MOTM

a) Paul H. has returned and module shipping will start again in a day or 2. We 
are low on MOTM-190 panels so not all requests for '190 kits can ship this 
month. I will order more this week. I did talk to the sheet metal vendor I 
currently use and hopefully can get the '650 rolling along.

I do have a lead on a "local" (45mi away) vendor, I will talk to them this week.

b) I did run tests on the new smaller-sized tempco and they perform as well as 
the current larger one. So, as I run out of pc boards that use them *after* 
March 1st these will start showing up in modules. You will still need heat-sink 
compound, but just not as much. They will be used first on Frac-Rack modules.

c) I am working 90% of my time on assembled modules. Currently building some 
'485s and '300s. I have built and tested around 45 pc boards. I plan to ship all 
of these as assembled modules between now and Christmas. This is about 70% of 
the current backlog. I wish there was some way to speed this up but really there 
isn't (well, and make money!). Looking forward to the Frac-Rack modules where 4 
pc boards at a time are assembled by a 8-head SMT shooter (it picks up 8 parts 
at once and then sequences across the 4 boards, 2 'touches' per board. It does 
this operation (get 8 parts, place 8 parts) every 1.66 seconds. For example, the 
MOTM-485 has about 81 'touches' x 4 = 324/8 x 1.66sec = 1 minute and 8 seconds 
to stuff 4 boards!

Paul S.