Nocturne: a sound machine focused on the essentials

Nocturne production is scheduled!
4 months ago – Mon, Dec 08, 2025 at 01:58:32 PM

We are excited to announce that Nocturne now has a production schedule!

• SMT starts December 10. For those unfamiliar, SMT refers to Surface Mount Technology. It just means that we will be attaching all of the electronic components to circuit boards. 
• Pilot run starts December 29. We will build 20-30 full units as a warm up for full production. The purpose is to validate the manufacturing line (as opposed to prior builds where we were focused on validating the design or functionality of the product).
• Mass production starts January 5. At this point we will build all of the rest of the units in the order. It will take about three weeks. So we expect to have units leaving the factory in China at the end of January.

From the factory, units will (mostly) be put on a boat and shipped to North America. We are still ironing out the details, but expect it will take about two months to get the units across the ocean and through customs on both sides. This would mean that we can start fulfilling orders around the end of March.

Our next update will likely be when production is underway and/or when we have more specifics about the shipping schedule.

As always, thank you for supporting Nocturne! We will be back in touch soon.

Russell

Brief update: reliability, certifications, and material orders (and no schedule changes)
6 months ago – Sat, Oct 18, 2025 at 03:42:18 PM

Hi everyone!

Things are moving along with Nocturne more or less as planned per the prior update, but I wanted to share a few highlights.

• Reliability testing is complete and everything passed. In normal language: we dropped Nocturne on purpose, and put it on a machine that shook it around for an extended period. This gives us some assurance about how sturdy the design and packaging are.
• Nocturne is FCC certified. Because there are wireless signals between the remote and the base unit, we needed to get approved by the FCC. We are currently working through CE certification as well (for Europe).
• We are ordering materials for production. We continue to order Nocturne's components based on their lead times. This way everything is ready for assembly at the factory at the same time (and we don't order anything earlier than necessary, just in case some issue were to pop up). 

As of today, the production schedule is where it was with the last update, which has us delivering to you around March. 

We will continue to provide periodic updates as we go. Some of our next steps include:

• Finalizing our travel case design (an optional add-on you can order on BackerKit)
• Continuing to order materials
• Starting production

Thank you for your continued support! If there is anything else you are interested in hearing about, feel free to reach out any time.

Russell

Pre-production build update; schedule delay
7 months ago – Wed, Sep 03, 2025 at 10:53:27 AM

Nocturne pre-production build update

Summary

Last week we completed our T0 build. We made 30 units to see which aspects of the product need adjustments before moving to mass production.

• The bad news is that our production start will be delayed by about 3 months, partly due to a needed tooling change, and partly due to longer component lead times
• The good news is that the T0 build will undoubtedly lead to us making a better product. Also of all the kinds of delays we could encounter, a delayed component is much preferred to something more fundamental to the product's design

We were hoping to be able to ship in December; now it looks more like March. 

I am very sorry for the delay. I am disappointed too. But I would much prefer to ship a high-quality product late, than a sub-par product on time.

I'll go into more detail on all of the above, and will continue to post updates as things move forward. If you find any important details lacking, let me know and I will get back to you ASAP.

-Russell

The bad news: production is delayed by about 3 months

There are two main reasons for the delay: a tooling change and longer component lead times.

• Tooling
  • The face (top) of the remote is designed to snap into the base (bottom) of the remote.
  • During T0, the top and bottom either did not attach well enough, and/or there was a bulge that led to a gap between the top and bottom.
  • This required a change to the snapping mechanism.
  • Shaving down tools is normal and something we had budgeted time for, but the connector parts required a slightly more elaborate change.

• Component lead times
  • Nocturne is made up of just under 300 components, from tiny resistors to the wood frame.
  • When we last checked with component suppliers in May, we were looking at 6-7 weeks to get everything.
  • Friday (8/29), we received an update, and lead times for a lot of components have increased. Many of those increases are not a problem (like parts that were quoted at 4 weeks before but 6 weeks now, since 6-7 weeks was the expectation anyway).
  • But one component now has a 13 week lead time, meaning we can't start production until 6-7 weeks later than originally planned (from the time we placed the order).
  • We have only had a few days to work on this, but we are pushing the supplier to reduce the lead time. We checked for alternative parts and unfortunately there are no suitable replacements available any sooner. We will see what we can do and keep you posted.

