Tige TouchPad Upgrade Project Thread

[texastige22v]

I need one. I'll send the email and information to get on the list. I have a 2006 22V on it's second pad and it's shot. This is great!

[Thegerman618]

Got your email and replied. Thank you

[tigeunrest]

Mine still works but I am not sure if it had been replaced before I bought the boat. I have to have one of these though.
Email sent and a big thanks for your work.

[Thegerman618]

I got you down tigeunrest. Thanks for the information

[Thegerman618]

Good Evening Owners!

In my effort to get widest dissemination of this for IDB, I have scoured this thread as well as the original thread for the names of people that initially have expressed interest in an upgraded panel. I understand that a few of these folks have had their panels "repaired" by IDB. Please keep in mind it is my understanding that the repairs made are essentially bandaids. Tbat being said, get your bulletproof panels the more ordered the cheaper for us all they will be. Here is a list of people that showed interest, please let me know if any of your are still interest:
Timmy!
DuffyMahoney
PaceWithGrace
BurnMac42
Duncan
Paul_Austin
Koala1
Tallent
Travis5550
Gwhite94
Riverside711
Jbar
Jmhatchett
Stingreye
Twinturbostroker
Frosty_Power
Killerbren
WYTige?

If any of you gentlemen catch this please email me at Thegerman618@yahoo.com with
Name
Address
Phone number
TO handle.

We are up to 17 panels as of this evening. Keep them coming.

[IDBoating]

Thanks, TG618, for all of your hard work on the list!

Quick update: We have dialed in the specs on the spacer mentioned earlier in this thread. Quote are starting to come in now from companies who can manufacture them. We're working with gasket companies, figuring they work with thin sheet goods and are used to die (or laser) cutting weird shapes. There's some up front tooling cost and minimum order quantities, but I don't think they will blow the budget.

Also getting quotes on liability insurance. There's a big difference between selling technology as a package of intellectual property (AutoWake is a good example of that) and selling assembled electronics to OEM's (like selling straight to Tige, for example), versus selling direct to end users. The insurance companies have a very different opinion of the latter. Based on the low quantities of these panels and insurance minimums, it's looking like our cost for insurance on each one will be $25-50. That's EACH panel. It's that high because we are below insurance company minimums, so their minimum premium amount gets amortized across a very small number of units, which means the per-unit number is high. You'd think we were building private aircraft! We didn't budget anywhere near this much for insurance so we'll have to see how the final manufacturing numbers come in. Hoping not to increase the price but holy smokes... we've got to get into the insurance biz. I'm starting to understand Warren Buffett's interest in insurance companies.

We've also learned that there is Yet Another Version of the Tige touchpad out there. We've seen the side buttons with one, two, or three small snapdomes. Now we've encountered an early panel with a single HUGE snapdome. Totally different design. I presume they learned this design didn't work very well and moved to the 1/2/3 small dome approach, but unfortunately the elastomer (the rubber button sheet) is ALSO specific to the single larger dome. There was some concern that this style of elastomer would not properly actuate the later three-dome style that we have to be compatible with. Thankfully, early tests are encouraging. We're waiting for on-water tests to put some miles on this older elastomer. If it doesn't work reliably, it may be necessary for buyers to disassemble their panels and confirm which style they have... we may not have a solution for the very early single dome units. (The problem stems from our reuse of the existing elastomer. To our knowledge, Tige doesn't sell the newer elastomers separately - in fact, it's my understanding they won't sell you a panel at all without exchanging for an old one - so you have to use your existing one with our new board.)

Also on the spacer: We are planning to include the spacer for optional use. It appears some panels require it and others don't. So instead of adhering it to the board ahead of time, we will include it and the user can test whether it is necessary or not.

Thanks!

[Stingreye]

Sorry guys I am pre-speedset and mine just uses perfect pass.

This project is awesome for all the speedset guys!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WYTige?]

I lucked out too. I have Perfect Pass on my 06! I do keep tabs on the progress of this project though��

[Thegerman618]

I apologize guys, was not trying to call anyone out just going through who all has shown interest.m thank you for the replies.

[dt535xi]

Good Evening Owners!

