The Robbox xDrill was advertised as “The Drill Reimagined.” It was to be a smart cordless drill of the future, with an innovative design to instantly make all types of traditional drills and drivers obsolete.
I posted about the xDrill one year ago, in July 2021, before its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign went on to become successfully funded.
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I had serious doubts about the drill and how it was marketed, but it did look to be an interesting design that piggybacked a great deal of measuring and layout technology onto an otherwise ordinary-looking cordless drill.
The xDrill’s February 2021 shipping ETA came and went, but the company has not yet been able to start shipping out the drills to backers. They have published a couple of updates since then:
March 2021 Updates
Updated Timeline:
- First Local Beta Testers for Feedback — July 2021
- xDrill Revision Complete — July 2021
- Manufacturing — August 2021
- Final Confirmation of Order/Shipping Addresses — August 2021
- Shipping for North America — September – October 2021
- Shipping for Europe/Rest of World — September – October 2021
- Retail Launch — November 2021
Because Robbox missed their original shipping target, they promised the following to their backers:
We’re including an extra FREE Robbox 21V Battery for every order
A WAY better product (video of production model will be posted soon).
Free package of Robbox Swag (Includes shirt, hat, and more!)
A WAY better product? I have not seen what this entails, and the company has not published any updated videos that I could find.
They didn’t go into many details, aside from:
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our team had to make some internal design changes in order to improve the durability of the xDrill™ and add a layer of protection to the internal electronics of the tool.
July 2021 Updates
Following are some of the highlights from the xDrill’s Kickstarter updates:
As we mentioned before, there were several aspects of the xDrill that our team wanted to address before moving into the manufacturing stage of the project. In the next coming weeks, our team will be working to finalize the xDrill revisions that are required to ensure the xDrill is as efficient, durable, and intuitive as possible.
I wasn’t sure what this is referencing – is this related to the durability refinements they were making?
Wireless Updates
our team finalized the platform and have incorporated wireless updates into the xDrill.
this will allow the xDrill to be consistently updated by the user through our iOS and Android app to ensure the software and tech within the xDrill itself is always running as effectively as possible. This will also allow us to introduce some cool new features down the road
The xDrill was shown to have Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. Firmware updates are normal for connected products, but this is usually a core feature, and not something that should be first completed months after a product was supposed to ship.
Challenges
As if shipping delays weren’t enough, most recently, there has been massive shortages in semi-conductor chips which has caused additional delays in receiving the required parts to move forward in a timely manner.
I’ve been hearing about chip and component shortages affecting all kinds of products. I’d give them a pass on this one.
The Overall State of Things
I have not been following the project or company’s progress, but it seems that some of the xDrill’s backers are understandably angry at the lack of communications, with a couple requesting and even demanding refunds.
Robbox Tools has not answered some of their commentors’ questions in a while.
Last October (2020), the company responded to some backers, assuring them that the drills would start shipping out in March 2021. At that time, the March 2021 ETA was only 5 months out, and was only 1 month beyond original estimates.
When March came, a September-October 2021 ETA was given.
The ETA was not mentioned or changed in the company’s July 2021 update.
With discussion of semiconductor shortages, shipping delays, and that Robbox Tools is still “waiting a response from their suppliers for the lead times” of “the parts necessary for the first batch of xDrills,” it sounds like they’re not ready to make any new promises.
Good luck to anyone who backed this project.
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Joatman
A power tool that requires updates? Uh, why? No thanks
Sean
Second that! Hard pass
X lu
Total dinosaur thinking. While this tool answer may answer questions no one asked, the future lies with frequent software updates and apps. Like every other product, software will drive innovation and solutions which reduce labor and fatigue while increasing productivity. Today’s power driver will look like yesterday’s hand screwdriver. Power tools are in the bottom of the first from an innovation POV.
Kent Skinner
I may be a dinosaur, but the tool doesn’t solve a single problem for me. It adds complexity and cost, but not value.
I fully support your right to buy one, but I don’t see the point.
Al
Power ramping can increase battery life and reduce wear. Same with triggering a light. Nowadays, buttons aren’t mechanical to electrical connections. They are just inputs to firmware.
That power button on your computer or phone? It’s an input mechanism to trigger software.
