Order #38325 may 8th 2025
Am I ever going to get my u-console. Already regretting spending the money on it after waiting 6 months now and not a single update it email on delivery time, unless you count the BS 90 days delivery date that was given when I coughed up my $220
send email to:
alex@clockworkpi.com
help@clockworkpi.com
do you have compute module inside of order? you may ask refund rpi4 and it should improve delivery. and you will source cm4/cm5 locally.
you are not alone, but they should send your unit eventually:
That must be incredibly frustrating!
For what little itâs worth, I can confirm that the uConsole is a real device. I have an RPI-CM4 Lite uConsole from received back in 2022 (#19362). And an R-01 I received in 2023.
I recommend the RPI over RISC-V. The R-01 is for people who always pick Hard Mode in life. (I love it)
rpi is the only option left, but you can order it with or without cm4, and the non cm4 ones seem to ship faster, and it likely even saves you some money since you can usually get the CM4 locally for less than what clockwork charges and it doesnât get taxed on import that way
That is âhindsightâ I ordered it in May so my order is fixed, I could have backpacked to China and collected it and backpacked home again in the time itâs taken so far!
Still waiting on a 37xxx order from April. Feels like Clockwork Pi have taken a nose dive in terms of producing uConsole units. Alex is now telling people there is no delivery date and they can have their money back, as if we just loaned them interest free money for months.
Weâre getting generic emails telling us a typhoon has delayed production, while they keep slamming out PicoCalcs.
production seems to be based on order volume, so when orders slow down it takes longer to fill a batch and have it produced, all the different variants arenât helping here.
They could probably speed it up a lot by only selling black and silver units with just the cm4 adapter and listing the 4g module separately in the store
Normal people donât care or think about the logistics or supply chain. They think in terms of general consumer goods purchased from Amazon. They expect that a product is not sold until it has been built and boxed. But thatâs isnât always the successful business model.
The reality is this is $130 niche product with, honestly, no reason to exist. Itâs nothing you need. It does nothing special or different. Itâs just a cool-looking thing that about 1,200 a month decide they want. If it cost any more, the demand would dry up quickly,
So, whatâs the answer? How do you keep demand high enough to keep devices flowing to build up a large enough community to support the device and build solutions for it?⌠You take orders and purchase parts in larger batches to keep the cost down. That might mean having to stack up a few thousand orders before sourcing.
People donât want to wait, but donât want to pay twice as much either. They want a business to operate in all the ways that benefit them, and donât really want to even think about what that means to the business or the future of the product.
Yes, they could just operate a warehouse and order parts by the hundreds and build and ship faster. They could also cost $350 and only sold a few thousand units and have closed the shop by now. Then people would have a device with no community that was over priced for what it does and look back at that dead device every few years and be thankful that it shipped so quickly.
The reality is this is $130 niche product with, honestly, no reason to exist. Itâs nothing you need. It does nothing special or different. Itâs just a cool-looking thing
Handheld keyboard devices do have uses, that may be niche, but are functionally justifiable. The uConsole is special in that this type of form factor isnât common anymore, particularly not in a way that follows open design.
People donât want to wait, but donât want to pay twice as much either.
Thatâs not right either. People who are buying uConsole are happy to wait 90 working days. Theyâre even happy to wait longer than this knowing that Clockwork Pi isnât able to fulfill itâs own terms. But there comes a point where not delivering the product substantially beyond even the extended time, then not giving a delivery date at all for weak and contradictory reasons, is getting borderline suspicious. Especially when you factor in how there are now shelves of these units stacking up in âscalpersâ warehouses and yet Clockwork Pi just shrugs at it, because apparently theyâre the only operation affected by typhoons or whatever the last reason was.
As an aside, there actually have been calls for uConsole to be raised in price so that the delivery time is reasonable. I really donât think people would be upset throwing some more cash at it if they didnât have to wait a year for the hope of maybe getting something.
Then people would have a device with no community
And yet not delivering the uConsole isnât building a community either. You canât even recommend this device to people because the terms of delivery around it are not reasonable or practical for ordinary use case.
