I am very happy to announce that the Mecha Comet will be released as open hardware under the CERN-OHL-S-2.0 license. Building the Comet (and Mecha) started as a passion project but has become a life project now, standing on the shoulders of thousands of folks that have contributed to the open-source that drives the Comet today. Opening up is our way of giving back or paying forward as they say. We are excited on where this leads the Comet to!

We will be releasing all design files across PCB, components and mechanicals (everything we can) once we start mass production, and the full schematics for the DVT will be published on the Kickstarter launch as a step in this direction.

I hope to work with OSHWA in the coming months and eventually get Mecha Comet certified 🎖️.

Progress Updates

As we step into 2026, I’ve been reflecting on the incredible journey we’ve taken together—from the early concepts to the physical hardware sitting on my desk today. Building a hardware startup is never a straight line; it is a series of problem-solving sprints, and this past month has been one of our most intense yet. While we are closer than ever to putting the Mecha Comet in your hands, we’ve had to navigate some sudden, existential challenges in the global supply chain while making some pivotal decisions about the future openness of our platform.

We believe in radical transparency with our community, so I want to walk you through exactly where we stand regarding our production timeline, the hurdles we’ve just cleared, and some very exciting news about the philosophy driving the Comet forward.

Here is the latest from the front lines.

Navigating the Memory Crisis

As a young company about to start production for its first product - we have been dealt the worst possible hand in the memory crisis. Early December, we reached out to our primary memory supplier, they quoted us an 800% increase in the part costs for 4GB and 8GB LPDDR4 memories with an increased lead time of 40 weeks compared to 16 weeks in the past - putting us in an existential danger. Now the price increase is one factor, but the bigger challenge is getting their factories to allocate for your order. In our case, neither do we have the money to buy upfront or have enough business with them to get credit on the payment terms. Most of my time this month (and Ushan) has been spent in negotiations with memory makers to ensure we are able to source the memories for the units you pre-order and we deliver on the committed timelines. Happy to share that we have now blocked a significant memory supply for the campaign and have been able to contain the impact on prices to a minor increase compared to the estimates.

Kickstarter Launch

We aren't going to be able to meet the 4-10th timeline for launch. We had few hiccups this month but dealing with the memory crisis stole a lot of bandwidth especially for me. We have spent 3+ years building this, we are impatient to launch too but not half-heartedly 💔.

The new launch date for the campaign is 24th January. I won't pull a FAST one on you this time, but I will make up for this delay - there are two NEW major reveals planned on the launch day! Stay tuned 😬

On the deliveries - we are still trying to get them to start in April but it may shoot to May.

DVT boards arrived

Our DVT sign-off didn't happen as early as we wished but we finally received our DVT boards yesterday. Here they are in all their glory!

We are now moving to assembly, in fact we hand-delivered them and all the components to the factory yesterday evening. The SMT starts on Sunday and we hope to have 20 boards ready by Monday evening. I will let you know how it goes 🤞

As I reflect back on 2025, I am incredibly proud of how far we have come, the Comet we showed at CES earlier this year and the one we are building today - how different they are. We could do this only because of your support and constant motivation. I look forward to sailing in 2026 with all of you, and hope to get the Comet in all your hands soon enough. Wishing you all Happy New Year