Hello FreeCalypso community, I have some progress on the FCDEV3B V2 front:
1) My Altium PCB contractor (John in Colorado) has delivered a set of gerber files which will hopefully be final for FCDEV3B V2, i.e., will be used for the upcoming PCB fabrication order. The files are on the FTP site. 2) I have placed the orders with Digi-Key (the source for "regular" parts) and Jotrin (my Chinese grey market supplier for the "difficult" ones) for all of the parts that will be needed to assemble these boards. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I plan on starting the process of ordering new PCBs in another week or two. The cost for the PCB run is expected to be somewhere just under 3 kUSD - as my finances stand currently, I should be able to cover it on my own - and the process of getting the PCB order placed correctly will involve extensive human interaction between me and my contacts at the same PCB fab that did our FCDEV3B V1 boards. Finally, the assembly will be done once we have the PCBs and all of the parts. My already-placed parts orders with Digi-Key and Jotrin are both quantitied for 20 boards, and I plan on ordering 5 4-up PCB panels, also for 20 boards. However, there is no guarantee that 20 good working boards will come out at the end: we may have yield issues, or there may be some human error in the assembly process that would cause one or two panels to be lost. In other words, 20 boards total, counting both good and bad ones. However many good boards we are going to get, they will be available in two ways: 1) For commercial customers, any member of the general public will be able to buy one or more boards for $500 apiece, just like before - they will be tested, known-working boards off the stock shelf, i.e., zero risk to the customer. 2) For community members who support the mission of FreeCalypso and uphold the philosophical principles behind the project, but cannot afford the $500 price, I will make a limited number of subsidized boards available at no cost. My current tentative plan is to give out up to 4 subsidized boards per year; the exact terms of this subsidy program have not been worked out yet - I will work out the details when I actually have some boards to give out - but the basic gist will be as follows: * Subsidized boards only for individual hobbyist tinkerers, not for commercial entities. * Absolutely no subsidized boards for OsmocomBB - if someone wishes to run OsmocomBB on our boards, they are more than welcome to do so, but they would need to pay the full commercial price. The subsidy program is for those who are interested in our boards for their Mother-intended purpose of running our TI-based FreeCalypso firmware. * FreeCalypso hardware exists for the purpose of running FreeCalypso sw and fw, not the other way around. In order to be eligible for a subsidized board, a candidate recipient would need to express strong vocal support for the core ideals and values behind FreeCalypso. My primary envisioned target audience for this subsidy program is those people who would love to play with our FreeCalypso modem firmware and see everything it can do, but can't afford the price of the needed hardware. For commercial users: while you won't be eligible for the subsidy program, fully tested and known-working boards will be available for purchase off the stock shelf. For larger quantities, there will also be the option of doing custom production runs to order. All of these commercial options will become available *after* I build the first batch of FCDEV3B V2 boards and prove the new design as good. Hasta la Victoria, Siempre, Mychaela aka The Mother _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] https://www.freecalypso.org/mailman/listinfo/community
