[amsat-bb] Open source APRS tracker Kickstarter

[Bryce Salmi]

Yeah pick and place on two PCBA's will be hundreds of dollars per board for
just placement. Pick and place on hundreds of boards will be a few dollars
per board. Even this kickstarter is considered small quantities. making
several hundred of them is peanuts in comparison to board house production
runs!

Bryce

On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 7:43 AM, Wouter Weggelaar <wouterweg at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Stefan,
>
> That was not at all clear from a glance through the page.
> Normally I expect a section what the money is for and this page does not
> have that at all.
>
> I was just wondering why it needs 22000 instead of, say, 1000 for two
> prototypes.
> But if they need a pick and place machine set up, I guess this number is
> needed to pay for the machines minimum batch.
>
>
> Wouter
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 3:06 PM, Stefan Wagener <wageners at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Agree,
> >
> > He also wants to have the boards populated automatically to get away from
> > hand-soldering all the SMDs. Yes, the board layout and files are
> available
> > for free (open source) on his website including the source code (open
> > source) for the Arduino he is using. Actually very transparent operation
> > and yes, a simple email to Mike about his project will result in a very
> > quick response back.
> >
> > 73, Stefan, VE4NSA
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 7:54 AM, <skristof at etczone.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I don't think that $22,000 dollars is that much money for a start up
> >> company/project. If they want to produce these things in large
> quantities
> >> then they will need to invest in equipment or hire someone to do that
> for
> >> them.
> >>
> >> I'm sure that the hardware is already available if you want to build one
> >> of these on  your own. But I'm not that smart. I'd need to spend a year
> >> learning more stuff about computers and APRS protocol before I could
> even
> >> think about putting one of these things together.
> >>
> >> This will also be good for science teachers (like me) and radio clubs
> >> that want to help science teachers introduce students to technology
> without
> >> a lot of hassle and expense.
> >>
> >> This seems like a worthwhile project to me.
> >>
> >> Steve AI9IN
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 2015-11-05 07:32, Wouter Weggelaar wrote:
> >>
> >> Can someone tell me why this needs 22000 dollars when most of this
> project
> >> is already available?
> >> What am I missing here? I can for the life of me not see why this would
> >> take this huge amount of money.
> >>
> >> Wouter PA3WEG
> >>
> >> On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 4:24 AM, Stefan Wagener <wageners at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Thanks! Yes, supported it already. It is a great project especially for
> >> schools and groups. Please support it and make it happen :-) Stefan,
> VE4NSA
> >> On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 8:45 PM, Steve Kristoff <skristof at etczone.net>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> Please consider backing this Kickstarter project. It's an open source
> >>
> >> APRS
> >>
> >> tracker for weather balloons. I have no stake in the project other than
> a
> >> pledge and I'd really like to see the project go. Check it out:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1250163085/tracksoar-aprs/posts/1397521?ref=backer_project_update
> >>
> >> Steve Kristoff AI9IN skristof at etczone.com
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