P2 Edge Module for sale in Europe ?
AndyProp
Posts: 60
in Propeller 2
I've trawled the European resellers and cannot find a single P2 Edge module Version D or the one with 32Meg on board. Anyone have either for sale in EU ?
Comments
I'm a bit surprised DigiKey doesn't have stock of the P2-EC32MB, and they have a real old photo of the P2-EC! That won't help sales
Mouser seems better, in that they have stock of P2-EC, and show the P2-EC32MB coming in 2-3 days. But they still have old photos (slightly newer than DigiKey, but still really old!!)
Worth reaching out to them to check which Rev they are holding of P2-EC, and also to reserve the P2-EC32MB when it arrives ?
https://eu.mouser.com/c/embedded-solutions/other-modules/?m=Parallax
Feel your pain!
Edit: Be nice if Mouser stocked 64029 too. Maybe they would if a customer asked?
That's most bizarre, I tried to order from mouser earlier today and they had no stock of any board just like Digikey, now mouser has 127 and the 32meg boards expected in a day or two. I just wonder if its a browser cooky fooky thingy going on with my PC
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Placed an order for a bunch.
As i thought, no stock in Europe.
mouser.pl: 0 EC32 in stock.
Looks like the 3 sold out fast, with 3 more arriving on the 19th Feb, of which 1 is already pre-sold.
Hopefully they’ll increase the MOQ soon!
(Or maybe TME will stock them one day... that would be the dream!)
Shipping from TX, sure that's how it works. Probably that parcel is in the EU by now, or soon will be.
They deliver very quickly and handle all the customs process for you seamlessly, so does it really matter where the warehouse is? No more effort than ordering from a EU distro, and in my experience usually only a day longer for delivery, if that. (Though it makes most sense when Mouser has the stock of all you need!)
Curious if there’s something there, or if that was just an observation. Maybe the service differs by delivery country? Guess you’ll find out this week!
VonSzarvas,
You say its quick but i find it to be a bit missleading and intended to win sales.
An example Digikey said they had no stock so the customer went to Mouser who said they had stock but really didnt.
Still before Brexit Farnell use to deliver next day pretty much anywhere in EU, now it takes 7-10 days.
The best i find now are TME in Poland who have real life stock online but sadly they dont stock all the required parts for my projects.
Farnell and RS components before Brexit were my first place to go and usually they had everything.
FYI: This delivery according to fedex will take 12 Days, I ordered from mouser because they claimed to have stock in Czech Republic which I could drive too in 10 hours.
I not complaining at anyone here, i can wait but its annoying.
Chip / Ken should send a bunch to somebody in example Hungary to have a local EU stock of kit that could be shippped out same day within EU. I would also do that if required.
That's just the way Mouser works, they only have the one distribution centre for their whole world operation. When they say they have stock they mean it's in Texas. So, yes, freighting an order long distance will take time.
Wow, that is much slower to your part of the EU.
We still enjoy next-day from Farnell if ordering before midday, and 2 days if ordering later. Brexit only had a short-term impact for us, and has long been resolved for parcels from UK to Hungary.
Digi is typically 2-3 days, Mouser maybe 3-5 days (only slower if the flight routes via CDG, which tends to be a blackhole for packages).
TME is 2 days unless we pay premium and order before midday.
Even regular letter post is only 4-5 days, and most of that delay is on the British side. Once the letter actually leaves a UK depo it arrives next day or within 2 days. Royal Mail is not what it used to be.
Anyway- this is just sharing experiences. I have no intention to mislead or win sales- I have no skin in that game.
I just hope you can find the stuff you need, at a pace that suits your needs.
For the future, I do wish Parallax would sort out the international shipping and use the pre-customs services like many agile suppliers (including Digi/Mouser). That would make their direct shipping proposition more attractive (there might be commercial reasons that they've not been able to, rather than a lack of trying). And I do wish TME would stock the basic range.
But as for me/someone holding stock and opening a webstore, it's actually more costly than you'd think when you start to look at all the regulations and details involved in "doing it properly" (such as CE obligations/certs, handling VAT on intercommunity sales, banking fees, commercial fees, accounting, etc..). I'm not against trying it, but I wouldn't want to take a loss, so the sales would have to be significant or subsidised. It seems a better choice to incentivise an existing distro to deal with it, such as TME. They have the sales, marketing, shipping and accounting network in place already- no need to reinvent the wheel.
Yep- waiting is annoying. Hope it won't be too long.
Let us know when you get the parcel, and share that happy moment !
There's many a Parallax product that I would like to have purchased but nobody stocks them. I purchased two of the WiFi interface modules and it was only when they arrived that it dawned on me that I needed the actual WiFi device which wasn't even listed @ Digikey/Mouser.
Craig
Seam to be a strong requirement for an centralized EU stockist that has all the popular items with up-to-date info and product support.
The saga continues:
I ordered two boards:
1, The. P2 Edge so that I have the Latest one with the SD card socket.
2, The P2 edge with 32Meg RAM on the board and the SD card socket.
Both advertised as in stock. So i order from mouser and pay.
Today i got a message that the shipment arrived. At my office which is 100 miles away so I arranged one of our colleagues to get it and meet me half way which we did.
I returned with it 4h later.
Opened the box and inside was a single P2 edge...but not the one with the SD card, what they sent me is an older version B, not the version D that i was expecting with the SD card. And guess what ! no 32meg version.
The only reason for this order was due to having already a P2 edge version that doesnt have the SD card socket.
So I spent 150 dollars to get what I already had plus the fuel and time lost today.
I can tell you that I am kind of pissed but not about the money, pissed because of mess.
Yeah the old rev shakedown... that's why I wrote this above ---> "Worth reaching out to them to check which Rev they are holding of P2-EC"
As for the 32MB.... does the e-mailed shipping confirmation (or whatever paperwork) indicate that they shipped the first edge separately? Usually they send an email that shows qty's for items sent and coming later.
I'm just guessing that because that 32MB only just got into stock a couple days after you placed the order, then they probably tried to do you a favor by shipping the stock item earlier.
Seems this is not what you want to hear, but just trying to make sense of it.
@AndyProp
Also, why wouldn't they just ship to your home address (or wherever you are at the moment). Seems bonkers if they couldn't do that.
I was going to say that I often have orders sent to one of two locations approx. 2 hour drive apart, but come to think of it, not sure I ordered stuff from Mouser like that. But certainly from Digikey and Farnell. Certainly some of the distros can handle multiple delivery addresses.
Man..... after all this effort, you probably could have got a shipment direct from Parallax by now. Hindsight pokes its greasy fingers in the ribcage sometimes! When it goes wrong, it goes really wrong.
I had a similar issue here in US from Digikey... I specifically asked for latest rev with uSD on it and they did, but was previous version.
Guess one has to be very specific....
Don't know how they could mess up 32MB though. Isn't there only one version of that?
in the link is what they offer, the datasheet shows version D, the image on the mouser page is version A. What they ship is version B.
If I was Parallax I would be not impressed with the total miss representation of my product.
What i am wondering now is if I order directly from Parallax will I get a version A, B, C, or D.
https://eu.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Parallax/P2-EC?qs=T94vaHKWudRrJpXDe6UP1w==
I think there is a Rev B of the EC32MB. EC Rev D and EC32MB Rev B were both a quick redesign around the voltage regulators to handle a supply shortage due to Covid-19. So EC Rev C and Rev D effectively has same features.
i suppose these differences should be on a forum post to remove any confusion. i did read that some even had the wrong oscillator fitted. I wonder if that is the version mouser have hundreds of.
Actually, i just edit this because the oscillator issue was on some version D.
https://www.parallax.com/product/p2-edge-module-rev-d-irregular/
If the changes do not affect the customer it's OK to sell different revisions under the same order code. But if there are changes that make the new product incompatible (new features, bug fixes) it should be sold with a different ordering number.
Digikey says they if you add a note about the specifics of what you want, they will follow it. I just didn't know there were two versions with uSD. I told them the Rev., but I also said it's the one with the uSD slot on it, so maybe that was a mistake...
No, if rev B and rev D are not compatible but they are sold under the same ordering number at mouser then this is the mistake of Parallax. When they shipped the new revision they should have told mouser that this is a new product.
Out of curiosity, doesn't Parallax know what boards have these distributors ?
I guess that Mouser and Digikey get the boards from Parallax, I think there should be a document stating what boards were sent to them.
FWIW, are months that I wait to be reasonably sure to get the latest P2 Edge board from Mouser, but AndyProp's experience makes me very reluctant to order now. The italian page says there are two boards on order estimated to arrive feb 19, does Parallax know that ? I guess that they will be the latest P2-EC32MB boards, but how to be sure ?
Can Parallax ask Mouser and Digikey to send back all the remaining stocks and replace them with the newest boards ?
Sometimes, you just have to push the big red button and start over from the beginning.
BTW: P2-EC32MB Mouser 82,77 Euro, DigiKey 95,51 Euro (quantity 1) !!!
That's not on. Customer shouldn't be paying for a lack of effort and accuracy (or any cockup) from a seller. They have a returns procedure ?
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Me neither. Ridiculous situation.
That one I can answer with absolute authority - you will always receive the very latest revision of any product when ordering from Parallax directly, unless the webstore page explicitly declares otherwise (which is always VERY clear, and happens very very rarely).
One rare example of that was a special batch of P2-EC edge modules that was made with a different oscillator (due to the tape being mislabelled by the component manufacturer). In that case they were isolated in manufacturing test, moved into a special "Parallax only" direct sale link, and very clearly marked as such. I think a system builder bought most of them in a batch, and got a cracking deal!
I hope you can find a good solution.
For one thing, the 32MB modules must be the latest version, as they are being ordered in as new stock. Unless the distro is bringing them in from somewhere else (not from Parallax).... Seems unlikely, but with incomplete information and left to our own imagination we can only guess. Would need to ask the distro to be certain.
I don't think there's bad revisons of EC32MB to begin with, are there? Rev A already has the SD slot and I think the newer oscillator circuit?
Correct. No bad revisions.
The change from A to B was Power IC and layer count; from 4 to 6 layers. The layer change will have improved the maximum possible overclocking speed a bit.
That layer change wasn't really necessary, but as we had to change the boards anyway to accommodate an EOL Power IC, then the opportunity was taken to increase the copper mass (aka heat-spreader!) at the same time. We had been oven-baking and stress testing various combos before that, and found with the extra layers we could eek out an extra 15-20MHz. Curiosity was a strong factor in the decision!
reminisce:
It was gutting to lose that neat little Buck from RevA. That was an awesome part, with power-good built-in, plus a simple preset VOUT selection (no need for the classic resistor divider from COUT) . With RevB it wasn't fun squeezing in an external brownout detector/etc.., mainly fitted just below the SD socket in the end. Pretty tight. Glad it turned out so well in the end.
Oh wow. And I thought my original Rev. A was super solid.
Oh, oops, here I was blaming Covid-19.
Ha! That might well have been the cause (or convenient excuse) for the unplanned EOL’. I don’t think you were wrong!
I'm just starting to look into this, and see what stock we have at Digi-Key and Mouser, and what versions. Then, I'll take back anything that isn't current, and bring them current on pictures and descriptions. It's a process, but I'll get it started. When done, I'll see that they all have inventory, too.
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.