Due to frequent assembly requests, Sensebridge now offers pre-assembled North Paws! If you lack the time or skills to assemble a North Paw yourself, this is your way to get in on the fun! Eric Boyd (one of the creators of the first North Paw) will assemble your North Paw for you. We keep a small stock already assembled, so they should ship quickly. It’ll be as robust as it’s possible to make a North Paw, and he’ll personally test it before shipping to make sure that everything is in working order.

You will still have to do two things to make it fully functional for you, however:

1) Calibration. The North Paw V2.0 compass requires calibration to the local magnetic fields. This basically requires triggering the calibration mode, and then moving the North Paw around for about 30 seconds. Watch the calibration video.

2) Customization. Depending on the size of your ankles, you might have to move some of the motors around inside the armature in order to make the circle the right size to fit you. Basically, you don’t want two motors to overlap when it’s around your ankle, nor do you want the gap between the first and last motors to be too much larger than the gab between the other motors. Motors are mounted on velcro dots, so moving them is not difficult, but it can be a little tedious.

These two things are the final two steps in the assembly, you can read them in detail on the Final Assembly page (just scroll to the bottom).

In addition, the North Paw pre-assembled has to be recharged on a regular basis (battery life is 12-24 hours, depending on your activity levels, so once a day is more than sufficient, sometimes you can get two full days). You’ll have to supply a mini-USB cable, and a place to plug it in – we do not supply these since most people have lots of those kind of things lying around.

If you’d like a Preassembled North Paw, they are available for $199: