hold, or has some other issue then that order will be handled separately. Orders to countries with difficult custom requirements, or that have COVID restrictions, may also take additional time.
Q: Where are you in the order queue?
A: We’ve processed and shipped orders up to #1600, excluding 1.6 orders and some DHL orders.
Q: What are your business hours? (When should I expect a response from a support email)
A: Our business hours are 8 AM to 5 PM EST Monday through Friday, with respect to US holidays.