MNT September 2025 Update
Our MNT September was serious and fun, exciting and a lot. Here are the deets:
MNT Mini Campaign on Crowd Supply
Our Crowd Supply mini campaign (RCORE V2 with RK3588 for MNT Pocket Reform and Reform Classic) comes to a close tomorrow. Thanks to you, our backers, we'll now be able to offer this version of our most popular module to date on Mouser. If you missed out on backing, you can still purchase our module upgrade from Crowd Supply even after the campaign has ended. Since they operate from the US, there are no tariffs for US customers.
MNT Developments
MNT Quasar Processor Module
Juggling multiple projects simultaneously, Lucie still made great progress on the QCS6490 processor module which now bears the title MNT Quasar! PCBs and stencils will arrive in October.
As always, you can study the technical details and KiCAD sources on our repo. We're looking forward to the bringup with Linaro and are grateful to NLnet for funding this project.
MNT Reform Next
Lucie wrote a detailed update on MNT Reform Next developments for Crowd Supply. We picked the most interesting details for this article, but you can also read the full update here.
As stated in our previous update, the motherboard went to more iterations than anticipated, arriving at version 4 in September. Schematics wise, there are not many changes to Version 3, but there are many little improvements and fixes across the board. The biggest topic in this revision is USB 3.0 SuperSpeed performance and the performance and signal integrity of high speed differential connections in general. Lucie used the chance to redo and improve a lot of the power layout, and to add more ESD protection to things like I2C lines that connect to the battery packs.
Talking of battery packs: Lucie wasn’t entirely happy with the way the battery cells were mounted, so they decided to remove the built-in aluminum structures for holding individual battery cells from the enclosure design. Greta designed a 3D-printable battery pack holder that holds the electronics and the cells together and is mountable to the enclosure with screws. This more modular design allows for easier improvements and alternative pack geometries in the future. Lucie also merged in some updates that Elen made to the battery pack electronics, like a red warning LED for each cell that lights up when you accidentally plug the cell in the wrong way.
In terms of critical components, we secured the most critical one, the RK3588 processor/memory modules from Firefly, right when we received the campaign funds earlier this year. These are in our stock and just waiting to be put into laptops. Having learned from supply chain troubles with Pocket Reform, we also started sourcing display panels as early as possible. The first 300 are already in stock and the keyboards are backwards compatible with MNT Reform, and as such we already have stock of them and are constantly making new batches of them.
Because sourcing Piñatex became really unreliable this year, we had to find a new vegan leather supplier for our range of laptop sleeves, including the one for MNT Reform Next. We’re happy to announce that, after sampling several options, we’ve settled on Desserto. Desserto® is a product line of the Mexican company Adriano di Marti, and their vegan leathers are made from cactus fibers and bio-polymers. Greta made the final sleeve prototype:
MNT Pocket Reform Firmware Update
Lucie discovered the reason for System Controller hanging after poweroff: SPI handler is called every 5ms in a timer interrupt. The poweroff contained a sleep_ms(10). sleep_* is forbidden in IRQ handlers in pico-sdk. This bug is now fixed! Lucie also combed the keyboard firmware for sleeps and removed sleep_us(1) from the main scanning routine. Thanks to a push by Chris Hofstaedtler, we got keyboard firmware updates in fwupd/lvfs as well now.
And another bug was fixed: Lucie had a hunch of using cppcheck on the MNT Pocket Reform firmware code, and they found and fixed at least one reason for keyboard crashes/resets: past them had snuck a strdup() call in the keyboard firmware (when printing specific strings to the OLED screen), so it would over time slowly run out of memory. You can view the details on our repo. This includes a hidden menu shortcut (M) to show free heap memory.
You can update your Pocket Reform firmware later today, when the version "20251001" becomes available in the GNOME Firmware application for both the keyboard and System Controller. Alternatively you can use fwupdmgr on the command line.
Order Fulfillment Table
We have updated the order fulfillment table for you to track our progress on your orders:
| Product | Order Placement Date (Range) | Estimated Shipment Date | Delays / Roadblocks | Notes (includes configuration X) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MNT Pocket Reform RK3588 Upgrade Bundle | ordered from 2025-07-21 until now | 2-3 months after order date | new RCORE batch is ordered | Includes Intel AX210 Wi-Fi/BT card |
| MNT Pocket Reform (with RK3588) | ordered from 2025-07-21 until now | 2-3 months after order date | new RCORE batch is ordered | |
| MNT Reform | any | 2-3 months after order date | ||
| ZZ9000 | any | 2 months after order date | new batch in stock | |
| ZZ9000AX | any | 2 months after order date | in stock | |
| HALO-90 Earrings (any color) | any | 2 months after order date | in stock except green (being reordered) | |
| Keyboard (purple case) | any | 2 months after order date | in stock | |
| Keyboard (black case) | any | 2 months after order date | in stock | |
| Other items | ordered until 2025-07-20 | all shipped | ||
| Other items | ordered from 2025-07-20 | 1-3 months after order date |
Table last updated: 2025-10-01
You can also access this table on our FAQ page and in our support system under the category My Order. We aim to update it at least once a month. Note that we have no information about orders placed on Crowd Supply and Mouser. Please contact their customer support if you need information.
How We Deal with the US Tariffs Situation Part 2
In last month's news update, we elaborated more on this. We've since found out that US customs seem to apply 25% "auto parts" tariffs at least on some of our computer parts shipments. One of our customers got a CBP Form 7501 requesting it from this email address with their shipment/tracking details: aknentyrvw@ups.com. You can also request this from UPS if you suspect you were invoiced incorrectly.
Fun Stuff
Fun things we've discovered using MNT devices.
Installing Xfce4 on MNT Pocket Reform
A fun experiment that Lucie and Anri did, resulting from a conversation about the possibility of running Xfce on an MNT device:
Playing "Messenger"
Last week, Lucie discovered the beautifully hand-drawn browser game "Messenger". It's set on a small planet with solarpunk vibes and it runs perfectly on their Pocket Reform (with RK3588).
It's free and short, you can try it out here.
MNT Reform Next Shake Test
Wanna see a proper shake test of our latest laptop? Here you go:
A Handy White Noise Setting
During an unnerving event that took place in Berlin recently, Lucie and Anri came up with different ideas to drown out the noise emanating from said event. Lucie discovered a white noise generator and we tried out different configurations. One of them, combined with a very high volume on Lucie's analog speakers, successfully removed the noise from the room! If you happen to be in a similar situation where you want to prevent a sensory overload, you can try our white noise configuration.
And that's a wrap! Have a great October and read our next news update in 4 weeks. And in the meantime, see you on the Fediverse!