Thatâs not right either. People who are buying uConsole are happy to wait 90 working days. Theyâre even happy to wait longer
I was addressing OPâŚ.someone who is not happy waiting, so not sure why you are commenting about those, myself included, that are gladly waiting. My comment was clearly explaining to someone who is not happy why he is waiting.
Handheld keyboard devices do have uses
I didnât say handheld devices donât have a use. I said exactly what you quoted. So I know you know I didnât say that lol.
if they didnât have to wait a year for the hope of maybe getting something. And yet not delivering the uConsole isnât building a community either.
They sold aorund 43k units and shipped around 38k units in a few years, so again, not sure about this â hope of maybe getting something.â⌠Clearly, you do get something⌠a few months later.
Other than that, itâs Friday, and I hope you have a great night
You described the uConsole as a product that does ânothing you needâ and is ânothing special or differentâ with âhonestly no reason to existâ. I fully expect you understand why the uConsole does offer something, is special and does have a reason to exist.
I donât know about the sales figures and who is buying them. Iâd be keen to see some numbers if you can share where you read that (presumably youâre not citing the literal order numbers because thatâs not how that works).
You described the uConsole as a product that does ânothing you needâ
Nope. I said, âItâs nothing you need. It does nothing special or different.â⌠I did not say the Console does nothing you need, LMAOâŚ. Lots of the same words, but not in the order you misqouted me withâŚ
Do you NEED a Uconsole, sir? For what exactly? What does the uconsole do that is different or special from other devices (out of the box)? Other than being a cool form factor, which I stated in my original comment already, âŚ.
The reality is this is $130 niche product with, honestly, no reason to exist. Itâs nothing you need. It does nothing special or different. Itâs just a cool-looking thing
explain to me all the wonderful things that make the uConsole something you NEED. Not to be confused with âwhat can you do with the uconsoleâ. Thatâs a different sentence so donât misquote me againâŚ
See what I was expressing are simple supply and demand principles. At $130, that device has been able to sell tens of thousands of units, and how many superstars do we have in this community right now? Maybe 6. Rex, Vileer, etcâŚ. Thatâs how hard it is to build a community around something like this. So while you think you have great comebacks with things like
there actually have been calls for uConsole to be raised in price
thatâs not the point of what I said. The point was the a niche product like this that requires community support needs to be at a price point that attracts the most users, not the price that gets units shipped the fastest⌠Higher price, faster shipping = less user & less community support. Thatâs the point of my comment. If you want to speak about that, sure. but you keep misquoting me and then arguing with the thing you pretended like I said.. .itâs weird.
Nope. I said, âItâs nothing you need. It does nothing special or different.â⌠I did not say the Console does nothing you need, LMAOâŚ. Lots of the same words, but not in the order you misqouted me withâŚ
Thatâs weak. âItâs nothing you needâ and âit does nothing you needâ may have a semantic difference but the essence of what youâre saying is the same. If youâre saying itâs not, Iâm saying I believe what I said to be true in either case.
You seem to be confusing your own opinion of the uConsole with what other people think in terms of what other people think, whether they need it, need what it does, or otherwise have a use for it.
thatâs not the point of what I said. The point was the a niche product like this that requires community support needs to be at a price point that attracts the most users,
I understood what you said and I gave you a counterpoint about how I see community engagement. What I wanted from you was the source for your claim about units shipped.
I actually think you might just be having a bad day and maybe are looking to be a provocateur⌠because you clearly agree with me that itâs a niche product that most people are buying to tinker with, so I donât understand you arguing the opposite with me now.
Is it super special, or is it something to tinker around with? Iâm confused now.
You also seem to understand that most people arenât willing to âindulgeâ like you, so you do understand that your comment about the console having a higher price is something that would have reduce overall sales and the community size to the âindulgersâ. ⌠I honestly think you fully understood what I was saying and I even think you mostly agree with me lol. I think youâre just a sourpuss tonight.
No LMAO. itâs not the same at all when discussing economic principles.
