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Explotation of Propellerpowered's fixed shipping rates — Parallax Forums

Explotation of Propellerpowered's fixed shipping rates

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
edited 2013-03-17 16:47 in General Discussion
Several of you have really taken advantage of the "fixed" $4.00 shipping rate we have for domestic packages the last two weeks. We've been forced to fill your orders using expensive medium, and large priority mail boxes.

For this I want to say, THANK YOU!

February was a very bad month for Propellerpowered, (and I'm told for sales in general)

I had twenty-eight days of wondering if we should get into the Arduino market last month, and to be honest we (Rebekah and I) really don't have the faith in the value of that product and would rather simply close than put something in stock that we don't truly love.

We really want to be an excursive source for Propeller related products and you are making it possible!

BTW, we've got a really fun St. Patty's Special coming up for the weekend that I'll announce tomorrow.

Jeff

Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2013-03-14 12:37
    I'm sorry! :innocent:

    I could drive over and get the stuff!

    St. Patrick's Day???? ....but, but, but....I spent all my money in the past two weeks!!

    Let me guess, green mini-breadboards with every order?????
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    edited 2013-03-14 16:39
    I just noticed that your Pocket Mini Computer has a socket for a SPI SRAM. I suppose one could instead insert a SPI flash chip and then you could use the flash to run PropGCC's xmmc mode. That should let you have a much more complete version of Basic onboard.
  • 4x5n4x5n Posts: 745
    edited 2013-03-14 22:23
    The next month is going to be rough for me but I'm looking forward to buying a number of items from you after my bank account recovers from the bills I've got headed my way over the next month.
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2013-03-15 01:04
    A couple of comments about the products I bought last week...

    These are great! You can never have too many of these.

    These are not so good. They're phenolic, single sided, don't take solder well, and the pads pull off the board extremely easily. They're two for 99 cents, but I'd gladly pay $2-$3 per board if they were plated thru fiberglass. Jameco sells this little guy for $6 and it's only single sided. I'd like to find something in between price-wise.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2013-03-15 09:39
    @Matin,

    Thank you for the feedback! We could probably do a run of higher quality PCB boards ourselves and get a much nicer board which could be sold for around $3.00. (I'm adding this to my todo list)

    Jeff
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2013-03-15 10:13
    These are not so good. They're phenolic, single sided, don't take solder well, and the pads pull off the board extremely easily. They're two for 99 cents, but I'd gladly pay $2-$3 per board if they were plated thru fiberglass. Jameco sells this little guy for $6 and it's only single sided. I'd like to find something in between price-wise.

    It depends what you use these boards for. There are definitely some projects where you need the double-sided boards with plated through holes but I have used these in-expensive boards for quite a few small projects and interfacing boards with excellent results. I think it makes sense to stock both options.
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2013-03-15 13:09
    .. I think it makes sense to stock both options.

    Yes, don't get rid of the cheap ones! Just need something in between the 50c boards and the $6 boards.

    However you may want to explain on the product description that you should not put any kind of connector or strain bearing device on those phenolic boards. I wasted an hour soldering up an adapter only to have three pins pull out, with pads still attached, the first time I plugged it in. Although people (who aren't me) with brains in their heads may know already not to use phenolic boards for that kind of thing in the first place! ;)
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2013-03-15 13:51
    Don't worry! I'll stock them both. We use those inexpensive boards in our TV-Out project kit for the PMC.

    Jeff
  • RickInTexasRickInTexas Posts: 124
    edited 2013-03-17 14:32
    Several of you have really taken advantage of the "fixed" $4.00 shipping rate we have for domestic packages the last two weeks. We've been forced to fill your orders using expensive medium, and large priority mail boxes.

    For this I want to say, THANK YOU!

    February was a very bad month for Propellerpowered, (and I'm told for sales in general)

    I had twenty-eight days of wondering if we should get into the Arduino market last month, and to be honest we (Rebekah and I) really don't have the faith in the value of that product and would rather simply close than put something in stock that we don't truly love.

    We really want to be an excursive source for Propeller related products and you are making it possible!

    BTW, we've got a really fun St. Patty's Special coming up for the weekend that I'll announce tomorrow.

    Jeff


    Jeff, I don't see anything wrong with selling some Arduino related items. How about a Prop-based shield to add video to Arduino projects?

    Rick (In Texas)
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2013-03-17 16:30
    I'm planning to carry some "Propeller based" shields, but we have no interest in becoming another Arduino shop.

    Jeff
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2013-03-17 16:47
    However you may want to explain on the product description that you should not put any kind of connector or strain bearing device on those phenolic boards. I wasted an hour soldering up an adapter only to have three pins pull out, with pads still attached, the first time I plugged it in. Although people (who aren't me) with brains in their heads may know already not to use phenolic boards for that kind of thing in the first place! ;)

    The connector issue seems that it can come up with just about any single sided PCB and when installing headers, etc. Those connectors are much more secure on a double sided board. If you have to install connectors on a single sided board it must be completely flush with the board. If there is any gap then you can break a pad free when you push on a connector. Just the nature of those single sided boards.

    I have had good results installing side entry modular connectors on those cheap PCB's. A little glue was added to keep the connector housing from moving at all. For smaller headers I made sure the connector was tight against the PCB and on the foil side used some solid bus wire across the pad for the connector pin and the adjacent pads. Seems to work ok.
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