In my effort to get widest dissemination of this for IDB, I have scoured this thread as well as the original thread for the names of people that initially have expressed interest in an upgraded panel. I understand that a few of these folks have had their panels "repaired" by IDB. Please keep in mind it is my understanding that the repairs made are essentially bandaids. Tbat being said, get your bulletproof panels the more ordered the cheaper for us all they will be. Here is a list of people that showed interest, please let me know if any of your are still interest:
Timmy!
DuffyMahoney
PaceWithGrace
BurnMac42
Duncan
Paul_Austin
Koala1
Tallent
Travis5550
Gwhite94
Riverside711
Jbar
Jmhatchett
Stingreye
Twinturbostroker
Frosty_Power
Killerbren
WYTige?

If any of you gentlemen catch this please email me at Thegerman618@yahoo.com with
Name
Address
Phone number
TO handle.

We are up to 17 panels as of this evening. Keep them coming.

Hey Brad,

We had communicated via email, but I don't see my name on the list. Just want to make sure I don't get left out! Thanks for coordinating this!

Mark

[Thegerman618]

No worries guys, for those of you 17 total. That have contacted me via email, I have you down on the list. I was just reaching out to those that I thought were interested or had issues with panels and had not heard from yet. I am sure once everyone gets there boats on the water we will have some more interest. Unfortunately for them it they don't reach out soon they may not make the initial production run. They may have to wait till the next run of panels. So hint hint to those on the fence about this, time is a ticking to get your names in for the first production run.

[IDBoating]

Update: We have finished the CAD drawings for the spacers (see earlier in this thread) and obtained quotes from multiple manufacturers. The least expensive one quotes $130 NRE for the cutting die, then $1.98 each for the spacers. Ahead of that we have a local shop cutting an $80 stainless stencil that the toolshop will use to create the cutting die. We should have the stencil by Monday, then it will be shipped off to the spacer manufacturer (in NY). The spacers will then take 2-3 weeks to be finished.

We plan to include two spacers per panel. During installation you can use zero, one, or both depending on what works best with the specific elastomer you received from Tige.

Here is the Gerber file from which the stencil will be burned. The cutting die is then fabricated based on the stencil.

GerberSpacer.jpg

[IDBoating]

WOW! It's nice when things go better than expected!

The stencils were supposed to be ready Monday. Got a call late yesterday - they finished them overnight, after running them on their brand new laser cutting table.

We picked them up this morning and got a demo of the laser cutting table. They have one of these new units now, and will be getting a second one as part of a move into 3X larger facilities. It's an impressive machine - think old-style photoplotter with a metal-cutting laser on the head.

Here are the two stencils they finished for this project:
Stencils.jpg

They are 0.010 stainless, as shown here:
StencilCalipers.jpg

Here is one of them in a sample Tige TouchPad bezel with the elastomer in place. You can see how the cutouts reveal the screw holes:
StencilInBezel.jpg

One of these stencils will be on its way to the spacer/gasket company in NY later today.

More soon!

[Thegerman618]

Apologies for the absence, about 2 weeks ago IDB sent me one of these panels to test in the early 06 model V and Ve boats. I have logged roughly 10 hours of panel use and simply put....AWESOME! Panel functions perfectly, holds speed very well within .1 - .3 Mph of set speed verified with GPS. The increase and decrease speed buttons work flawlessly, each push gives about .3 - .5 mph per push and acceleration or deceleration is very smooth again verified with GPS. The snap domes are very deliberate and very easy to tell if you have in fact pushed the button. After about 6 straight hours of surfing holding speed and minut adjustments to speed while surfing I am beside myself pleased with what IDB has created. I was given specific instruction to "use" the panel, meaning some of use are more rough on our gear than others. Short of dousing in water hitting it with hammer, I truly without fear "used" the panel. The significantly more stout panel doesn't budge, doesn't flex, it just keeps working. Keeping in mind this was bouncing alot in the rough chop of a windy day. At this point I am 100% confident in saying if this panel breaks we need to look at the user not the product. If you are still on the fence about replacing...do it I have no idea how I made it this long without one.

[Timmy!]

All great news!