osiweb.org

Would it be possible to keep each order open until it reaches the $25 point? I'd be OK with that, even if it takes a while for some of the boards. Also, is there a way to see how many preorders have been place for each board? At any rate, people could post in this thread when they preorder so we could have an approximate tally.

Perhaps the first post in this thread, (or maybe a new thread) could be kept up to date with a list of available boards, # of pre-orders (or even a list of names), # needed, the estimated price etc. When it looks like there are enough pre-orders the people could be contacted to verify they are still interested, pay, etc.

Steve

Sure, I can just keep them open until they reach the $25/board threshold! I can also write a view to show which preorders are active and how many people have signed up. I have an internal utility that shows me current totals, confirmed, et c. but I didn't think about other people wanting to see this information!

BTW, when I said "committed preorders," that means after close I have enough people who return my messages that I feel confident I'll get paid by them. Every preorder results in people who clicked the confirmation link but never answer when I send out the information with approximate costs at the close of the preorder.

FYI, the cost per-board, should you use a place like OSH Park, will be *very* high. Using e.g. PCBcart for a single board (I don't know if they even do singles) means you still have to pay the tooling fee, and shipping on a single large board usually costs more than the board. As long as I get more than a few people wanting a board, I do a run of 25 pieces, which gets us into the $25/board price. Like with the 560Z board, I expect to have boards sitting around for a good while, but they'll eventually sell and it means there won't be any short supply of them!

Here's the link to the screen with all active projects, the number of confirmed preorders, and a link to sign up for each preorder:

https://services.theglitchworks.net/ng/projects

Have you checked out DirtyPCB.com? Last year I used them for 7 different boards. The board quality was very good. They seem pretty reasonable, although I haven't really shopped around.

For a test, I submitted two boards for a price quote:

1) Superboard II 600D, board size 30.2x36.8cm,
Price for 10 boards was USD$155.

2) OSI 540B, board size 20.3x25.4cm,
Price for 10 boards was USD$126.
Price for 20 boards was USD$161.

Shipping was about USD$45 to $67, to me here in Canada.

Steve

Steve Gray wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2017 3:38 am I'm in for 1 each.
1 x 502
1 x 505
1 x 540B
1 x 580

Steve

FYI, I have pre-ordered these.

I have a few suppliers I work with who I know can actually get the job done. A lot of cheap Chinese board houses will quote and/or process an order for something as large as an 8x10 OSI board, and then either can't make it, or have a hard time making it. Some of them will farm it out to another company and you end up with a longer lead time because of it. Apparently lack of solder mask can be confusing -- the simple little Apple II protoboards I designed for some personal projects had an incredibly bad yield, even with PCBCart, who is a reputable and well-known Chinese board house. They ran the order twice and still couldn't completely fill it.

From your quotes, it sounds like DirtyPCBs is in line with most of the cheap far east board houses. I've never used them, the first time won't be on an order of OSI sized boards

I don't want to come off as being rude or anything, but this is an extension of my day-job contracting efforts. I have experience with running these boards. I also get to pay taxes on all of this, it counts as income. I end up sitting on several hundreds of dollars of inventory until they all sell. I don't *mind* any of this, because I'm not currently losing money, and because I feel like it really helps the hobby to have reproduction boards and new designs available without having to figure out a board run for yourself. That's why they cost $25 and not whatever the bottom quote from pcbshopper.com says

Could we add the 582 4 slot backplane to the active projects ?

glitch wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2017 9:10 pm From your quotes, it sounds like DirtyPCBs is in line with most of the cheap far east board houses. I've never used them, the first time won't be on an order of OSI sized boards

I'm sure you have way more experience in these things than I do. The 7 boards I made were all under half the size of the OSI 8x10 boards, so I have no experience with larger boards. I bow to your judgement, and appreciate you making these boards available. I agree it's important to get these boards done somewhere that will do it right, I'm just pointing out a place that I have dealt with that seemed to produce good results.

I think these reproduction boards are great, and definitely show the dedication of our small group of enthusiasts.

Steve

MK14HAK wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2017 2:25 am Could we add the 582 4 slot backplane to the active projects ?

Added and enabled!