Jon H
Agreed. I believe the amount of money generated in the power tool category is so much, people try to get in on it but don’t realize that like the automotive industry, there is just so much feedback coming back from end users. Like an automobile, if it doesn’t work, money cannot be made. If you can’t get to work because your truck can’t connect to the wifi network, well the logical question is “why do I need to connect to the wifi again to go to the work on i-95?”. Same applies to tools, we keep seeing things like the one-key, bosch bluetracker ridgid octane, Bluetooth product come but never really take flight. I mean for a big construction company where a boatload of tools are in circulation, it could help a foreman keep track of things in a way. But thats about it. So if the heavy hitters are having trouble selling it as a feature, imagine now this thing that is literally focused around it entirely. “Why do I need wifi to drill this hole?”. We are all dinosaurs in the tool world, and better for it. Advancements in battery tech is where its at. I smiled when I saw the new big boy router metabo hpt just came out with, the battery tech is there where bench top tools are starting to see some fresh air outside of the shop. Super hard pass on this. Kickstart? More like dropkick that thing out of here.
TonyT
I’m waiting to see the first 100% software screw driver! 🙂
Mike (the other one)
I guess while this drill is “updating” we can use a real drill, like a DeWalt to actually get the job done.
Mike (the other one)
Also, anything with software can be hacked, especially if it connects to wifi. The Internet of Things is extremely vulnerable, as most devices have zero malware protection.
MM
I don’t think that software and app updates can accomplish much when it comes to tools because fundamentally the tool’s capability will be limited by the installed motor, whatever other electronic sensors/devices may be present, and its battery. And software has control over none of those things. A software update might provide a slight efficiency improvement or add a software feature like the various “driver modes” we see on some modern impact drivers or wrenches. I don’t find those sorts of updates very meaningful at all, and certainly not when it comes at higher financial cost, or the risk of my drill being hacked.
I do think that many electronic features that modern power tools have are of great benefit: work lights are fantastic. Safety features like bindup protection (E-clutch) on the big drills are a huge plus. Lasers or shadow lights as cut guides for miter saws are nice. The ability of the tool to get more powerful if larger batteries are installed is a nice benefit too. But I can’t think of anything which is both useful AND requires the ability to easily update the software. That, in my opinion, is a bridge too far which brings a lot of risk and cost but very little benefit.
David A.
I cannot disagree more- software programs and apps cannot drill holes or drive screws. If product managers think tradesmen will put up with and embrace having to update the firmware/software on their tools… they should not be product managers. There is plenty of room for innovation in power tools and hand tools; battery tech and battery recycling are perhaps the areas most ripe for new ideas. Adding bluetooth and management software to power tools is a lame attempt to justify increased prices without requiring significant improvements in tool performance, function, or ergonomics. I see this as the marketing driving tool development, instead of tool development driving the marketing.
Al
That’s why some people will drive stick shift cars with crank windows. And some people will drive a Tesla.
But, you are right. Both types of product will survive.
My screwdriver might not need a tracking chip. But we need them on wheelchairs and tools that grow legs and walk away. Both things I never thought would be necessary.
Rock Hound
This kind of schedule failing might be unusual in the tool world, but is pretty par for the course for Kickstarter.
Carl
Right, I wouldn’t say it’s good but it’s certainly not out of the ordinary.
Stuart
Yes. A campaign I backed was supposed to deliver months ago and is only now moving to final stages. However, the big difference between that campaign and this one is in communication.
With this project, it looks like the company is ignoring backer comments and their updates seem to be vague and months apart.
Carl
Absolutely, communication makes all the difference with these.
Mark
Good afternoon, if that’s the Kinetic Driver, they’ve been pretty good about communication. Still, I’m extremely disappointed at the amount of time it’s taking.
Stuart
It is.
https://toolguyd.com/giaco-whatever-kinetic-screwdriver-kickstarter/
Another update was actually sent out today.
Patrick
It’s one of the reasons I’ve completely boycotted crowdfunding. It’s rare to find a project that actually is on schedule. The worst part is that neither Kickstarter or Indigogo make any real effort to shield backers from outright scams. I backed one small project once that literally once the campaign closed, the people went completely mia and Kickstarter said it was your own problem to deal with.
Even for products that do deliver, a lot of times they’re just not every good and you have no return rights.
After learning my lesson a couple times, it’s better to just pay more and wait a little while longer than to risk bring screwed/disappointed.
John
This is a “solution looking for a problem” and a pretty clear case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
audiovideofreak
Looks like a B&D trying to be a Milwaukee. 🤣
RI Guy
I’d be surprised if this competes with any mainline professional product out there. That said I’m all for people trying to enter a market dominated by multinational monsters. If they unlock some heretofore unknown trick it’ll be a good thing. Tough road ahead for them for sure.
