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So, you want a JonnyMac and P2 Edge? Here's my advice! — Parallax Forums

So, you want a JonnyMac and P2 Edge? Here's my advice!

Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,386
edited 2020-12-08 05:16 in Propeller 2
Hey P2 Community,

By now you've probably noticed that some P2 products arrive into stock, go out of stock, and that production starts and stops as we discover small problems and wait two weeks for new PCBs. You've been acquiring bits and pieces as you see they are available on www.parallax.com. Had we waited to have ample supplies of *everything* in stock so we could have offered it all together, then we'd be waiting until January. The cost of waiting exceeded the benefits, so we got started.

As you know, I'm a salesman at heart. Please pause for a short story while we build anticipation around this message. When JonnyMac worked at Parallax we once met with the executives at RadioShack (circa 1998) to introduce the BASIC Stamp a key product in their lineup (thanks to recommendations of Forrest M Mims III, Steve Leininger of TRS-80 fame, and others) after the failed "Incredible Universe" stores. After our presentation, the corporate buyers "locked" us into a freezing room on the 12th story of their Fort Worth, TX headquarters and said, "give us your best price for 7,000 What's a Microcontroller Kits and if we like what you write on this whiteboard, we'll be back in 10 minutes with a purchase order!" Jon obviously believed in the product and knew that consumers would experience something much greater than the $79 they paid RadioShack (even though they were also pitched for a cell phone service and battery club membership). I was probably more concerned about managing the supply chain and cash flow. Sure enough, RadioShack brought many customers to Parallax!

Selling things you believe in is truly exciting! We're very fortunate to have the P2 and it offers a lifetime of learning and product development for some of us. For a salesman, selling the P2 is a dream (and more exciting than selling to RadioShack)!

so. . .

The JonnyMac boards are experiencing a scarcity of supply at Parallax. This isn't a marketing trick to get you to buy one, but a real problem. The last couple of days I've even been building them myself under the direction of Terell and Kenneth. COVID workplace policies, team absences in manufacturing (none have COVID), machine service, delays in receiving raw materials, and poor management (that's me) have slowed the production to a steady stream. We've got student interns running the CNC machines and we're now running an extra shift around the PnP. Today, we brought a whopping 65 JonnyMacs into inventory. The process of stuffing the JonnyMacs and running them through the selective solder machine is very time-consuming but the craftsmanship is significant.

As of this moment (8:50 pm Pacific, December 7, 2020), we have about 65 JonnyMac boards in stock (#64020) and 380 P2 Edge Modules (P2-EC). There's no shortage of the P2 Edge Modules, but the JonnyMacs will soon be in short supply. I expect we'll receive another 100 units into inventory over the next several days, so supply will be hit-or-miss for a week. We haven't even sent our first JonnyMacs to JonnyMac himself, Mouser, Digi-Key, RS Components, TeamOz, or even Chip! Once they're gone, it'll be early January before we have the next manufacturing run ready.

This holiday season we're all going to have more time than in prior years. Prepare yourself by having a P2 Edge, a JonnyMac, and time to learn! Between the shipping delays announced by UPS and FedEx, the expected shortage of JonnyMacs, and the fact we are manually entering orders from the web site, it's probably best to make your holiday plans now.

https://www.parallax.com/product/p2-edge-module/
https://www.parallax.com/product/p2-edge-module-breadboard/

or something like this:

https://www.parallax.com/product/propeller-2-developer-starter-bundle/

Our P2 Forum members are imperative to the future success of Propeller 2. I'm hoping you receive this advance notice because I'll make a wider announcement in a day or two.

Made in the USA and 100% money-back-guarantee. An investment in Parallax is an investment in one's self.

Thank you,

Ken Gracey

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Comments

  • roglohrogloh Posts: 5,170
    edited 2020-12-08 05:13
    I was wondering Ken, if it helped save both on production costs and speed things along for Parallax, whether you might also offer this board in a kit form at a slightly lower price. To me it seems like these JonnyMac PCBs are exclusively through hole stuff, with mainly hardware connectors/switches attached and very few actual components to get wrong and so is something very amenable for people to solder up themselves. I mean there is just a LED and electrolytic cap that could be put in backwards, right? So it would even be a good kit for novices too.

    EDIT: I might be wrong if that cap is SMD?
  • rogloh wrote: »
    I was wondering Ken, if it helped save both on production costs and speed things along for Parallax, whether you might also offer this board in a kit form at a slightly lower price. To me it seems like these JonnyMac PCBs are exclusively through hole stuff, with mainly hardware connectors/switches attached and very few actual components to get wrong and so is something very amenable for people to solder up themselves. I mean there is just a LED and electrolytic cap that could be put in backwards, right? So it would even be a good kit for novices too.

    That's a real possibility. These would be a fun soldering project, especially all the headers. The sequence of assembly isn't all that critical and the process would be rewarding. To do this, we'd need to modify some documentation, produce another bill of materials, and kit them. It could save us $20 of labor and produce a $49 kit.

    We have some other tasks in front of us, but we'll store this one as likely in the future. Thanks Roger -

    Ken Gracey
  • rogloh wrote: »
    EDIT: I might be wrong if that cap is SMD?

    It's all through-hole manufacturing, including those blue/grey capacitors.

    Ken Gracey
  • I’d love a kit! I’ve got couple of shoe boxes full of BS2 OEM kits I put together even though I really didn’t “need” them. If you offered that JonnyMac in a kit, I’d snap it up!

    Doc
  • K2K2 Posts: 691
    doggiedoc wrote: »
    I’d love a kit! If you offered that JonnyMac in a kit, I’d snap it up!

    +1
  • rjo__rjo__ Posts: 2,114
    There's a glitch in the ordering system...

    I use a debit card... when the guys/gals in ordering check available funds... my debit card company puts a hold on my money:)... then your website takes me back to the order screen telling me that it is incomplete... and I look and look and look and find nothing wrong... so I push the order. Now I'm in trouble. I get a "order refused." "REFUSED!!!"

    And then the cussing starts;)
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