BackerKit – We like to Charge Credit Cards for the Add-Ons on Wednesday
almost 6 years ago – Tue, Jul 03, 2018 at 09:41:47 PM

Some short information about the Milky Way in a Sphere. The Production is in progress and delivery is scheduled for the end of July. There will be a detailed update next week with new pictures and more information about the production process. 

Many of you have bought a lot of add-ons via BackerKit. In total, you spent over € 60,000 for add-ons. Many thanks for that. 

Money transferred, we are now roasting marshmallows over Hawaiis lava...
almost 6 years ago – Sat, Jun 02, 2018 at 01:16:18 AM

Just kidding, the only one getting roasted is me playing Fortnite at 34°C here in Berlin. 

But this is something you´re surely not interested in, so I better deliver some hot information about what´s going on with the preparations and production of your precious goods.

In short: 

- Money from Kickstarter arrived
- 3325 surveys finished, 271 missing
- Some statistics
- New Flyer finished and printed
- PMW and spheres improved, production started
- Backerkit charges money end of June
- Address changes possible until mid-July
- Delivery date of LED base plates delayed (est. 2018-07-15)

In less short

Money from Kickstarter arrived: The money from Kickstarter arrived and we were able to order everything needed for the production and the shipping. Of cause, the most of our partners want to get paid before they start the production of thousands of spheres, flyers or cleaning towels. Now the production is running but needs its time as you can imagine. It takes 3 minutes alone to laser one Pocket Milky Way. Luckily, you can put around 100 on the laser table, so it can run for 5 hours straight. 

2,936 surveys finished, 271 missing: There´s not much to tell about, but please check if you already filled it out, if not, do it now!...please ;)

Some statistics: We want to share some statistics about what has to be manufactured and what our backers ordered:

-The Milky Way in a Sphere: 2,702
-The Pocket Milky Way: 2,097
-The Universe in a Sphere: 886
-LED Base Plate: 3,196 (no batteries/power supply included)
-USB Power Supply: 1,182 (we highly recommend to add these to your LED Base plate)
-3D printed Bases: 2,590

Info Questions about the next spheres:

-Weather: 361
-Sun: 364 
-Earth: 502
-Solar System: 1,754 
-Big Sphere: 1,432

As you can see the most of you want the solar system to be in our next sphere. We thought about it a lot and I would say we found a nice solution. The difficulty on this is the stupendously large distances between the planets and our Sun. If the Sun was 5 cm in diameter, the Earth would be 0.45 mm tall but 5.4 meters away! Pluto, for most of us still a beloved planet, would be only 0.085 mm tall, but 214 m away. It´s similar to standing on the Wall of Westeros, trying to see an ant´s eye. 

So we thought about showing a correct scale of the size between the planets and arrange them around the Sun.

New Flyer finished and printed:
We re-designed our flyer. It now fits inside the gift box.

PMW and spheres improved, production started:
We made last improvements on the PMW, as well as on the spheres. We tried to get the maximum out of the spheres, so we worked hard on the visibility of the dots and the size of the models inside the glass. Now we got the final stage for this campaign and the production started a few days ago. I will send pictures of it with the next update, but I can tell you, the Universe in a Sphere is now nearly borderless, which looks awesome!

We are also working on the design for the packing of the Pocket Milky Way, here is the sample we need to fill with life and colors.

Backerkit charges money end of June: If you need to pay your add-ons on Backerkit be aware, that the money will be charged end of June.

Address changes possible until mid-July: We will announce the exact date, but if you plan to move, be aware that we will lock the shipping information mid-July.

The delivery date of LED base plates delayed (est. 2018-07-15): The delivery date of our LED base plates delayed by two weeks. We hope, this will not delay our shipping process too much, but we wanted to tell you.

Thank you for your time, it was quite a long update this time. 
Have a nice Weekend!
Sincerely, CinkS labs

BackerKit - Survey - Spam folder
almost 6 years ago – Fri, May 18, 2018 at 07:28:51 PM

Dear Backers,

after a successful smoke test, we sent out the survey to all backers. 2.000 of you answered in the first 24 hours. 

