[hpsdr] Pandora thought

[John Ackermann N8UR]

I heard back from the manufacturer.  As I suspected, they would treat 
the plain box as a separate run -- as he put it, "the moment we make 
changes ... there is no manufacturing tie between the two units."

There's not a lot of cost reduction that arises from the simplification; 
we don't pay anything for cuts in the sheet metal.  There would be some 
decrease because of fewer pieces (no top hatch and no slot covers) as 
well as reduction in the number of PEM nuts.  Together those might be a 
few dollars per box, but not a major reduction.

There are also setup fees that have to be amortized over the number of 
units, and at quantity 25 that would be almost $20 per box (more if 
there was any silkscreened logo or lettering).

Based on his back-of-the-envelope estimate, I think TAPR would have to 
charge at least $150 each if we did a run of 25 "PC" (Pandora Companion) 
enclosures.  If we got to quantity 100, the numbers make a bit more sense.

We can certainly start an interest list to see what kind of quantity we 
would end up with at those prices, and I'll see if we can do that.

John
----

John Ackermann N8UR wrote:
> Hi Frank --
> 
> I think it's very unlikely.  The enclosure is custom sheet metal (not 
> made from an existing case) and the parts are cut in one shot, so the 
> CNC pattern cuts the two "U" pieces with the cutouts included.  So 
> instead of reducing costs, I think it would be prohibitively expensive 
> to do a cabinet without the cutouts, unless we could do a run of at 
> least one hundred.
> 
> John
> ----
> 
> FRANCIS CARCIA said the following on 03/14/2009 02:36 PM:
>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Hi all,
>> I wonder if it would be possible to buy a Pandora without any holes 
>> drilled in the case. Maybe just the vent holes and the fan cut out. 
>> Also no trap door in the lid. After a careful look My final would not 
>> fit with the power supply. A second box would allow users to to roll 
>> their own final or other interface. I would think the price could drop 
>> a bunch and drive total quantity up making everything cheaper. A 
>> second box match the basic HPSDR and isolate high power RF from the 
>> low level circuits. Frank WA1GFZ
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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