Carl
Absolutely, sometimes ideas out of left field from newcomers bring valuable disruptive changes that we didn’t know we needed.
Of course if the technology works it seems likely one of the big guys will buy them out.
Stuart
The “Flipout” screwdriver went onto production after a failed Kickstarter campaign and was a flagship deal at Lowe’s one holiday shopping season.
https://toolguyd.com/flipout-tantrum-pivoting-cordless-screwdriver/
https://toolguyd.com/speedhex-flipout-driver/
It’s not about what will change the industry, but what people will buy.
Here’s another example:
https://toolguyd.com/coolbox-tool-box/
https://toolguyd.com/coolbox-tool-box-cooler/
It went from tool box to cooler, and isn’t really competing with anything.
Rog
I would love for AvE to tear down and review one of these things when they’re available.
Steve
I don’t think he will find it to be very chooch-in’ skookum.
Rog
For sure not.
Steve
As others have said, hard pass. A power tool that needs updates, no.
I doubt this thing will have any pro or serious DIY appeal, won’t be part of a larger platform, and likely won’t be durable. It will be priced out of the homeowner entry level market too.
I think the best thing they could hope for is developing some small innovation that they patent that’s attractive to a big power tool company so they can sell out to them.
MM
Sounds like the Juicero debacle all over again.
Linking the drill with my phone is not a “feature”, it’s a disadvantage severe enough to prevent me from even considering this drill. Alas, there are people who subscribe to the mantra that cramming as much electronics into something as possible somehow improves it.
Jorn
Juicero sucks but at least it was trying to deliver something that didn’t exist (‘fresh’ squeezed juice in the office, a-la k-cup).
Cordless drills are cheap and everyone makes them. Even high-end cordless drills are very affordable. Cordless drills are also easy to use compared to other power tools… I just don’t understand what the purpose of this thing is, what need it is filling.
MM
Juicerio used shelf-stable packets of fruit to extract the juice from. The fact that they were shelf-stable means they were cooked in advance. Thus there was nothing “fresh” about Juicero juice other than the fact that it was recently squeezed…from fruit which was already peeled and pulped in a factory. The great irony is that the juice coming out of Juicero was actually more processed than most “juice” products at the supermarket.
Jorn
That’s the difference between marketing and reality.
Somewhat offtopic: If you haven’t seen AvE tear down the Juicero you need to.
Ball_bearing
The Juicero could have been saved. If they designed a reusable pouch. You wash the fruit and place it in the pouch. When you want fresh juice, place the package on the machine and you get freshly squeezed juice.
The advantage is not having to clean a messy juicer. I bet the pressure applied by the machine is/was more than enough to extract the juice without having to puree the fruit first.
MM
Sure, that would have made it a useful product, but it also would have destroyed the company’s bottom line. The machine itself was highly overbuilt and were surely being sold at a loss…a huge loss. The company relied on its subscription service and overpriced juice packs to make money. Same basic idea as cell phones: take a loss on the phone when it’s given away “free” when the customer signs a contract, then make the money back with the monthly fees. If you make the machine able to juice random fruit that greatly increases its value to the customer but it also prevents the company from making any further money off it. So then they’d have to sell the juicer at above cost and make their profit off it instead….which I don’t think would fly because if they sold that machine at cost I could see it going way over $1000, easily. Hell, if we’re talking fancy food prep appliances a Pacojet is far cheaper to build than the Juicero and they cost $5 grand and up. I don’t see anyone slinging out that kind of money for a juicer.
Mike (the other one)
Plus you didn’t actually have to have the machine to squeeze the juice out.
The whole thing was nothing but a scam.
MT
People keep forgetting Kickstarter isn’t a store. You’re not buying a product, you’re investing in a project. The products are returns on the investment if the project succeeds. Sometimes projects fail or were never really viable and you lose the investment. Just like any other investment.
fred
The internet has truly made crowdfunding possible – since you can reach a broad audience. I like the notion of crowdfunding for charitable works and perhaps for funding events that might educate or entertain the funders. But having funded successful business ventures the old fashioned way – buying into a crowdfunded opportunity to set someone up in a manufacturing business has no appeal for me. When I see many of these sorts of promotions – I always wonder if there is a well thought-out analytical business plan or if vanity is the major driver for the folks who are promulgating the scheme. I recognize that the individual investments are rather modest in a crowdfunding scheme – but so are the potential for rewards. But hey – folks play various lotteries with much slimmer odds.
