[hpsdr] Type of kits forthcoming?...

[Steven Bible]

Hi Bruce,

I will speak as the TAPR Vice President and board member.

TAPR's position will be what its members say it is.  TAPR is a community of experimenters.  By paying dues to the organization this becomes seed money to develop projects such as HPSDR.  That's why you see a member and non-member price.  Members have already paid into the projects' development up front.  Non-members have not, and the price of the kit reflects that.  This is what we (the board of directors) believe when a member asks the question, "what's in it (TAPR membership) for me?"

HPSDR is a very fascinating project.  The open development, peer review, and conscience making is allowing lots of people to "get involved" in advancing the radio art.

Okay, so much for all the touchy-feely stuff, now, how to we get hardware into people's hands?

The answer is that it will cost what it costs.  Since TAPR is non-profit, we can benefit from lower costs.  But that's only if we can buy in high quantity and get volunteers to do the grunt work (kitting, packaging, etc).  The quantity number varies, but at a minimum we want to take advantage of the cost breaks at 100.  The next cost break is at 500.  And costs at 500 are better than 100 (and obviously, 1000 is better than 500).  But how do we know how many kits to produce?  This is why the show of interest sign up on http://www.hamsdr.com is very helpful in the buying decisions.  So if we can guarantee that 500 units will be sold, then we all benefit.  

There has been much discussion about kits, semi-kits, and assembled units.  Let me speak about the economics of each.

Kits are the love affair of the hobby.  We all love to build kits.  The reality is that kits are inexpensive, they bypass the cost of assembly and testing, and in some cases, compliance testing (such as FCC Part 15).  Semi-kits are also inexpensive, and bypass assembly, testing, and compliance issues.

But as we are all experiencing, the real interesting parts are surface mount only.  As hams develop the skills (and get over the fright) of assembling SMT parts, we will see more and more surface mount parts.  But there is a limit when it comes to the very fine pitch SMT parts, and worse yet, BGA.

So that leads us to discuss assembled units.  We can do this.  We can get price quotes from contract manufacturers (CM) and contract their services.  Naturally, this means you pay for this service.  Again, the cost depends on quantity.  The more we can build, the cheaper the per-unit costs.  

So as I see it, there are two issues, 1) knowing the right number to build, and 2) if we have enough money in the bank to fund the build.  Again, the interest poll on http://www.hamsdr.com is very important, and will be even more important as we move to built units.  Depending on the cost and the risk involved, we may need to take pre-orders with money in order to go forward with the build.  We will see what happens when we get closer to the build and we have firmer numbers to do our calculations.

Now, we have not even mentioned testing.  We can contract the CMs to do the testing.  Naturally, this costs money, and it is not cheap.  So my question to the group is do you want to pay for assembly and testing?  If we do not test, then we are sending questionable boards to everyone, and you have to test that the board is good.  Obviously, this risk is borne by the buyer.  What happens if the board is bad?  Do you eat the cost?  Does TAPR refund you?  

I would like to think of the funding of the HPSDR project much like a farmer's COOP.  Everyone pitches in.  We need volunteers to bag parts, drive them to the post office, write documentation, design the boards, count money, spend money, and (you get the idea).  But if everyone pitches in, then you have the benefit of having a darn good radio that you participated in its development.  And as I see HPSDR, development will never end.  It will always get updates, new boards, and ideas implemented.

In summary, these are the issues facing the community.  The reality of getting hardware into everyone's hands is that we need everyone to pitch in.  The cost will be what it is.  The cost of buying parts, contract manufacturing, testing, shipping, and whatever other overhead we have yet to identify.  There one rule that I will stand firm on is that TAPR will not go into the red.  We will cover all costs and maybe a little extra to fund future projects.  Considering this project's open nature, the costs will be openly discussed.  Everyone will see what the costs are up front.  This way there are no surprises.

I think I covered all the issues.  Everyone, please comment on the list.  Let's go ahead and have this discuss now and that will help determine how we are go forward.

- Steve N7HPR 
 (n7hpr at tapr.org)





-----Original Message-----
>From: Bruce K3CMZ <k3cmz at arrl.net>
>Sent: Jul 21, 2006 1:56 PM
>To: hpsdr at hpsdr.org
>Subject: Re: [hpsdr] Type of kits forthcoming?...
>
>***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
>I think we should ask:
>
> What is TAPR willing to provide?
>
> After all they should have a big say in just
>what is possible, and a cost factor is inportant.
>
> There may be third party people avalible to
>handle all the options, but for me I would like
>to see all of the options (plus cost) so that
>every one could make their choice!
>
> Bruce K3CMZ
>
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\r\n- Steve\r\n  (n7hpr at tapr.org)\r\n

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