| 01:13.21 | lkcl | penguin42: it depends on the PCB manufacturer. |
| 01:14.02 | lkcl | if they *just* manufacture PCBs, then no. they have a list of telephone numbers, they order the parts, wait for them to arrive, and when they arrive, put them on the boards. |
| 01:14.17 | lkcl | and the client will have had to have paid cash up-front for the parts. |
| 01:14.31 | penguin42 | lkcl: The list of phone numbers might not be a bad start |
| 01:14.37 | lkcl | it's not that simple. |
| 01:14.59 | lkcl | it's very very easy to design a product that's incredibly expensive. |
| 01:15.20 | penguin42 | yeh, I guess this stage is what gets called 'design for manufacture' |
| 01:15.34 | lkcl | you go out searching on the internet for random parts, you throw them together and you come up with a product that costs 3x more than anything else that's available |
| 01:16.05 | lkcl | because you're getting absolutely shafted by the parts suppliers who put on markups that effectively put you out of business. |
| 01:16.25 | lkcl | the problem is that for each part, there may be 10 to 100 suppliers |
| 01:16.30 | lkcl | FOR EVERY PART |
| 01:16.45 | penguin42 | suppliers or manufacturers? |
| 01:16.53 | lkcl | you now have a list of potentially ... five thousand telephone numbers |
| 01:17.20 | lkcl | well if it's suppliers, the number of telephone numbers will literally be in the tens of thousands |
| 01:17.37 | lkcl | manufacturers. |
| 01:18.01 | lkcl | ellen's managed to find a company that has an *unlisted* PCMCIA header. |
| 01:18.20 | lkcl | they sell it almost exclusively to a company in france (probably a Satellite TV box company) |
| 01:18.45 | penguin42 | I guess I hadn't realised that there was enough business for so many manufacturers of essentially the same parts |
| 01:19.06 | lkcl | well they're knock-offs |
| 01:19.18 | lkcl | or they are suppliers to the "big-brand" companies. |
| 01:19.29 | lkcl | it's below the public (internet) radar. _well_ below. |
| 01:20.17 | lkcl | so these manufacturers make parts for the "big-brand" companies like FCI, or Molex, and they go "hmmm, we could sell these cheaper to some of our customers, directly, let's just remove the branding label on the plastic"... |
| 01:20.31 | penguin42 | I'd just assumed there was only enough business for say 10 or so companies to produce something like that pcmcia header |
| 01:20.56 | lkcl | well, we have no idea how many |
| 01:21.28 | lkcl | so that's why we have to put a call out, to find as many as possible, and compare them. |
| 01:21.41 | lkcl | it's so ridiculously complex, just to find 6 parts! |
| 01:21.47 | penguin42 | nod |
| 01:22.15 | lkcl | the thing is: we can't just use a random supplier, either, who happens to have a cheap bunch of 10,000 connectors. |
| 01:22.18 | penguin42 | I guess the good thing about finding someone who supplies to someone (this french satellite tv guys) is that it's not just someone saying 'sure we can make those to that spec' and who've not even tried yet |
| 01:22.28 | lkcl | and is looking to sell them off to make room in their warehouse |
| 01:22.36 | lkcl | yes, there's that too. |
| 01:23.08 | lkcl | we really do need a regular supply line, and to not get ripped off as well. |
| 01:23.19 | penguin42 | yeh you need enough to be able to guarantee you not needing to have to respin the boards for a different connector |
| 01:23.25 | lkcl | precisely |
| 01:26.22 | penguin42 | if they ask for a commitment how many can you go upto? |
| 01:44.33 | penguin42 | http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/ is an interesting board (A8) |
| 01:45.16 | penguin42 | looks at the price - Woooow |
| 01:45.30 | penguin42 | <PROTECTED> |
| 04:25.22 | *** join/#arm-netbook ManoftheSea (~dlahouss@72.22.81.52) |
| 09:53.02 | CaCtus491 | The Mele box looks interesting - something to play with until the EOMA card is done :) |
| 12:07.25 | *** join/#arm-netbook gordan (~gordan@78-86-195-86.zone2.bethere.co.uk) |
| 12:50.20 | *** join/#arm-netbook penguin42 (~dg@tu006.demon.co.uk) |
| 15:00.35 | *** join/#arm-netbook gordan (~gordan@78-86-195-86.zone2.bethere.co.uk) |
| 15:18.09 | lkcl | CaCtus491: yes exactly. and not at $250 either |
| 15:18.36 | lkcl | penguin42: welll.... it _would_ be interesting, in quantity 1,000. |
| 15:18.57 | lkcl | dr schaeller picked components that are available all the way from qty 1 right the way to mass-volume pricing |
| 15:19.20 | lkcl | but it gives you some idea of how insanely pricey these components really are (3G modems etc.) |
| 15:25.10 | *** join/#arm-netbook A3Sheds (~L84Supper@adsl-75-60-21-139.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net) |
| 17:14.20 | penguin42 | lkvl: Would q1000 really make that big a difference given it's currently over E600 ? |
| 17:14.59 | penguin42 | €600 should I say (finding it on alt-gr $) |
| 17:34.38 | *** join/#arm-netbook toxicpsion (~toxicpsio@out-ab-132.wireless.telus.com) |
| 19:39.59 | mnemoc | mine alt-gr + $ gives £ :( |
| 19:40.10 | mnemoc | damn US layout |
| 19:41.28 | mnemoc | € at alt-gr + 5... odd place to put it |
| 20:45.25 | *** join/#arm-netbook dyoung (dyoung@nasadmin/dyoung) |