[[!tag tags/rockets]]
This afternoon, a box arrived from [Advanced Circuits](http://4pcb.com/),
containing 108 fully assembled [TeleDongle](http://altusmetrum.org/TeleDongle) 
boards!  

[[!img /bdale/blog/images/cimg5556-small.jpg]]

This is not only the first "intended for sale" build of hardware from the
[Altus Metrum](http://altusmetrum.org) family of projects, it's also the first
time that I've ever sent out one of my board designs for someone else to 
assemble.  I therefore approached the turn-on and test of the first board 
out of the box with more than a little trepidation... fortunately, for no
reason!

I'm immensely pleased to report that TeleDongle serial number 100 turned on 
and works entirely as expected!  

I celebrated by packaging it in a cool little 
[Hammond translucent blue plastic box](http://www.hammondmfg.com/dwg9TBU.htm) 
with a USB cable, yielding the first prototype of a fully packaged TeleDongle 
board such as we anticipate selling for use receiving data from rockets 
carrying [TeleMetrum](http://altusmetrum.org/TeleMetrum) boards.  

[[!img /bdale/blog/images/cimg5560-small.jpg]]

We also intend to sell these boards as-is (flashed with default firmware and 
measured oscillator cal value) to folks who'd like a robust wireless link 
for their next microcontroller project, whether rocket-related or not.  I will,
of course, post something here when we're ready to start taking orders.

Now we just need the weather to cooperate long enough to log more test
flights of [TeleMetrum](http://altusmetrum.org/TeleMetrum).  The new version
looks great so far, but I want a few more flights before I'll be confident
enough to place an order with our assembler for a run of those too...  Stay 
tuned!