So If Propeller DIPs dry up, it's possible that customers could still buy peripheral modules and use them with a modified ProtoBoard.
I also created a Mini-SpinStudio - but never released it due to the assembly time on my end that would be required. Maybe it's time to roll that one out. I included a photo of this board design...It has everything the SpinStudio has, plus onboard USB programming circuit. The peripheral modules plug in, 1 per side, as opposed to the current 2 modules on 2 opposing sides.
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
Thanks for the heads up Ken.
I think I am ALMOST recovered from the Expo. Being an old man ya know....
Thanks for such a GREAT time and genuine concern for your customers. It does pay off.
I think I will get back to my AutoProp8 project now !
Earl
Painless said...
You're right, SMT's are also so much nicer in terms of space. If I wanted to try some SMT work what would I need other than a much finer soldering iron tip?
I tried out the SparkFun SMT tutorials and it really does work! www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=36 A temp-controlled iron, solder wick, and solder is plenty to get parts stuck down. (tweezers do help for the tiny stuff) Haven't had to pull a chip up yet, I expect a hot air station to be helpful then.
Lawson
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Lunch cures all problems! have you had lunch?
I am still willing to assemble the qfn to dip adapters for cost. $12 if I can get multiples of 90
No header included just .1" spaced pads
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propmod_us and propmod_1x1 are in stock. Only $30. PCB available for $5
Want to make projects and have Gadget Gangster sell them for you? propmod-us_ps_sd and propmod-1x1 are now available for use in your Gadget Gangster Projects.
Need to upload large images or movies for use in the forum. you can do so at uploader.propmodule.com for free.
Thanks for the heads up and even the sales data.
Hanno
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Download a free trial of ViewPort- the premier visual debugger for the Propeller
Includes full debugger, simulated instruments, fuzzy logic, and OpenCV for computer vision. Now a Parallax Product!
I know... I am in a similar situation. I have a small stockpile of Propellers for Morpheus - but they will only be sold as part of a Morpheus kit or assembled and tested Morpheus board.
parts-man73 said... It appears that the Propeller shortage is upon us
Any news from Parallax on when more stock may arrive?
On uController.com, I've stopped selling Propeller's ala carte for the time being, However the SpinStudio Mainboards still include a Propeller.
To put a spin on Matrix: What will really blow your mind is that did they run out because they told us they would or if they kept it a secret would it have happened much later or not all.
Probably would have happened based on the data Ken shared.
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I. www.brilldea.com - Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, 3.0" LCD Composite video display, eProto for SunSPOT www.tdswieter.com
Hey there, I expect more P8X32A-D40s in stock around October 1st at this stage (60 days). We have a small emergency stockpile but they are generally dedicated for products like the PE Kit and they will not be available for sale via our web site. This shortage will last a while -- sorry about that -- we're working to push along the various steps of the process from wafer => packaged chips => tested chips => stocked chips. This whole process happens on four different continents. Propeller chips travel more during birth than most of us do in a whole lifetime.
Ken Gracey said...
Propeller chips travel more during birth than most of us do in a whole lifetime.
It would be interesting to have a photo essay: "The Life of a P8X32A: Propelled Around the World!". I bet people in the manufacturing plants have cameras...
Since I've had my own issues with this..... Who wants to help Parallax and write an improved "enterprise resource business planning software" in Spin?
It should use ucontroller.com's ethernet adapter to periodically query the parallax.com site and look for products that will run out of stock soon (based on data from the last 2 months). 32kb of RAM should be enough to do handle several thousand products. It's not rocket science...
Hanno
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Download a free trial of ViewPort- the premier visual debugger for the Propeller
Includes full debugger, simulated instruments, fuzzy logic, and OpenCV for computer vision. Now a Parallax Product!
@Hanno, we stock 900 items. As I have told you personally before we have a very capable business enterprise system and our inventory accuracy (physical inventory vs. software quantities) is 99.97%, higher than nearly anybody in this industry. Looking at the Parallax stock values on our web site only tells you a rate of change each day or month, and it has nothing to do with supplier lead times, unique customer orders, safety stock, economical buy quantities, minimum order quantities, etc. Forecast and demand gaps alone can throw any inventory planning aside. It's not rocket science, but it's also not as primitive and simplistic as you believe - such a procurement channel is stuffed with humans to add a complexity that software would also have trouble predicting. The tools we have work well provided the variables are properly managed.
@Ken. Having worked on and even written some inventory planning software over the years, I understand what you are going through. Unforunately, no matter how good your software is, it cannot predict abnormal demands as you showed us on your graphs. No human could have done better even with as much time as required. And thanks again for the warning and ETA. We all appreciate this.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Links to other interesting threads:
As someone who has done his best to promote the Propeller, I'm pleased to have
had a small part in running down the inventory. [noparse]:)[/noparse] From my perspective
it appears that the demand is increasing faster than anticipated by Parallax. Nice.
Bottom line is that Parallax must actually be successfully selling product to stay
in business. Sounds like the Propeller chip is selling...
