It's been a while since we've updated this project but there's been a lot of metaphorical water (and physical water) under both real and metaphorical bridges.

MeArm became a business in its own rights, supplying the mighty but short-lived Hackaday store, the amazing Adafruit, and the international RS components. We employed someone to run the lasers and a while later we formed another company, called Mime Industries, were we took on a drawing robot called the Mirobot and planned to make more products for makers and fans of open source worldwide.

Things went well for a while, we employed another person, and got an even bigger laser. A kickstarter for the Raspberry Pi version followed, and we fulfilled that with no issues. Personally I struggled with the split of labour in the business where I was managing the production and fulfilment and no longer making product decisions. We launched the version 2.0 which massively reduced the build time, introduced a PCB to the bill of materials, and relied on nitrile bands to hold it together. It was launched along with the MeArm Pi with mixed reviews as to it's stability. 

While the company wasn't perfect my dad passing away suddenly hit me very hard, the company started to struggle as I was running the sharp end of things. Things wound down somewhat and as directors we went our separate ways with in the company. I closed up our office and sadly made the two people who'd joined us redundant, with plenty of notice and on the best possible terms. It was sad but I was in no state to carry on carrying the weight of a company.

Eventually MeArm was licenced to a company called Kitronik, who are a very lovely bunch. I redesigned the MeArm, removing the nitrile bands, but keeping the PCB (for now). This version 3.0 is the current version. Is still quick to build but has better stability and a simplified bill of materials. I also joined Kitronik for a time as a staff member and continued to support the MeArm as a product.

Working for Kitronik was a great experience, but I was offered the chance to do some freelance design and took the opportunity. Later I decided to take the MeArm back "in house" which is essentially in my workshop, a building I built at the end of my garden. 

That's where we are today. The version 3.0 is the current build, but I'd love to reconnect with Hackaday to redesign a fourth version. A version where we say goodbye to the PCB, which is essentially a $2 solution to a 10 cents problem, and also a big barrier to entry for those wishing to make their robot at home. There are some other fixes and changes on the list too, but we'll have an open discussion about that on here as we progress.

Thank you for following the project, and I hope this update is of some interest. Massive thanks for supporting me and the project over the last decade. If you want to try out the current state of the MeArm check out our (my) store at mearm.com