It’s October and the ski season is approaching fast!
That means crunch time for us. We are working hard to ensure that we have adequate inventory for the season and that we can launch the Loop System in time for backers to get the most out of it!
The summer has seen a lot of progress for the remote and receiver for the Loop System.
As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, the whole system is designed to be backwards compatible with any PL1 we’ve ever shipped. The receiver simply plugs into the receptacle usually used by the thumb throttle and then you can easily pair that to a remote by holding the pairing button for a few seconds.
PL1 with Powder Plate, Remote and Transceiver Prototypes
The remote design has two main inputs from the user: a hall sensor based throttle, and a deadman switch. Including a deadman switch prevents the unit from running if the throttle is somehow jammed, is pressed accidentally during a fall, or gets mishandled in heavy mitts. We tested a few different options for the throttle input and ultimately landed on a chunky trigger style throttle, as it was the easiest form for us to operate using heavy gloves.The remote also includes a small display that currently shows the connection status, the throttle level, and the remote battery life.
Loop System Remote and Transceiver Prototypes
The remote also includes an accelerometer. This is used as an additional input for a couple functions: A series of consecutive flips starts the calibration mode for the hall sensors, and a couple minute period with no movement but constant output can cause the remote to shut down. The latter function is intended to prevent transmission in the event that it is buried during an avalanche. The signals from the remote operate at a different frequency band and shouldn’t be a big source of interference for beacons normally, but it's important to minimize electronic noise and interference as much as possible during a search.
There is still plenty of work ahead of us before the system is production ready.
We are happy with the general form of the product, but it needs a bit more refinement for manufacturing and long term reliability. We are continuing to iterate on the firmware and working to ensure that we are getting as much range and reliability as possible from our hardware.
Most importantly we need to properly run the new components through their paces in the snow. Not having enough time to test the complete system in a variety of conditions is the most likely issue that would postpone our launch.
The loop system still hasn’t been properly tested in deep snow, and we know from our testing so far that that could require some additional hardware. Our main concern with deep snow is how to avoid the PL1 getting driven into the snow and how to ensure the low tension rope exiting the PL1 doesn’t get pushed back into the pulleys.
The Powder Plate prototytpe is strapped to the PL1 using ordinary ski straps
In firmer snow this is easily resolved with lower stretch rope and by digging a small exit channel for your rope. For softer snow we have designed a wide platform for the PL1 to sit on we’re calling a powder plate. This will still need some preparation of the surface the PL1 sits on, but should help reduce the time and effort needed to set up.
International orders just got easier!
We’re happy to announce that our online store can now more easily accept international orders, including to Europe. VAT, duties and shipping can now be calculated at checkout, and all international shipments are shipped DDP (Duty Paid).
We will be posting more regularly now that the snow is beginning to fall in the mountains. Please stay tuned as we get closer to launching the Loop System Kickstarter campaign, and thanks for following along with our progress!
Let it snow,
Zoa Engineering Team