Hooray, the next batch of boards has arrived after after a bit of an adventure – FedEx delivered them late and to the wrong address! Fortunately it was a nice old lady down the street who received the boards and she brought them over to me. I now have stock. All you people holding off [...]
Remember those new boards I got yesterday? Well, they all sold today. Bam! just like that! So I guess I’m still out of stock until the next batch arrives :(
A sample batch of boards have arrived today. Hooray! They all work. Hooray! Overall I am happy with the boards and as an added bonus they are now RoHS compliant and look a lot neater than the hand-soldered ones. There were a few downsides with the process though, the main one being the length of [...]
I’m currently attempting to get a batch of RS232 Rate Converters made in China, I’ve been getting the PCBs etched in China for months now so this is the logical next step. The biggest problem so far has been sourcing the parts. I’m getting most of the stuff from DigiKey because they specialize in smaller [...]
The Serial Bit Rate Converter runs an ARM7 CPU which is complete overkill for the simple job of relaying serial data. I’ve often thought I should redesign it to run a cheaper and less powerful CPU like a PIC or AVR. I originally designed it with an ARM7 simply because I like them and enjoy [...]
Finally I have all the parts and I spent last night assembling ten boxes to fill my first order. It looks not half bad. Next I need to set up a web page and finalize pricing so anyone can buy one. So what is a Volume Box I hear you ask? Well, the Volume Box [...]
I’m getting orders for the Volume Box already. I haven’t even put up a web page for it. But wouldn’t you know it, the plastic case I want is not in stock with any of my regular suppliers (at least, those ones who are not still on extended Christmas holiday) so I’m having to get [...]
The Volume Box board is assembled and tested, the last few firmware bugs are squished and the only thing missing now is the machined end panel for the plastic case and it is ready to sell! Here are the lessons I have learned: 1. PICs can be a mighty pain in the bum to debug, [...]
I’ve finally taken delivery of my first batch of printed circuit boards for the Volume Box. They look real nice. As usual I got them from Gold Phoenix of Shanghai – The quality of the boards is pretty good and their prices are good for very small runs. My chips and other parts have already [...]
Phew, my parts have finally arrived so I can start taking orders again for the RS232 Rate Converter. I was really stressed over the last week about having no stock but now I can breathe easy again.