As long as they don't run out of Protoboards I won't go into panic mode here. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Cluso99 said...
@Ken. Having worked on and even written some inventory planning software over the years, I understand what you are going through. Unforunately, no matter how good your software is, it cannot predict abnormal demands as you showed us on your graphs.
The weather is probably easier to predict....
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
@Ken,
I totally agree with you that a complete business system is necessarily very complex and I love referring people to you- they always end up happy dealing with Parallax.
I still see this as an opportunity for someone to win the current Propeller challenge with a highly simplified inventory alert system. I realize that predicting anything- let alone human behavior- is hard, but think how impressive it would be to casually show this on your next Parallax tour- it might even be an app that other people would pay money for:
- Propeller DemoBoard hooked up to a widescreen tv and connected to the network.
- Once a week it:
-scrapes a website that contains stock data- it creates the url's dynamically using stock codes- so we'll allocate 1 word to store the stock code plus the code/memory required to download/parse a website for a single number- this is the hard part of the problem...
-manages a queue of the last 8 weeks of data for each item, we'll need 8 words of data/item for this
-uses a very simple model to calculate how many are sold/week, weighing the current data higher than older data:
weeklysold:=(week1+week2+week3...+2*week6+3*week7+4*week8)/14
-adjusts the weeklysold variable by the weeks of leadtime required by your supplier. Then it compares this to the stock on hand, and if too low, prints it to the vga
if(weeklysold*leadtime>stock) vga.text("You're low on this item"+item)
This system would display which of your 900 items are in danger of running out within each item's leadtime.
Like any system it's not perfect, but hey, it's a simple inventory alert system that runs on the Propeller- and can manage roughly 1200 items! (16kwords/10words/item +program)
Keep up the great work, this is a GOOD problem to have!
Hanno
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Download a free trial of ViewPort- the premier visual debugger for the Propeller
Includes full debugger, simulated instruments, fuzzy logic, and OpenCV for computer vision. Now a Parallax Product!
Quick question--I just ordered the HYDRA book + DIP Prop... Will I still get the prop...?
Thanks.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Quit buying all those fixed voltage regulators, and·get anAdjustable Power Supply·for your projects!· Includes an LED testing terminal!
*-NEW-* SD Card Adapter·Now available!· Add extra memory to your next Propeller project with ease!
No reason you shouldn't! I just confirmed that with Sales, and that kit is indeed in stock, Propeller DIP chip included.
If you ordered through our website, you can always email sales@parallax.com and give them your order or customer number and they will check up on your order for you. Or, you can call toll free in the lower 48 at 888-512-1024 (elsewhere call 916-624-8333).
Just thought of this while responding to another thread.
You can make a Propstick to DIP40 adapter out of 2 stacked 40 pin sockets. Just remove pins 10, 12, and 32 from the bottom socket (IE to remove the connection for the 5 volt input on the propstick) and solder wires to pins 10 and 32 on the upper socket to reroute VIN and 3.3 VDD out that didn't exist on the DIP40. You may have to remove pins 37-40 on the lower socket as well?
Yes, I know, there is a small price difference , but if you have a propstick in your propeller arsenal, you can use it in the meantime while waiting for DIP40 stock. Or if you are really DIP40 desperate, a propstick isn't a waste of money if you go that route.
Ken Gracey said...
The wafers have been received at the packaging company, and we expect to have packaged chips under test within two weeks. This would provide a delivery date to Parallax by the last week of October. And this shortage will probably not happen again because we’ve made provisions in our planning tools to protect our customers from internal human errors.
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
Comments
OBC's Propeller Cookbook contains a section entitled - "I Think I'm a Clone now - Turning a ProtoBoard into a SpinStudio"
So If Propeller DIPs dry up, it's possible that customers could still buy peripheral modules and use them with a modified ProtoBoard.
I also created a Mini-SpinStudio - but never released it due to the assembly time on my end that would be required. Maybe it's time to roll that one out. I included a photo of this board design...It has everything the SpinStudio has, plus onboard USB programming circuit. The peripheral modules plug in, 1 per side, as opposed to the current 2 modules on 2 opposing sides.
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board
I think I am ALMOST recovered from the Expo. Being an old man ya know....
Thanks for such a GREAT time and genuine concern for your customers. It does pay off.
I think I will get back to my AutoProp8 project now !
Earl
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Gadget Gangster - Share your Electronic Projects
I tried out the SparkFun SMT tutorials and it really does work! www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=36 A temp-controlled iron, solder wick, and solder is plenty to get parts stuck down. (tweezers do help for the tiny stuff) Haven't had to pull a chip up yet, I expect a hot air station to be helpful then.
Lawson
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Lunch cures all problems! have you had lunch?
Any news from Parallax on when more stock may arrive?
On uController.com, I've stopped selling Propeller's ala carte for the time being, However the SpinStudio Mainboards still include a Propeller.
