[hpsdr] To kit or not to kit...............

[Lyle Johnson]

Hello Eric!

> In talking with Phil_H - VK6APH and Bill - KD5TFD on Teamspeak the past 2
> weeks, (I have not polled Phil_C) both feel that we won't need a Beta on the
> Janus or Ozy... 
> 
> I guess the first poll question should be should we delay production
> Janus/Ozy by 3 months or so, or take the personal risk (as we did with
> Atlas/Pinocchio) and have something to use?
> 
> Conventional wisdom would be to go the beta...

Another way to ask the question, is "Should we skip a test of the 
proposed final PCB layout and risk having a lot of expensive rework on 
assembled or partially assembled but untested boards -- or have to scrap 
the entire lot -- just so we can ship a few weeks sooner?"

While the changes may be minor, I have found that I *always* regret not 
having built a few instances of a new PCB layout before committing to 
production.  It have *never* not regretted it.

With the working alphas, we can certainly buy the parts for the initial 
production.  No need to wait.

Prototype PCBs only take a week or so, and to build and test the 
prototype boards should only take a couple of days.  We're not talking 3 
months added delay, we're talking 10 to 12 days.

So, my input is that once we have the alphas working, with the jumpers, 
etc., we spend the $150 or $200 per design and get another round of 
prototypes of 3 to 5 boards.  These don't have to go to the same alpha 
people, although at least one should for comparison purposes.  Once we 
know these beta PCBs are working as expected, we can spend the money to 
get a hundred, or hundreds, of PCBs made.  And we've tested the revised 
parts list, etc.

I see no reason to rush.  We are not reporting to anxious investors who 
are upset about our cash burn rate and want to see a return, we have no 
payroll to meet that requires some quick cash flow, and there is no 
time-to-market urgency because we just found out we have a competitor 
who is releasing their product a month sooner than we had expected, or 
that we're going to miss the Christmas window and lose sales and profits.

I'd rather be sure it is right.

73,

Lyle KK7P


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