[hpsdr] [OZY] QFP or BGA?

[Lyle Johnson]

> Also board assembly costs are getting pretty cheap for small runs.
> Personally I'd rather have machine assembled units, I'm getting too old to hand solder SMT.

It takes me about 20 minutes to solder up a DSPx module when I need to. 
  It costs me close to $10 each to have them assembled in multi-hundred 
lots, and I have to wait a few weeks to get them.  And I had to pay a 
non-trivial cost to get the vendor set up to produce the assemblies.

I suspect Ozy would cost about the same.  Will we be able to "sell" 200 
or so Ozy?  Who is going to foot the bill and take the risk?  Figure 
about a grand for setup costs, and the price of 3 or 4 Alpha boards 
becomes pretty high.

In the end, we have to balance risk and cost against system needs.  If 
the system can be designed with parts that have leads, risk is minimized 
and up front cost (time and dollars/euros/pesos) becomes negligible.

No one has trouble manufacturing with TQFP/PQFP, and they are 
straightforward to hand assemble for those who prefer to do so.

If Ozy *needs* the extra IO lines then the answer is clear: go BGA and 
pay for an assembly house to make them.  There will be NRE set up costs 
in addition to the basic cost of assembly. We'll likely spend about $150 
to $250/board for the Alphas to get them assembled if done by "BGA 
hand/rework" techniques.  The NRE will still have to be paid for production.

If Ozy does not *need* the extra IO lines, then the choice is clear: 
TQFP/PQFP.  No NRE for Alphas.  No delays.  Easier, faster, cheaper...

If Phil decides to go BGA and someone really, really wants PQFP, they 
can make a derivative.   Or vice-versa.  It is, after all, open source :-)

Finally, if the cost of Ozy-with-BGA + JANUS + ATLAS exceeds the cost of 
a *good* soundcard, then...

73,

Lyle KK7P


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