An Open-Source replica of the legendary device for all. Build your own or reserve your hand-crafted masterpiece today.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Milestone achieved!
almost 2 years ago
– Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 06:35:20 PM
Great news!
We are very proud to ship (on schedule), before the end of April, our assembled/tested Upfront Open Antikythera's (with or without wood sides) to all* who backed us at this tier level. If you backed us for an Upfront, Backerkit should have sent you a Tracking number by now.
Assembled UpFront Open Antikytheras leaving GA tomorrow.
I say "all*", because we still have a few folks who have not answered their survey, which results in us not having their address. - William (Lotus), we can't ship your unit until we have your address, Thank You.
There is no break for us, James has already been focusing on tweaking the Open Antikythera FullMonty design by modifying a few gears, axles and the middle plate. We may slip a bit on shipping of FullMonty kits and assembled units (June looks very near), but believe us, our goal is to provide you with the best product we can...
Thank you to our wonderful Kickstarter community for your patience!
James & Marc
P.S. We have not yet isolated exactly how we will implement the 2 spiral tracking needles in the back of the FullMonty, but first, we need to focus on creating production units with minimal friction all around...
Quick Update
almost 2 years ago
– Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 03:19:50 PM
Hello patient backers,
This is just a quick update to let all o y'alls know that we just finished shipping all UpFront Kits.
We have already started assembling the UpFronts and should be shipping them soon.
Project Update
almost 2 years ago
– Sun, Apr 07, 2024 at 02:59:38 PM
Oops!
Just as we thought we were done designing and producing our various Open Antikythera UpFront parts (including all brass axles) and filming the production prototype unboxing and assembly, we realized we have a gear that is 1mm short.
Well, you would think "no big deal", right? - Let's redo and replace this gear.
Not so fast: It quickly escalates into 9 different parts (laser, 3d printed, and milled), redesigned (including a laser cut acrylic midplate and one brass axle needing redone longer) or newly created, like our new anti-wobbling moon double gear stabilizer.
All that to say,
A) we are sorry it delays shipping of the Open Antikythera UpFront kits, but
B) we are so happy we caught this before shipping our kits.
No worries, James has already redesigned and/or created the new pieces and we plan to ship the kits in April.
Have a quick peek at the unboxing experience we have created for you:
As part of this process, we also created an alternative assembly video playlist available on our YouTube channel.
Marc & James
February Progress report
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 02:49:15 PM
We are proud to announce that we are getting very close to the shipping of our Open Antikythera UpFront Kits and we appreciate the patience of our wonderful Kickstarter community. Once UpFront Kits are shipped, we will then focus on assembling and shipping Assembled/Tested units (with and without wood sides).
The milling of the numerous Brass axles, rods and dowels is taking considerable time, but we are starting to see the light at the end of this tunnel with over 400 pieces milled, out of the 500 required for UpFront kits and assembled/tested units.
80% of Brass Axels, Rods and Dowels done for UpFronts
Most of the other components have already been fabricated from the various raw materials. Yep, our two industrial laser cutters have been very busy!
We are now planning the packaging. With so many components of different shapes, and shipping across the world, we want to make sure your kit arrives in good condition and no piece is missing.
We are currently locking down all the addresses of the UpFront kit backers as we prepare to ship in the next few weeks. If you backed us up at the UpFront kit level AND moved since the Kickstarter ended, please update your address in Backerkit ASAP.
Please note: We are still missing the address of 7 backers total as they did not fill their survey yet. If this is you, please fill your survey at your earliest convenience.
Thank You,
- James & Marc
January Update
about 2 years ago
– Fri, Jan 26, 2024 at 08:08:01 PM
We are so grateful to have such an engaged and active audience, & we are so excited to get the Open Antikythera in your hands! In the interest of keeping you guys informed, we’re right on schedule, having already shipped every single order in the "Keychain" and “Poster” reward level. We are currently in the process of laser cutting the over 3,200 custom gears and milling the 2,400 Brass Axles and Rods for the kits and production units! We’re confident that the “UpFront Kit” reward level will be fully shipped by March, and that we’ll be able to keep our anticipated timeline.
Some Laser cut gears and all 3D printed components
As some of you know, this is our 3rd (very successful) Kickstarter, so we feel we have learned some important lessons from the other 2 and we applied what we learned and continue to learn as we go forward.
We can't wait (but we will) to finish fulfillment on this Kickstarter before we start working on our solid Brass unit. Even though, none was ordered during Kickstarter, from the overwhelming feedback we received, it is obvious to us that there is a need for a commercial full Brass, fully functioning, low friction Open Antikythera.
