Mainboard v3 future

[johu]

I have now sold off all pre-fabricated V3 main boards. It took quite a long time to do so, now I'm not sure if it's worth the effort and money to order new ones. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's a good design but low volume manufacturing is quite a drag and if you want it done cheaply you have to go to China and order in 1000 quantities. So I do consider dropping SMD designs altogether and go back to through hole for low volume electronics.

So if I find 10 people interested in this (community or 1:1 supported version)
https://openinverter.org/shop/index.php ... duct_id=53
or this
https://openinverter.org/shop/index.php ... duct_id=51

I would go ahead an order another batch. Basically I would set stock quantity to 10 and when sold out place the order. From there on it's 4 weeks + shipping.

Update:
I say if 4 people prepay boards (community or supported, w/ or w/o Leaf adapter) I'd get a batch of 12 made (remaining 3 panels). So once we have a list of 4 here, I'd open shop for 4 boards so no one unaware of this thread orders one and is then disappointed by the lead time.

[doobedoobedo]

I don't know how many you got made up, but well done.

I'm certainly happy with mine and I'd recommend getting a tested board to others. I hope you get to do another batch soon.

[zippy500]

I want to buy a rev3 board, would you want a list of people before ordering ?

I am waiting for the elusive leaf motor coupler to appear

[johu]

I want to buy a rev3 board, would you want a list of people before ordering ?

Yes lets do one here, see how many we get.
I say if 4 people prepay boards (community or supported, w/ or w/o Leaf adapter) I'd get a batch of 12 made (remaining 3 panels). So once we have a list of 4 here, I'd open shop for 4 boards so no one unaware of this thread orders one and is then disappointed by the lead time.

[D@F]

hi all, i'm interrested in one or two set of community board.

[johu]

So two more - spread the word

[johu]

I got another inquiry for a V2 Leaf kit so that makes it 4. So everyone interested please head over to the shop and put your money where your mouth is

[D@F]

ok i will make the order on next week. thanks.

[johu]

Ok never mind. I will order some more Rev3 boards from JLCPCB and they will be much cheaper, at least in the community version.

[JaniK]

That JLCPCB seems to be the name to go for year 2020 openinverter related PCBs..

Have you got samples from them before?

[johu]

Just ordered 10 populated boards for the price that I paid for ONE board before. Delivered!
Only part they don't stock is the programming header but since I ship the boards preprogrammed that's not really a problem. Also couldn't find a high current 0805 inductor for the boost converter so that is now a little larger. No other changes needed

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

Just ordered 10 populated boards for the price that I paid for ONE board before. Delivered!

Daymn.

Despite having worked as a solder wave machine operator, and pick n pull operator, and other various things, I never looked up what the boss was charging anyone or what things cost us.

Just how cost effective is ordering populated PCBs from JLC compared to your guys' old source? Boards cheaper too?

I guess my end question is... compared to ordering just a board and then ordering all components new and assembling yourself, how much more expensive is it per board to order 10x populated boards? Is it, cheaper than making it yourself because their component cost is lower than yours and the economies of scale of doing 10 at a time, even after placing and soldering? Or, same price? 2x? 5x?

At some point it's close enough I'll say I'm not interested in soldering anymore. The only comparison I have is Damien's GS450 unpopulated vs. populated and tested, and that one is 12x difference (50eur vs. 600eur) using the old method.

[johu]

If I were to source parts myself it would be on par with this. Absolutely no point to solder it yourself in this case.

Not sure what their business model is and why they limit you to 30 boards.

[johu]

Anticipating the upcoming delivery of Rev3 boards I have dropped the price of all related products up to 50%. Check out the shop

[johu]

10 boards arrived from JLCPCB today. Needless to say the quality is amazing.
Thankfully there was only one little mistake: the tiny NAND gate (IC9) has a SOT23-6 footprint on board but I put an SC70-6 part in the BOM. SC70 is even smaller than SOT23 so not all pins actually reach the pads. JLCPCB placed a small sticker with an arrow next to it to catch my attention. Nice touch!

Still I only understood their hint after my automated board test failed. Yes it did fail and thus successfully identified an error
The fix is easy, just bend the pins outwards a bit and add some solder.

Sent 5 boards out today and 5 are left. All necessary files on github (including the SC70 problem..). Video coming.

[dima]

I find that on (eBay) Chinese suppliers it is a lot easier to find Triple 3-Input NAND gate (SOIC-14) than Single 3-Input ( SOT-23-6)

Maybe consider this component -> SN74HC10D

[johu]

Just changed the footprint to SC70-6 and ordered more boards

[jerrykco]

Johannes, I received my v3 main board and the nissan leaf inverter adapter board and I did the preliminary work of installing all the through hole parts. Your design and directions make it so easy for a non-EE to do the work. I also went back on your youtube channel and watched all your videos.Of particular interest for me was Lab updates 16-27 (I haven't finished all of them yet. But you obviously spent an unbelievable amount of time for us DIYer's. Thank you for that!
Now starts the big learning

[jerrykco]

Success on first power-up!

Very pleased with my self.
I also connected via wifi too.

[johu]

Thanks, good to hear someone mentioning the existing material instead of the non-existing

EDIT: images are not displayed, maybe marked private?

[jerrykco]

Sorry, I can't figure out how to attach a picture. [SOLVED]
Previously I chose the little picture icon and put the url between the tags.
I edited se last two posts now and just pasted the url.
But how does one attach a picture?

[dima]

Sorry, I can't figure out how to attach a picture.

[jerrykco]

Thanks Dima for the Newbie help.

[jerrykco]

Thanks, good to hear someone mentioning the existing material instead of the non-existing

EDIT: images are not displayed, maybe marked private?

With help for a newbie from generous forum users, I have edited the post and fixed the pictures.