In order to fulfill our promise to send the Milky Way in a Sphere at the end of July, we would like you to fill out our survey as fast as possible. 

I didn’t receive an email from BackerKit – What should I do?

• First look up your spam folder. Some backers reported us, that the email was marked as spam.
• Go to: https://cinks-labs.backerkit.com/
• Under the “Lost your survey?” section, enter the email you used for the project on Kickstarter. 
• Press “Get My Survey” button, and you'll receive another email with your survey link! 

Moving Soon? No Problem! You can always update your information any time before we finalize your address. You will get a reminder to confirm your address before we ship. Our estimated shipping date is the end of July.  

I forgot to add the USB power supply cable or any other add-on.
You can change your survey at any time. We will lock it down at the end of June.

Why are there additional shipping costs for add-ons?We decided to add a small shipping fee for the add-ons because we might need to send your goods in multiple packages when it weighs over 2kg. To cover it, we decided to add 5€ for shipping.

What is the pocket version?
Some backers misunderstood the pocket versions. At the moment we do not offer smaller spheres, but small cuboids with the Universe or the Milky Way inside.

I missed the project, can I still get a Milky Way in a Sphere?
With BackerKit we have the possibility to have a pre-order store where you can buy all of our products. We try to manage the shipping together with the shipping from our campaign. https://cinks-labs.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write us at [email protected]. 

Clemens, Christoph and the CinkS labs Team (Veronika) 

Backerkit and It´s "Smoke Test"...
almost 6 years ago – Tue, May 15, 2018 at 10:30:50 PM

As said before, we will use Backerkit to help us with the large number of Backers and all the add-ons you are free to buy.

We will launch the "Smoke Test" on Backerkit within the next days (300 of you will get the survey as a test launch)

How to Backerkit

In short:  

- You will get an email from “Clemens & Christoph – CinkS labs” with a unique link for each backer to start your survey  
- Check your pledge level and shipping country
- Answer some questions about what you like to get
- (Optional) Select as many Add-Ons as you like and purchase with your credit card
 (Enter your credit card information for the add-ons)
- Enter your shipping information
- Confirm all your information
- It´s done…now lean back and we will do the rest.  

In less short

BackerKit is a platform, specialized in helping crowdfunding campaigns. Backer can easily manage their pledges, purchase add-ons and edit their mailing address. With BackerKit you get the best effort to receive your product.

How does it work?

A couple of days after the campaign is over, BackerKit will email a unique link to each backer. You will not need to create an account. Backers will immediately see their pledge amount and pledge details from our campaign. Please check your spam folder. The email comes from “Clemens & Christoph – CinkS labs” and should look like that:

The link in the email directs you to the survey page, which should look like this:

Please check your shipping country and your Pledge Level and continue with the “Get Started!”-Button.
(Optional) – You can change your pledge level by clicking on the tiny blue link “switch your pledge level”. When everything looks fine, you can click the “Get Started!” button.

Answer a few questions about your pledge level 

The next step depends on what you exactly pledged for. Some of you might not need to answer these questions. They can start with the section “Add-Ons”. If you pledged for “The Milky Way in a Sphere - LED Base Set” for example, your page should look like this:

You have to decide which base you like to get together with your LED-plate. After you select one and click on the “Next” button on the bottom of the page, you get to the next question and so on.

The following questions may occur:
• Which base should stand on your LED Base plate? – All LED Sets. (free of charge)
• Which base should stand on your 2nd LED Base plate? – LED Bundle Set (free of charge)
• Which combination of spheres do you like to get? – All Bundle Sets (free of charge)
• Do you wish to upgrade to a LED Base Plate or/and a Base "Fitting"? – All Sets without LED (additional charge)
• Do you want to add a "Pocket Milky Way"? (additional charge)
• Do you wish to upgrade to a 2x LED Base Plate or/and a 2x Base "Fitting"? (additional charge) 

Add-Ons

If you like to order some additional items, this is the moment. It is as easy as an online shop. You can look for an item you like to order, click “Add to Cart” and you will instantly see it on the right side. Some items need additional shipping costs. You can see it in the section “Shipping Total”. We calculate an additional shipping cost for additional spheres and bases per weight and small items (e.g. USB power supply, LED-Base Plate, Pocket Milky Way) by count (first 10 items no shipping). 