There were a number of other minor issues uncovered during the build, but none of them are expected to impact schedule. Fixing each issue however will make Nocturne a higher-quality product.

The good news: T0 will make Nocturne a better product

In many important ways the T0 build was a success:

• The majority of components are looking great, and the product is functioning well
• The product you are going to receive is all the better having been scrutinized during this build. I traveled to the factory, and was really happy with the factory team's attention to detail on all things quality. This is exactly the kind of partner we want to be working with.
• None of the changes create financial challenges for us (so you don't have to worry about us going bankrupt or anything).

In short, we are on track to deliver a product we are super proud of, just later than we had hoped. 

All that said, I am really sorry for the delay. We can't wait to ship Nocturne, so this is a bummer for us too. We appreciate your understanding; it is really hard to accurately predict how things will play out when building a new product for the first time. Your support is huge for us; thank you again for backing us at the Kickstarter stage!

Next steps

• Risk-buy longer lead time components (i.e., buy them before certifications are complete, even though there is a risk we can't use them). We have already done this for the 13-week IC part.
• Scrub our schedule for any opportunities to pull in or accelerate production.
• Review updated remote tooling in September.
• Reliability testing and certifications (FCC, ROHS, etc.).

Thank you again,

Russell

PS: a few shots from the factory:

note: one of the things we noticed was that the fabric color for the screen is lighter than expected; we are currently looking at other options closer to our earlier prototypes

Manufacturing tooling is made!
9 months ago – Tue, Jul 08, 2025 at 10:58:23 AM

Hi everyone,

Nocturne's production tooling was built on schedule! As of today, shipping is still on track for December.

For those unfamiliar, tooling enables a manufacturer to use standard machines to make high-quality customized parts, quickly. We have tooling (a mold or fixture) for each of Nocturne's unique parts. Those molds and fixtures attach to standard equipment, which makes manufacturing faster and more cost-effective than the processes used to make prototypes.

Each tool is currently under review. We are making a few parts with each tool to make sure things look OK. Most likely, some of them will need minor adjustments. We have planned for this, since adjustments are normal.

Next steps: pre-production build

The next big milestone is our "T0 build." We are going to build 30 units using the intended mass production process. If those look good, we will order all of the components for mass production. As with tooling, it won't be surprising if there are small adjustments we want to make based on T0 results, and we have budgeted some time for that. We will also use some of the T0 units for reliability testing and certifications. 

The specific timing of the T0 build will depend on our tooling review, but we expect it will be complete in August. We are actually starting the electronics assembly this week, since that doesn't depend on tooling, and will give us time to start testing electronics in parallel.

As of today we are still tracking to our original schedule (shipping to you in December). We will continue to post updates as we go, including how things are progressing, and any schedule changes.

We will be back in touch after the T0 build!

Russell

BackerKit surveys coming soon
10 months ago – Mon, Jun 16, 2025 at 12:39:58 PM

Hi backers!

You will soon receive an email with a link to your BackerKit survey, most likely by the end of this week. The survey is required for us to fulfill your order.

We are using a platform called BackerKit to help us manage pledges. You do not need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the survey invite email, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. We also asked a few quick questions about how you plan to use Nocturne. You don’t have access to this survey link yet; this update is more just a heads up that the survey is coming soon so that you don't miss it.

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.

Due to the volatility of shipping and tariff prices globally right now, shipping fees for this project will be calculated at a later date once we have the best estimates for everyone. We plan to enter and charge for shipping a month or two before fulfillment when we have better estimates of what it will cost to ship rewards. We will alert you when shipping costs are finalized and before we charge your cards in your BackerKit survey. We have more information on our general approach on our Kickstarter page, and in the FAQs. We will keep you informed along the way.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at: https://nocturne.backerkit.com.

Finally, if you run into any issues, please contact support at: https://nocturne.backerkit.com/faq.

Best regards,

Russell

PS: I'll be in touch again in a few weeks with an update on factory readiness. The next milestone is the completion of our production tooling. More soon!