[Arm-netbook] It arrived in the post just now!

[luke.leighton]

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 8:37 PM, Ryan Mullen <rmmullen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Luke,
>
> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 3:20 PM, luke.leighton <luke.leighton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  ... well, they didn't.  ok, they hit us with a one-off charge... and
>> then did 30 boards by hand.
>
> How was the $133 per board spent?

 fees, rush fees, component costs (including small-volume and some
over-ordering), boards, setup fees, agent fees, shipping fees.  out of
the 25 that went to everyone we made just enough to be able to pay for
5 extra boards which have gone to big clients.

 the boards were much more expensive than you'd normally expect
because they had to be laser-drilled (6 micron).  in 10k quantity
they'd be $1.50 but in qty as low as 30 if memory serves me correctly
we were lucky to get away with $30 each.


> The shop I work for routinely deals
> with contract manufacturers in relatively small volumes and I doubt
> the price for raw boards, components, and automated assembly would be
> that high. Doing the fine-pitch stuff by hand is not a good idea and
> it seems that the money we put into it should have been adequate to
> cover the automated assembly. Was part of the price for someone's
> labor?

 labour fees, rush fees, setup fees, agent shipping fees and shipping
fees.  so... yes.

> In the future, if you want to contact me off-list with the relevant
> documentation, I could maybe get some quotes from the CMs we've used
> just so that we get a chance to shop around.

 ask them how much it would be for doing 6 micron laser-drilled holes
for only say 30 boards (i think it's something like 1600 vias) with 3
micron tracks and 3 micron track-to-track clearance.  6 layer, 45mm x
71mm (or thereabouts) 1.2mm thickness.  no blind vias.  i think you'll
be a little bit surprised at the cost (in small quantities).


> Just to be clear, I'm not upset about spending the money. I am just
> disappointed that it seems like we're going to have more rework on our
> hands than we deserve.

 you and me both.  i've got 3 boards here, 3 out with large clients -
and not to mention 25 or so of you guys.

 we used someone that allwinner recommended - wits-tech.  now we have
to contact our clients and say "very sorry big clients on whom the
future of this project is critically dependent for large volume orders
but the people who assembled the samples might have done a really poor
job, we need to check or you need to check".

 so... yeah.  i've kept pretty quiet up until now, but it's been one
series of cock-ups from wits tech after another.  wits tech are
supposed to be allwinner's top recommended ODM and they don't
communicate, don't do their jobs, don't check things, and they make
unauthorised board changes without consultation.

 all i can say is that the list of things i will need to check going
forward for future boards and future work is going up and up.

 but... we move forward.  no giving up or going "oh dear oh dear" -
always it will be "how do we get from where we are to where we want to
be".  no matter what happens.

l.