Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

a) Shane and I are working on the last 3 kits to get to 100%: the '300VCO
(about 35% finished), the '480VCF and the '800EG (I shipped 1 batch but need
to make 9 more kits). The '480 uses the CA3280 dual OTA, and I need to test
them because I think 1 date code is out-of-spec. I'm not going to get to
that until ~ July 3rd. So, assembled, kit and Extra Parts Kits are delayed
until testing is completed.

b) I am in the process of getting rails that have the wider screw end-slots
to accomodate European rack screws. I an using 2 or maybe even 3 Asian
suppliers (cough). It remains to be seen when they arrive and if they are
MOTM-quality. I am asking the vendors to submit 1 sample first. I will keep
you posted on the progress. Expect rails to be out of stock until late July.
If things go well, I will be able to drop the price back to $49/pr AND have
a 2 year supply. I have had wonderful results from my Asian pc board
supplier and I hope the trend continues (on a side note: I and not
particularly happy with going 'over there' but the prices quoted for these
items in the US are getting to the point of being silly).

c) I am also in the process of having my wire quoted outside the US. I have
issued a 'stop-gap' PO from a local supplier but the prices are ∗3 times∗
what I paid just 1 year ago. There is a 50-50 chance I will run out of the
wire to finish kits/assembled modules until more arrives. I also have some
wire in reserve for the RR E350 Editions but not enough to build all 10 of
them. I can't afford to spend $1400 on just the ∗wire∗ to finish off the
backlog, so (hopefully) I can get an overseas supplier to provide (the cost
is 95% labor). I should get the quotes back by Friday. Shipping wire is a
LOT cheaper than shipping MOTM-19A 1018 alloy CRS 3mm stock steel rails.

d) Monday afternoon I will get more connector boards for the MOTM-900
supplies, so if you have a kit or assembled MOTM-900 on order they will ship
this week. I am sending ∗out∗ to the assembler more MOTM-960s (40) to be
soldered up. Note that I am carefully watching the charge I get back on
these and will try to hold my price steady, but if it deviates from the last
batch the "savings" will be passed on 1:1 (maybe a $1 increase). I'm not in
a position to absorb all these price increases. I'm a bit low on knobs and
tomorrow will see if Tyco decided to jack those prices up (usually Tyco
increases prices every June 15th). The fun never stops.

e) the next 2 weeks, I am moving from kits to assembled backlog. A few kits
will ship here and there over this time, but I plan to spend 8hrs/day just
soldering modules together. Last week I shipped 33 kits out, tomorrow I'm
shipping about 12 more. Overall, as of this moment there are 97 orders left
to ship, of those 27 have already had something shipped prior. This may seem
like a lot, but really it's the lowest point since June 2004. By July 1 the
overall number will drop from 97 to around 70, maybe as low as 60. Assuming
my CA3280 testing doesn't end 'poorly', all MOTM kits will be shipped out by
July 15. This should drop the overall order backlog to around 30. Sometime
in August I expect it to be 0. The last time it was 0 was May of 1999. So
it's going to be a bittersweet moment.

f) R&D does continue in the background on the CG and the MT in 5U. I am
spending a few days in early July to finish the next Euro module pc board
layout, and to finalize the MOTM-520 schematic. I will start pc board layout
of the MOTM-520 (the Cloud Generator) in September. It is pretty complicated
(a 6 or 8 layer pc board) and will take a few weeks of work. We are
upgrading the control MPU chip (the older MPU chip I will use in a Euro
module) and this should also simplify the power supply. There will be
MOTM-520s for Christmas :) We will put the 'hooks' in place for the CGX
(Expansion module) so that can ship when ready.

Of course, all of the above ∗assume∗ I am without gainful full-time
employment (which is likely). If by some miracle I do get a new job, MOTM
will have to take a back-seat. Except for a previous 14-month stint where I
was also unemployed in 2003-2004, it's sort of always been that way. I don't
want it to sort of 'fizzle away', I just need to rethink what to do later in
the year after the backlog is shipped, the CG and MT are well along their
way.

At least I'll have lots of rails to sell :)

Paul S.