So most of you know that A9 is an evolving product and undergoes frequent updates. So much so that the version number includes the month in it (2015.10 for October). In fact, if you want to know exactly which version you own or are about to purchase, add two more digits for the day you purchased it (e.g. today's version would be 2015.10.08). And that's because when an idea comes up that would make the product better I see no reason to wait to implement it. That's the beauty of manufacturing with 3D printers.
It can be difficult to work like this, however, because it means we're frequently retiring older pieces in stock as soon as there's a new and better file queued in the printer. And our product photos and video tutorials are always outdated which makes for a lot of extra work.
To avoid stressing our customers we make all our pieces available individually in our Kits & Bits page so that customers can easily upgrade their armature by only buying the parts that were improved and not have to purchase the entire armature all over again.
The 2015.10.07 version featured in this photo (photo was taken yesterday) includes a number of improvements that have been made since we published our video tutorial for the 2015.2 version in February and most recently a clip design that snaps on all 360 degrees (no more wobble when they aim straight down). Other improvements include:
- permanently retiring the hip lock
- thicker prints for hips (stronger joints)
- added stepped rotation to the arm and leg clips which went through three different iterations this year (non stepped, 180 degrees stepped and now 360 degrees stepped.
- elbows were re-designed to be more streamlined and tighter fitted
- hand sockets went through three iterations to improve fitting and improve ease of snapping on and off
- neck joint is now indestructible and the split design improves the fitting while also making it easier to snap on and off
- torsos are now baked
- the new default hand is now the gripping hand variant (fist with hole for props).
And then a myriad other small changes to curves, corners, bevels and slopes.