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board
Post Edited (parts-man73) : 7/28/2009 5:19:59 PM GMT
No header included just .1" spaced pads
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propmod_us and propmod_1x1 are in stock. Only $30. PCB available for $5
Want to make projects and have Gadget Gangster sell them for you? propmod-us_ps_sd and propmod-1x1 are now available for use in your Gadget Gangster Projects.
Need to upload large images or movies for use in the forum. you can do so at uploader.propmodule.com for free.
search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=P8X32A-D40-ND
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Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
IT / Web / PCB / Audio
Hanno
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Download a free trial of ViewPort- the premier visual debugger for the Propeller
Includes full debugger, simulated instruments, fuzzy logic, and OpenCV for computer vision. Now a Parallax Product!
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www.mikronauts.com - my site 6.250MHz custom Crystals for running Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Morpheus & Mem+ Advanced dual Propeller SBC with XMM and 256 Color VGA
Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
www.parallax.com/tabid/407/Default.aspx
Well done for forecasting August 1st as the runout date... panic is a positive feedback loop, hard to predict these things...
tubular
Post Edited (Tubular) : 7/28/2009 11:44:21 PM GMT
Ron
Probably would have happened based on the data Ken shared.
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com - Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, 3.0" LCD Composite video display, eProto for SunSPOT
www.tdswieter.com
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
It would be interesting to have a photo essay: "The Life of a P8X32A: Propelled Around the World!". I bet people in the manufacturing plants have cameras...
It should use ucontroller.com's ethernet adapter to periodically query the parallax.com site and look for products that will run out of stock soon (based on data from the last 2 months). 32kb of RAM should be enough to do handle several thousand products. It's not rocket science...
Hanno
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Download a free trial of ViewPort- the premier visual debugger for the Propeller
Includes full debugger, simulated instruments, fuzzy logic, and OpenCV for computer vision. Now a Parallax Product!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
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Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
· Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
had a small part in running down the inventory. [noparse]:)[/noparse] From my perspective
it appears that the demand is increasing faster than anticipated by Parallax. Nice.
Bottom line is that Parallax must actually be successfully selling product to stay
in business. Sounds like the Propeller chip is selling...
As long as they don't run out of Protoboards I won't go into panic mode here. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
The weather is probably easier to predict....
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board
I totally agree with you that a complete business system is necessarily very complex and I love referring people to you- they always end up happy dealing with Parallax.
I still see this as an opportunity for someone to win the current Propeller challenge with a highly simplified inventory alert system. I realize that predicting anything- let alone human behavior- is hard, but think how impressive it would be to casually show this on your next Parallax tour- it might even be an app that other people would pay money for:
- Propeller DemoBoard hooked up to a widescreen tv and connected to the network.
- Once a week it:
-scrapes a website that contains stock data- it creates the url's dynamically using stock codes- so we'll allocate 1 word to store the stock code plus the code/memory required to download/parse a website for a single number- this is the hard part of the problem...
-manages a queue of the last 8 weeks of data for each item, we'll need 8 words of data/item for this
-uses a very simple model to calculate how many are sold/week, weighing the current data higher than older data:
weeklysold:=(week1+week2+week3...+2*week6+3*week7+4*week8)/14
-adjusts the weeklysold variable by the weeks of leadtime required by your supplier. Then it compares this to the stock on hand, and if too low, prints it to the vga
if(weeklysold*leadtime>stock) vga.text("You're low on this item"+item)
This system would display which of your 900 items are in danger of running out within each item's leadtime.
Like any system it's not perfect, but hey, it's a simple inventory alert system that runs on the Propeller- and can manage roughly 1200 items! (16kwords/10words/item +program)
Keep up the great work, this is a GOOD problem to have!
Hanno
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Download a free trial of ViewPort- the premier visual debugger for the Propeller
Includes full debugger, simulated instruments, fuzzy logic, and OpenCV for computer vision. Now a Parallax Product!
Thanks.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Quit buying all those fixed voltage regulators, and·get an Adjustable Power Supply·for your projects!· Includes an LED testing terminal!
*-NEW-* SD Card Adapter·Now available!· Add extra memory to your next Propeller project with ease!
No reason you shouldn't! I just confirmed that with Sales, and that kit is indeed in stock, Propeller DIP chip included.
If you ordered through our website, you can always email sales@parallax.com and give them your order or customer number and they will check up on your order for you. Or, you can call toll free in the lower 48 at 888-512-1024 (elsewhere call 916-624-8333).
-Steph Lindsay
Editor, Parallax Inc.
You can make a Propstick to DIP40 adapter out of 2 stacked 40 pin sockets. Just remove pins 10, 12, and 32 from the bottom socket (IE to remove the connection for the 5 volt input on the propstick) and solder wires to pins 10 and 32 on the upper socket to reroute VIN and 3.3 VDD out that didn't exist on the DIP40. You may have to remove pins 37-40 on the lower socket as well?
Yes, I know, there is a small price difference
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Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
This Thread - http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=846444
contains the following good news -
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board