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New Product Looks Good! — Parallax Forums

New Product Looks Good!

WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
edited 2010-05-09 01:34 in General Discussion
Hey All,

Just saw this (which I had not seen before) http://www.parallax.com/Store/Components/Other/tabid/157/ProductID/632/List/0/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName

It is a MoBo Extrusion and Panel Set and sells for $19.99. The pdf documentation has lots of good info. Neat product!

Now all I need is an excuse to buy one...

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Whit+


"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

Post Edited (Whit) : 5/8/2010 8:24:06 PM GMT

Comments

  • hover1hover1 Posts: 1,929
    edited 2010-05-08 22:00
    I can think of a few projects for this.

    They must be very busy at Parallax. This should have been a new product announcment.

    And there should have been a Penguin EOL announcement also. [noparse]:([/noparse]

    Jim
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-05-08 22:13
    'Looks like I need to update the PDF document. A couple "optional" items listed in it are included with the basic kit.

    Here's a little insight into this product's looong gestation. It all began about twelve years ago, believe it or not. I was selling LED back-lighting strips to go along with my company's industrial linescan cameras. The strips were housed in extrusions that were nearly three inches wide. A good customer wanted something narrower to fit their machinery, so I found another extrusion that could be modified by cutting it in half lengthwise and paid a local machine shop to saw, mill, and anodize them for me. I really stocked up on them, expecting a ton of orders from my customer. But hard times hit their industry sector, and I got stuck with the extrusion inventory. I vowed to find a use for those extrusions, though.

    Fast-forward to the year the first TCS230 board came out. It was designed to fit all those extrusions I still had in stock, even though it used an AppMod interface coupled to it by a ribbon cable. The first good fit for the extrusions came in 2005/2006 with the introduction of the MoBoStamp-pe and the daughterboards that plug into it. Eventually I was able to sell a few extrusions to one of Parallax's customers who used them in their own Mobo-equipped demo modules. At about the same time, I discussed the extrusions with Parallax. But we decided that custom machining existing extrusion, once my stock ran out, would be more expensive than just having some made from scratch the way we wanted. So I redesigned the profile with an extra slot and some relief for the bottom slot so it could be used without adding insulation to the PCB. Parallax had a bunch of extrusion fabbed and anodized and acquired a cold saw for cutting them accurately to length.

    And there they sat.

    The fly in the ointment was the end panel design. How could we accommodate all the various combinations that customers might want? I even envisioned some sort of router that could engrave end panel blanks to order on short notice. We discussed offering just blank panels or panels with knockouts. Nothing seemed to click, and the extrusions continued to sit in Parallax's warehouse while I dithered on a solution.

    Finally it was decided something had to be done. So I designed a set of end- and top-panels for some of the more useful current (and planned) MoBo/DB combinations and put out for a quote to get them fabricated. The quotes that came back for fabbing individual panels were pretty steep, and offering them
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,260
    edited 2010-05-08 23:22
    You boys got a problem with Altoid tins & margarine tubs for project enclosures? There IS a recession on, you know. It was in all the papers... [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-05-09 00:30
    erco said...
    You boys got a problem with Altoid tins & margarine tubs for project enclosures?
    Have you seen the price of Altoids lately?

    -Phil
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-05-09 00:34
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) said...

    Have you seen the price of Altoids lately?

    -Phil

    You're shopping in the wrong place.. [noparse]:)[/noparse] [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    cgi.ebay.com/LOT-15-EMPTY-ALTOIDS-TINS-Crafts-Fishermen-Mechanics-/270572995544?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3eff6843d8#ht_769wt_958

    OBC

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  • hover1hover1 Posts: 1,929
    edited 2010-05-09 01:34
    @Phil
    Good story. Nice ending. (Whining) I want a cold saw.

    @erco
    And bulk CD packages!

    @OBC
    Nice find!
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