Robi v3 is in one piece, and it goes camping tomorrow. Three nights in Big Sur, a three-year-old, and a player that has never left this house.
For months the device sat on my desk while the app moved forward. In April I scoped the beta app-first, and that was the wrong call. The problem Robi solves is a kid listening on their own, without a parent’s phone, and an app-only beta would only test the parent’s half. Meanwhile my son had limited access to the device, so it stayed more novelty than routine. The device isn’t just the fun part. It’s the part that solves the problem: it’s real, it’s kid sized, and he can use it without me. So I gave myself a deadline that was also a physical one: something real, in his hands, before this trip.
This morning the parts were all in, and they didn’t fit. So the back got reprinted longer, to close around everything. It looks like I gave it a huge booty. The speakers should snap or screw in, but I forgot to design that, so they’re hot-glued in place. The side buttons for next and previous wait for the custom circuit board.
The printer camera, the morning of June 29, 2026: the longer back.
The shell is matte gray, the boombox from the April design with a reprinted front, and the knob now clamps through the front the way the better players do it. The clean version in CAD has everything seated neatly. The real one is held together with hot glue, and it isn’t screwed shut yet. The front and back are held by friction and the tolerances I drew.
The red box, the blue handheld and the v3 shell, open on the desk, June 22, 2026.
The reprinted front in gray, supports still in, next to its drawing, June 23, 2026.
The v3 front with both speakers in and the knob through its own nut, June 28, 2026.
Tonight it was on the kitchen table when my son came in, picked it up and said, “Oh, nice audio device. Can we bring it?” We took it out on the stroller and to the playground. His little brother toddled over, picked it up by the handle and pressed the red button.
The player also learned to sleep this week. Left paused for half an hour, it turns itself off. It plays a short falling chime when it shuts down and a rising one when it wakes, so you can tell what it’s doing without a screen.
The desk work this month has been spreadsheets more than solder. The price is $149, preliminary. Firm pricing waits on factory quotes, and the quotes wait on the production board. Requests went to eight contract manufacturers across the US, China and Taiwan on June 17th. All eight replied within a day, and all eight need the board files before they can quote, so the real numbers arrive in the fall. Meanwhile a Toniebox 2 is on sale at Target for $120, figurine included. Robi won’t win on price. It can win on being open: a player you own, that plays what you already have. The computer inside stays a Raspberry Pi through launch. A smaller chip was looked at and put away.
The Kickstarter moves to early 2027, not September. That’s frustrating, but there’s enough momentum to keep going. My estimates have been too aggressive, and they still are, and I’m doing nearly all of this alone, between childcare. The extra months buy the beta and the waitlist time. If a Kickstarter does not fund, Robi should still exist: a low-volume path for the shell and a board-only kit for makers are on the plan.
Also done: the old name is out of the code and the site, the privacy policy is published, and the parts for the production board are ordered.
Next: Big Sur. Then the schematic for the real board, which has been open since June 10th and needs to close.