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This is a solid step in proving that the project isn't just a dream and isn't vaporware. Although I wonder why a plain board would be ordered, when it looks to
by retroafroman 15y ago
This is a solid step in proving that the project isn't just a dream and isn't vaporware. Although I wonder why a plain board would be ordered, when it looks to be all very small SMT components that a hobbyist would have a difficult time with anyway?
- lgeek 15y agoThey won't be selling unpopulated PCBs, only assembled boards.
- retroafroman 15y agoRight, but on the blog post they say they'll offer a few to the community most likely. 100 seems a little excessive for a board test batch, but maybe it was the smallest order number they could get.
- polshaw 15y ago100 seems reasonable for QA when you are planning on making >10K right after. They are auctioning these 100 boards (populated).
- tb 15y agoExactly. You might make 10 for your early prototypes but it's not unusual to make 100 or more for the final test run.
- sliverstorm 15y ago100 boards doesn't cost all that much more than 10, IIRC.
- joezydeco 15y agoPopulating them takes 10 times as long, if you're doing it by hand. If you're programming a pick-and-place bot and loading up reels of components, that takes time too.
- sliverstorm 15y agoSure, but nobody said you were going to populate all 100. The point is sometimes simply to have "enough" boards on hand for testing that you don't need to do another run.
- nl 15y agoNo, they are going to populate them all, test them, then sell them. We’ve made 100 of these betas, which will now be populated with components... Raspberry Pis from this very first, small batch, will be going on sale when they’ve been tested http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/389 http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/389
- sliverstorm 15y agoA determined hobbyist can handle that stuff. As I understand, the only thing that really stops a determined hobbyist is BGA. Which, actually, might be exactly what the square in the middle is. In which case they certainly will not be marketing bare boards.
- shabble 15y agoSome BGAs are possible with the right size shims and a hot-air gun (even a cheap £20 gas iron with hot-air tip has worked in the past). Debugging/QA is utterly impossible though (since it generally involves x-rays), so if it doesn't work, you get to start over.
- sliverstorm 15y agoYup, I totally want to try my hand at it sometime, but the complete lack of debug/qa seems critical enough I wouldn't ever claim to be "able to do bga". Settle for "I did a bga once".
- bisrig 15y agoOr a toaster oven and reflow controller a la the Sparkfun board (though a bunch of other hobbyist folks have done the same or similar). Agree on the debugging part though.