A photo of one of two existing final prototypes of Time Since Launch Version 2 installed with a wall mount surrounded by a pointing, a fish-shaped jello mold, a crumpled dollar bill and a 3d printed generative designed bike stem.

Why does Time Since Launch Version 2 last for over 150 years on the 2xAA batteries it ships with? Because of Josh.

Version 2 of Time Since Launch is only a few weeks away from getting into people's hands. We're super excited about so much of what is going on inside the project. It's hard to know where to start. It doesn't feel appropriate right now to pair the project down into a one-liner. I'm sure something short and sweet will surface in the coming weeks, so if you prefer to skip all this reading, feel free to wait it out. But for now we're just going to share some reflections about Time Since Launch and the love that has gone into it.

It all starts with Josh. If you read these newsletters, you've probably heard the lore. He's a beloved friend and electronics wizard who has been incredibly generous to us over the years in so many ways. He is also the reason why Time Since Launch is real.

Before we met Josh, TSL was shelved as a prototype. Put plainly, a timepiece that counts for 1 million days, but needs a battery change every few months - doesn't fly. At the time, and with our engineering chops, we didn't even consider it possible to fix this problem. Along comes Josh. He was like, I love this. I can help you. And then proceeded to re-do all the electronics so TSL could last for over 40 years on 2 x AA batteries. We were so excited to finally be able to release the project into the world.

Fast-forward 6 years...thousands of people have used TSL to celebrate and elevate significant and personal moments to awesome-status. Some other stuff happened too in that time.

But for Time Since Launch, a significant portion of those years were spent scrambling, swapping out MCUs and other components for whatever we could get a hold of due to supply chain issues. Josh kept up, even though it was insanely annoying for him.

This was also a period where we gained some perspective on the project, and could start to put a plan in place for changes we would want to make in the future. This is what has now become Time Since Launch Version 2. The first and likely last significant revision we'll ever make to the project.

One of those changes was to make a new, custom LCD. Another was to begin the process of bringing production as close to home as possible. And perhaps the most critical problem was to find a new MCU, and other components that we could reliably source so Josh wasn't constantly playing catchup.

A few days ago I dropped by Josh's house to check out the final final final...there have been so many finals before this one... Time Since Launch Version 2 PCB. The final tweak was a last minute idea Josh had to place the launch flash LEDs on the front of the PCB. This would keep the back of the PCB completely clear of components and make it so the flash on launch appears as a burst of light through the display.

I check out the flash, it looks cool. And while standing in front of Josh's workstation strewn with all sorts of electronics projects including a Frankenstein's monster looking TSL with test probes jutting out of it, he points to it and says "Look, look how little power it draws." Now I obviously knew, because we've all been so excited, about how low power Josh made version 2, but seeing it in person was different and made it suddenly more real. The readout hovered at just under 2uA. "But don't breathe" he said. I laughed and yes when I breathed on it the numbers spiked. 2uA, that is crazy low power. That's the power draw for Time Since Launch Version 2.

Then Josh was like "since you're standing here, can I just show you the software? because literally no one else will see it or care." And I was like, well you're wrong about that (because you have just read this far) and of course, yes please!!!

Josh proceeds to walk me through and explain the little treasure he dug up in the the new MCU's datasheet. It's a single assembly command that costs only 2 clock cycles, which is essentially where the power draw comes from. This command gives access to a parallel processor, which essentially lets you do double the operations for FREE! And after all the other architecture he set up, that single assembly call is all that is required to drive the entire timepiece. It's nuts. But more than nuts it is so elegant and beautiful.

So this is how and why Time Since Launch Version 2 lasts for over 150 years on the 2 x AA batteries it ships with. It's because of Josh. Because he read the datasheet. And looked carefully, noticed and figured out a way to make use of this power saving treasure.

Time Since Launch Version 2

Pre-orders are open if you'd like to secure a Time Since Launch for this April.

The last step that is in process right now is for the fancy black VT-447 PCBs to be fabricated. Once complete, those will ship to our board house in Massachusetts where all of the components are waiting to be assembled onto the PCB. Once the PCBs are assembled they will ship to our Brooklyn studio where we will program, assemble and ship.

Orders will be fulfilled on a first come-first serve basis, and we will close the pre-order or update the estimated delivery date once we reach our monthly capacity.

We've covered as much of our basis as we thought possible, and if anything changes, we'll let you know.

A rendering of Time Since Launch Version 2 flying through the air while a magical force pulls the pin and initiates the counter. We are usually against renderings, but we found some cool ones Cole Orloff did a few years ago of TSL while learning blender and thought it would be fun to hire him to do some V2 renders. Only stuff we can't do (with our limited skillset) in photography!!! Minus the ghost, it looks pretty realistic :)