In one scenario you have a product that literally is useless to you and the other scenario you have a product that is not unique and provides no extra functionality over devices that you already own thus itâs value to you is lessâŚcan you use it as a terminal? yes. Do you NEED yet another device to SSH? No, you donât so the amount of money you would be willing to pay is reduced.
They are, in fact, not the same and itâs not semantics. They are different concepts.
fish finder, but you donât fish â it does nothing you need.
different brand of flashlight thatâs no brighter than the one you already own â it does nothing special or different.
Not the same concepts, buddy. Sorry.
I donât know what you mean by âsuper specialâ but one benefit of the uConsole is that it can be opened, tinkered with and extended. Itâs a unique quality for a handheld.
The other thing youâve referenced here is a discussion about the RPi. Itâs widely argued that 16GB is unnecessary and I consider it an indulgence. Again, not sure where youâre going with this.
Note that, as I try to respond to these two messages, I can see you typing away another reply before Iâve even responded. I think itâs pretty weird of you to go into my post history, take screenshots, and post multiple replies and you still wonât even answer a question (about the units). I donât think youâre engaging in good faith anymore.
Iâm confused now.
Finally something we can agree on.
Weâll let the readers decide who is making sense here, I think.
but one benefit of the uConsole is that it can be opened, tinkered with
So this really is your only use case for this device that Iâm saying needs to be sold at a low price point in order to build a community of support?⌠Thatâs your argument to my statement that the console is not something you need and thus something most people would not spend a lot of money on⌠Thatâs where we are? Just making sure we are on the same page here.
I donât think youâre engaging in good faith anymore.
âŚ. Buddy, you argued that the console is something you NEED and havenât given me one single thing that you do with this device that you couldnât do on a hundred other devices.
âŚ. You claimed that people have to âHOPEâ they ever get their console delivered.
⌠You misquoted me like 4 times
LMAO, Go on with that gaslighting
Itâs not that the op is not happy, but when your all how long the wait is and you are told 90 days 180+ days didnât cut it
Itâs âbusiness daysâ which skips weekends and holidays, so in the US 90 business days would mean about 4.5 months of actual time. I donât really know or understand the Chinese holidays, but from other posts it sounds like there are far more Chinese holidays than American holidays (and possibly more than other countries holidays too?), and there are certain times of the year like Chinese New Year (and maybe others?) where businesses shut down for nearly a month at a time. So 90 business days in China is more like 5-6 months of real time.
Still, Clockwork has been missing even the adjusted Chinese estimates for uConsole shipments pretty regularly since the tariff stuff ramped up earlier in the year. Prior to that they were barely hitting those longer targets, but their shipment times seemed to be improving. Sounds like itâs been going in the opposite direction and getting worse in the past 6 months.
If theyâre having trouble sourcing parts or something, then I wouldnât be surprised if they just stop taking orders at some point and quietly stop making the uConsole entirely. The Gameshell and Devterm were retired like that, and people on the forums only noticed when they were unable to order. Interest was waning in those devices though, and there still seems to be a lot of interest in the uConsole, so it will probably be a while before they stop making them. But Clockwork is terrible at communication, so itâs unlikely anyone will know itâs happening until it happens. Theyâre good (and quick) for refunds though, so thatâs always an option and even if you donât get a device you can get your money back.
A lot of it seems to come down to when they collect enough orders to make a batch. So if you ordered one that was like a lot of other orders around the time (color, CM4 module or not, and 4G or not) then it would have made it in a batch early. People have tried to track orders on the forum and on discord, but thereâs no way to know for sure what the queue looks like since Clockwork doesnât share that info. Historically, orders with the CM4 add lots of time to orders, and the 4G expansion seems to make orders take longer too. Itâs pretty clear Clockwork never keeps any devices in stock, so everything is made to order and they accumulate and batch up until there are enough to produce. So it could take months before they are even manufactured and assembled and they wait for more identical orders to come in.
I hope you get your device soon! Iâd guess you might get it by the end of the year, hopefully for Christmas (and before the big Chinese New Year delays which would push it into next year).
