The humongous Sandy Electronics thread...

[RWAP]

That is good news - does that mean my microdrive cartridges will be on their way soon?

[Dave]

I think he has emailed me (Francis Barrett), as he didn't get a response by phone or email - I have given him your new phone number from the website.

I've checked my entire email and customer database and I don't see any Francis Barrett...

[Dave]

That is good news - does that mean my microdrive cartridges will be on their way soon?

*looks at funds* Yes, I can do that now. They've missed today's mail, but you'll get tracking numbers tomorrow. I'll divide it into separate packages to keep the individual package values below threshold for you.

[Dave]

I started calling customers until I found out who it was that was trying to contact me. Now I have established contact I know what the issue is and I'm resolving it. Yay!

[Dave]

I haven't shipped out any pads in just over two weeks - I am unhappy with the quality of this batch. I mentioned earlier that I had ordered more felt. It has arrived and I am still not satisfied with it. While it would work, it does not meet the quality of the first and second batches. It is much more coarse, and I do not want people to suffer problems because of wear.

I have contacted my rep at 3M and explained the situation. They are sending me some small samples of two or three other stock materials that they say are "compatible" but, of course, they are much more expensive.

In the meantime, I am putting a hold on any more felt pad orders until I can get a supply of felt that is suitable.

I'll keep you posted.

Separately, I have issued refunds to those that have requested them. I have three refunds outstanding due to shortage of funds in the business account. This is in part because I do not spend money from unshipped orders. Once that is settled, I will get back to SuperRAM and the other projects, one at a time.

Overall, things are looking a lot better than they were a month or two ago.

The one other line we were pursuing was assembling the last 20 or so Aurora PCBs. That is still the plan. We just need to get all the parts where they need to be, etc.

[Dave]

Just a quick update. The replacement felt arrived today and it's much better than the last batch I received and wrote off.

I have laser time booked for the 18th. All felt pad orders will be brought current on the 20th and 21st.

[Dave]

Sooo. Bad news from my 3M rep.

The current batch I have is the last of this material they are going to stock. It was made in 2006, and they do not have enough orders to make any more. I secured the last of the good stuff. That's a 12" (30cm) x 22" (55cm) sheet.

I laser cut what I had on Saturday, and I'll be mailing out ALL the outstanding orders today and tomorrow. I'll laser cut the final sheet when it arrives, and when I know how many felt pads that makes after quality checking them all, they will be put in a final sale. I reject about 30% of them because of either carbon, angled edges (where the pad starts to fall while being cut) or uneven adhesive.

So, expect me to list the LAST BATCH of felt pads around this weekend.

SuperRAM - I'm re-doing the board as a 4-layer board. As it will sit parallel to the UltimIDE and UltraQ boards, noise has to be far lower than has been acceptable in past QL expansions. Nasta's just waiting for me to send him the final pin-out of the logic. I'll take my time on it - it's an opportunity for me to switch PCB design programs. Also, if I am using the same PCB program Nasta uses, we can exchange schematics etc -it will help communication and prevent errors.

It's been good to have a positive week.

Sorry to an Ampex reel to reel owners out there who will no longer be able to get felt stock for their classic Ampex 14XX family tape recorders!

Dave

[Dave]

Well, here it is.

This is the last pack of the felt material. I've booked laser time and will cut it tomorrow. I expect to realize around 6,000 - 7,000 more pads but this will sadly be the last batch I make from this felt. [1]

2,000 are already reserved. I'll sell the rest in 100-pad lots at cost price, as I have now recovered my investment in developing them and tracking down the materials. I'll pre-make them all into 100-pad batches so they can ship out right away just by addressing them. That'll happen next week. For those orders, I will take a week of orders then ship all the orders the following Monday. As I'm driving to a farther away post office now, I need to keep fuel/driving costs under control.

[1] So far I have paid $1.16/sq inch for the felt. I got a quote from 3M - $12/sq inch for future custom supplies. If I order 1440 sq inches for $17,280 (10x 12x12" squares), they'll make a full run batch (24" x 192") - that's about 100x what I paid for the last of this old batch when you allow for set-up fees. It was always a non-stock item I got by severe string-pulling, and I just don't have the strings to pull any more.

[Dave]

I got an earlier slot this evening. I used a different laser that has much finer power, frequency and speed control. We got the settings dialed in to such a degree that I could cut through the felt and 90% of the backing paper, but the pads stay attached, *only just*. This eliminates a LOT of rejects because it holds the cut pads in position and they do not fall under the laser during a later pass. I looked at this batch with a loupe and I think they're about 97-98% good. There is a fraction more carbon on the sides, but it is closer to batch 2 and 3, and significantly better than batch 1.

The main advantage of this is it will now take me no time at all to check, measure and ship pads. No sorting, checking, sticking, counting, re-checking.... That used to be 90% of the work before.

I shipped out most of the orders on Tuesday, a few on Monday and a couple this afternoon. I'll get the orders current, then I'll put up the new pricing and put them back on sale on Monday. Which reminds me, I need to email all the orders I shipped and update them.