Nathan
the leveling idea is actually something I sort of like. I mean if a few cheap accelerometers and some light software call show me that the drill is square or level to what I want to punch though – that’s nice to have. I don’t see a need for the phone connection though. But at the same time I remember having a small drill with a circle vial on the back end – did mostly the same thing.
laser depth guide – also a nice idea if remotely accurate. not needed but nice to have.
otherwise meh – at least it’s being tried hopefully they can kick something into gear if for no other reason than they tried.
Mike (the other one)
For leveling, I feel like a couple of bubble levels could accomplish the same thing. And to drill to a certain depth, just put a piece of masking tape on the bit.
Mike
The typical ‘solution in search of a problem’….
Ball_bearing
Thank you for keeping the loading times to a minimum. This site loads ultra fast on a glitchy 2G connection. Up to now I have never needed to reload/refresh in order for the images to load, and there hasn’t been any glitches with the interface. The only time there was an issue, it was an ad that took over/covered the complete page, and you took care of it as soon as it was mentioned.
Stuart
Thank you, I appreciate that!
Serendipity
“Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity”.
Considering how dumb the vast majority of people are with never changing passwords with smart appliances, or phones, or routers, this is going to be a nightmare of security issues.
Stuart
Depends on the product. I connected to a Bluetooth Lego product the other day, and it was ridiculously easy with everything done in-app.
I’ve also had an easy time with certain smart devices.
Serendipity
It’s the people who don’t do it, or don’t know how, that are the problem, and then there are products that are just vulnerable and can’t be made better. Bluetooth is one thing, but wifi can be big problems if not done properly.
Jorhay
I backed the Kegulator by DrinkTanks because they had proven market success. That was April of 2015. They have belatedly shipped a growler, but have failed on every instance to create and ship the titular Kegulator. Which at least for a time, was marketed as available for purchase on their website after the Kickstarter ended. Market competition has since developed and released competing products.
IronWood
Oh thank goodness someone finally invented a cordless drill! Nothing about this thing is worth the wait. And I highly doubt it will be durable or good enough to compete with any major platform, even if it’s WiFi Bluetooth, Cloud-based whatever crap actually works.
Actually they could just improve it one more innovation level and call it a “virtual” drill driver. Then it’s already been delivered! Fixed it.
JoeM
…I’m so, so sorry… but the only thing I can think between the prototype from a year ago, and the new connected edition is… “Oh Look… They’ve made a Sith Edition! That original was SO Rebel Alliance… I’m glad they’re considering the Dark Side as a backer for their product!”
I know… that was lame… and off topic… but if I didn’t get that joke out of my head it was going to drive me insane…
…But it really doesn’t change a lot for me from the original. Sure, I’m glad they upgraded their campaign to wearing grown-up pants, instead of the kiddie clothes they dressed it up in originally… That cheesy 80’s style dance video was a bit much for me to tolerate their efforts on this one… But it hasn’t changed what I think about it much. That sensor sticking out above the trigger is still out of place, the buttons look like they’re designed for 1980’s blenders, and there’s this… Gloss… An undeniable Gloss… I don’t know why, but looking at it be so reflective, despite being a coloured plastic instead of a polished metal… it’s like the visual equivalent of hearing nails on a chalk board… something that makes your teeth feel uncomfortable to continue experiencing…
Listen… I know they’re trying to innovate something, make a drill that does more of the work… That is admirable… But… the old saying goes “Measure Twice, Cut Once” right? It’s very wise to do all your layout and measuring before you start, because it may reveal where you don’t need to drill at all… This is a Drill that is also a Layout tool, so you can do Layout on the fly… but it requires you to already be ready to Drill to operate… So what is this really helping in this form?
Bravo for trying to innovate… but major failure in both execution, and professionalism of the presentation… and I mean that in as kind a phrasing as I can muster. What they tried to accomplish, and smart tool use, diverge pretty far from eachother. And I don’t think it’s entirely one fault or another. I think it just… Diverged from feasibility and usage once that sensor was added below the main drill body.
Kingsley
Whilst this may turn out to be vapourware and its usefulness is maybe questionable… we have been and still are going through a global pandemic that has caused mainstream manufacturers to have problems with production, raw materials and components.