[hpsdr] Janus & Ozy.

[Lyle Johnson]

> But since several people on this list have a general idea of what the 
> cost is going to be, rather than casting dispersion they aught to state 
> if that information I saw is way off base, I would love for it to be so.

As would we all :-)

If I knew what the price was going to be, I would say so.  But I don't, 
and at this point *no one* does.

The price will be determined by:

1) PCB cost.  This is unknown since the quantity to be purchased is not 
known, and the final Gerber files have to be created, which won't happen 
until at least some Alpha 2 Janus boards are built and verified.

2) Parts cost.  The $30 quoted in a June estimate by someone here on the 
list was based on an incomplete BOM, and did not include the A/D 
converter which itself is in the $10 to $20 range nor the PC board. 
Coupled into this is the quantity at which price breaks occur, and 
minimum order levels for certain components.  Again, until Alpha 2 is 
working, the BOM won't be finalized, so the costing cannot be completed.

3) Assembly labor cost.  Unknown.  We've had two "ballpark" estimates 
which differ greatly.  This has to be nailed down, and will be once the 
Alpha 2...

4) Testing cost.  This will likely be done by volunteers, but this 
requires shipping product to the testing location(s), and then from the 
testing location(s) to the distribution point, so there are costs 
involved even if the labor is donated.  As well as one-time costs to get 
the test jigs built and tested.

5) Markup. Yes, TAPR is non-profit (which simply means there are no 
stockholders), but there are costs that must be covered and 
contingencies that must be accounted for.  TAPR will have spent well 
over $2,000 to get the Janus and Ozy through Alpha 2.  They also have to 
front the manufacturing set up fees, float the capital from parts 
ordering through product shipment, set aside funds for further R and D 
expense (Mercury, Horton, Phoenix, etc.).

Since items 1-5 are all unknown (which is different than undisclosed), 
it is impossible to state what the price will be for Janus, Ozy or any 
other portion of HPSDR that isn't ready for production.

One nice thing about this project is that if the price seems excessive, 
people can do a group buy of components and assemble things themselves. 
  Bare boards will be offered, and the Gerber files are and will be 
available for PCBs to be made.

At the TAPR Annual Meeting, some people were pressing for a number.  No 
one had sufficient information to provide one for the reasons listed 
above.  $500 was tossed out as a likely upper limit to satisfy those who 
demanded a preliminary figure and would not stop asking until they got one.

The simple fact that is that the cost, and therefore the price, was (and 
remains) unknown.

SPECULATION

I think it is reasonable to expect that the price for Janus + Ozy will 
be more than $200 and less than $500.  And I suspect the numbers will be 
known in the next few weeks.  And I could be wrong on both speculations.

Now, I need to get back to assembling the first Janus Alpha 2 board so 
we can get closer to finding out the cost!

73,

Lyle KK7P





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