After you´ve added all the items you like to order, you can see an overview of your pledge level, all add-ons, shipping costs and the outstanding balance on the right side of the page. If you over pledged via Kickstarter, you will see your credit there too. After clicking the “Next” button, you will get to the next step. “Shipping”

Shipping  

Please enter your shipping address as exact as possible. Our estimated shipping date is the end of July. You can change your address until the end of June.

Confirm  

After you confirmed your information you're almost done. If you ordered Add-ons, we must collect the money via Credit Card. Of course, BackerKit does not have your credit card information from Kickstarter. We ask for your understanding that these data must be entered again. Your credit card will be charged on 1st July.
You are done… :D

The Review Page

Here you can look up all your information. You can change your shipping address, edit all the add-ons, change your credit card information or edit your answers to the pledge level questions.

Share it 

If you like our campaign and how we try to make you happy, we would be grateful if you share your feelings with us. This will also help other backers to get more trust if they don’t know Kickstarter or BackerKit or even us (Clemens & Christoph – CinkS labs)

Tracking Numbers

After the Big Bang happened, we will provide you with your tracking number. If your pledge level or your add-ons contain bases, LED-plates, pocket versions or USB power supplies, you will most likely get two packages. We will ship in two cycles. First the Spheres and a little later all the other items.

Need help or have some question?  

We hope this FAQ will answer the most of your questions. If not, Backerkit will answer the first 500 support cases for us for free. After that, we have to pay $1 for each question, so please double read this “How To” and our FAQ first, before emailing BackerKit.

Thank you all,
Bests, Christoph and Clemens

May the Force Be with Us...
almost 6 years ago – Sat, May 05, 2018 at 12:09:46 AM

We Made It, You Made It, the Universe Made It! We Outpaced Our Previous Campaigns and We Are Highly Motivated to Undercut the Time We Need to Fulfill Our Campaign. So What´s Next?

In short:

- THANK YOU, thank you thank you thank you...
- You will get an email with a survey (exact date will be announced in an update)
- We will use "Backerkit" as a help to organize the collecting of shipping addresses, choosing of bases and purchasing add-ons 
- We made a small "how to Backerkit", that can be found in the next update
- We visit the production facility for last improvements on Monday
- We offer a 1.5m USB power supply cable for 5€
- No email support from 08.05.-15.05.2018

In less short:

Thank you for your interest in our creation. Thank you for your support! Thank you for your trust and thank you for your patience. 

There is a lot of work ahead of us now like processing all the addresses and the choices of add-ons. We have to organize the mass production of the spheres/Pocket Milky Ways, find manpower and order all the equipment/materials for the packing, and finally do the packing, sorting and shipping. 

A couple of days from now, you will get an email from "Backerkit".
BackerKit is a platform, specialized in helping crowdfunding campaigns. Backer can easily manage their pledges, purchase add-ons and edit their mailing address. The Mail you will get will look like this:

Backerkit is pretty self-explanatory but we made a how to, to make it even easier. Also, Backerkit offers to answer 500 questions from backer so there will be a help if there are questions, but we hope you can figure the most out without any help. 
The "How to" can be found in the next Update.

We will visit the production place of the Spheres on Monday to make some last improvements and to get the best out of the spheres. After the money from Kickstarter is transferred (which needs around 14 days) we will start the production.

We are very curious how many of you will choose how many add-ons. Especially the power supply for the bases was requested often. We found a 1,5 m long USB cable as a perfect solution because it works in every country and only cost 5€.

There will be no Email support from 08.05.-15.05.2018. We want to celebrate our success and use the time, while we wait for the answers to our survey, to gain strength and energy for the next months.

Best regards, 

Christoph & Clemens
CinkS labs