All components sourced!

A component with unique characteristics had run out and another one had suddenly become obsolete. The intended replacements didn't work well enough upon testing. Back to searching, and with connections in Korea we were finally able to source all the correct parts, though they only sold these in reels of 3000.

The last package with the radio circuitry was received but the manufacturer forgot to add some of the parts so he had to send another parcel and we're, again, waiting for this new last package.

All this highlights the importance of keeping tons of stock when creating an electronic product. When the economy goes down plants are shut down and components can quite suddenly become scarce. Some components become obsolete due to better parts and designs coming out requiring lots of thought and at least some testing to be re-integrated. Finally shipments are sometimes unreliable, whether due to forgetfulness, customs delays or other reasons.

Keeping stock is especially problematic when you're a new business and still do not know what the market size is like.

This is one of the big deals in creating electronics that we had no clue about when we started out.



Misc issues with packaging and some overmolding parts are being solved as we move on, but we should be auto-assembling boards within a week or so.

Comments

By billone at 2010-12-09 08:36:48 Reply

You can substitute parts without having to redo the testing?

By dreamloverlabs at 2010-12-09 23:44:12 Reply

As long as the circuit is electrically identical you can substitute parts that have no electromagnetic emission impact such as an LED, a resistor, a low frequency transistor. You couldn't for instance change the radio circuitry (any part of it), use a different microcontroller, make any PCB changes, etc. which pretty much rules out any new hardware functionality.