Yeah, I thought the title was a little exaggerated, too. They aren't the only Kickstarter to ship hardware on time. I shipped my hardware Kickstarter on time, and I did all the hardware and software design, and made the product in the US. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/synthino/synthino-xm-po...

Hehehe, yeah admittedly the "actually" part was exaggerated, but it definitely hit a nerve. There is this sort of tacit understanding hardware kickstarters are often late, but obviously not all, as all the good folk who have posted their own on here have shown.

What level of fidelity (e.g. self-made prototype, small batch of manufactured prototypes, etc.) would you recommend before going on kickstarter?

it really depends, I have my own pick&place and can do small production runs at home. Before I announced my kickstarter I'd run ~50 prototypes and was running a (free) beta test with a small interested group

I think you need to have something real to show people, absolutely NO handwaving.

I think it's a good idea for inexperienced creators to design before the Kickstarter launch, but I wouldn't want to exclude the genuinely riskier ideas that require funding for R&D. Kickstarter's a perfect venue for that, assuming everyone knows the risks.

Mind giving a link to your project?

oh sure here it is:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/moonbaseotago/onerng-an...

Ah, nice writeup about the production, too!