Makes sense.
This means the nails as they come, on top of the chip for a Wedge… might still be viable.
Might… Let’s see how the example we got implanted behaves within a couple more months.
I would still be apprehensive with them (with or without resin backing) on a disk form-factor though…
It sounds like this is a manufacturing process difficulty exclusively that cased this decision, is there much concern about the ones that did survive encapsulation failing in vivo?
And should they fail, do we expect it affects the reliability of the tag as a whole or just the LEDs?
yes both manufacturing issues and it is still unproven if the resin coating will actually help the LEDs survive in the wild… a lot of unknowns… too many… so I’m just shutting it down until we can sort a better solution.
not necessarily… they will just stop working but the chip should still work fine in the flexMN or flexMT with LEDs.
Yup, I’m doing that. PaulT is also doing something similar. The NFC fingernails are also flex PCBs, they’re just design, fabricated, and populated very poorly because they’re cheap disposables. Feel free to ping me if you want to chat about it sometime.
Exactly what I would be concerned about! 
Those are made as mass product in China, what do you expect.
Would it be a responsible decision not to install it
but rather wait for a (possible) 2nd gen alternative?
possibly yes… it’s up to you of course… it might be worth it to you to put it in anyway.
Infuriatingly, my dead flexNExT’s blinkies are still working perfectly fine despite my hitting them repeatedly in the workshop…
Say Amal, would it be a solution to stick them on a hard backing - like a piece of credit card? They’d be hard spots on the larger flexMN, so perhaps not great for the final package. But perhaps it’d work.
As of: install the chip, pray not to fail, wait the 2nd gen to come out and swap if needed?
Maybe but ultimately a redesign and quality manufacturing is the best option so we gonna do that 
So far I am happy to have mine in.
Not only because that little dot of light sure does bring me joy, but also because we can gather more data about it.
I still want to implant the nails by themselves as well (got some ready).
And I stick by my theory that the disc shape with varied rigidity is the big issue forcing those nails to bend in a way they are not meant to. So having my Wedge blinkie for a few more months should help with that.
Also @anon3825968’s case is another good indicator on this theory.
Not discarding that these nails are indeed of poor quality, so really happy for @amal’s approach of R&Ding a better solution.
Indeed…
Although so is basically everything techy, Such as every Mobile Phone out there!
Except for iPhones. Those have each component properly hardened with children’s tears. 
Blikies? Sure, I’m convinced.
But…
Nowadays I kinda like preserving my remaining assets.
And this includes acquiring the least scars possible.
Yeah yeah I’m hip about that. Just thinking aloud is all.
