From: Marko Mäkelä (marko.makela_at_hut.fi)
Date: 2005-01-31 21:33:18
On Mon, Jan 31, 2005 at 08:26:23PM +0100, Patrycjusz R. £ogiewa wrote:
> > It's not the first time I assemble some C2N232, and it's not the
> >first time I make some hundred PCBs. But I don't want to rush things
> >now, and my time is limited to prepare the production. I think I want
> >to make some minor changes to the V3 PCB, to be able to use the
> >cheapest (as in cost effective) components I can get. E.g. the SMD
> >oscillator was always a problem for me, I guess I have to use a wired
> >one, but of the same size. So everyone is warned now, and I will go on
> >discussing the details with Marko by email :)
>
> Funny thing is that I had similar plans. Actually I wanted to remake
> the board from scratch.
Maybe you two should cooperate. Nicolas can probably get the boards made
at a very competitive price, while Patryk could perhaps have cheaper mailing
costs for foreign orders. I worked together with Nicolas when I made the
first production run. He ordered some parts for me (it was easier and
cheaper to make a domestic order to the German component source), and he
also assembled and sold some units to German customers.
I don't think that it hurts to have multiple suppliers. By the way, also
I am interested in assembling and distributing some units or kits locally
if I can buy the components from one of you.
There are no big profits in the C2N232, unless you're going to sell it at
50 EUR or something like that. At 20 EUR (which I consider a reasonable
price), you should be able sell 100 units per year.
One possible hardware modification just occurred to me: what about using a
i/j*1.8432 MHz crystal where i and j are positive integers? In that way,
more standard RS-232 speeds would be possible, such as 57,600 bps, or maybe
even 115,200. That would require slightly different firmware, though, because
the tape (and serial bus) emulation timings would otherwise be wrong.
I don't know if such crystals are available in the 8..10 MHz range at a
reasonable price.
Marko
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