[time-nuts] Ublox 8T

[Bob kb8tq]

HI

In a “typical” use case ( it’s TimeNuts … typical ????? ) there are a lot of the
pads on the part that simply hang loose. More or less, power / antenna / serial 
and you are good go go. The other 80% or so of the pads can just hang open. 
You *could* dead bug the thing ….

Bob

> On Dec 10, 2020, at 5:16 PM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello to the group and it sounds like someone could create some empty
> boards.
> But I am curious. I looked at Allibaba and see that ublox NEO6 boards are
> available for little cost. Have not looked at the pinouts of the 8T to
> compare but might it be a case of removing a neo6 and replacing it with a
> 8T?
> I have an 8T on order so one way or another will need to do something.
> Regards
> Paul
> WB8TSL
> 
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 10:31 AM Bob kb8tq <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> I’ve looked at several “you supply the components” outfits. Each time I’ve
>> dug into it,
>> the mechanics of supplying an adequate number of parts has been pretty
>> daunting.
>> None of the things I do is very “high volume” ( 10 is a lot of boards for
>> me ).
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>>> On Dec 10, 2020, at 9:21 AM, Mark Goldberg <marklgoldberg at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> If you have some volume, consider Small Batch Assembly:
>>> 
>>> https://www.smallbatchassembly.com/
>>> 
>>> They are not as cheap as the Chinese suppliers, but you can provide
>>> your own components, and it is run by a very helpful gentleman in the
>>> Washington DC area. I got the bare boards from OshPark and you can
>>> order your components from distributors and send them directly to
>>> Small Batch. I preferred using my own parts from known sources, but
>>> they have a stock of components also.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Mark
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 6:43 AM Bob kb8tq <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi
>>>> 
>>>> If you have a board with many dozens of passive parts on it and
>>>> four or five IC’s getting all those passives down on the board *is*
>>>> very useful. Their price on typical passive parts is low enough that
>>>> the delivered cost is still very close to a bare board.
>>>> 
>>>> If you do use odd IC’s you have to move quick. Get the board(s) laid
>>>> out and into them fast. Accept that you may not be in stock next week.
>>>> For things like three terminal regulators or run of the mill digital
>> stuff, they
>>>> seem to maintain a pretty good inventory. Yes, it will be in “their”
>> favorite
>>>> package ….
>>>> 
>>>> Bob
>>>> 
>>>>> On Dec 10, 2020, at 2:48 AM, Matthias Welwarsky <
>> time-nuts at welwarsky.de> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Mittwoch, 9. Dezember 2020 23:58:51 CET Bob kb8tq wrote:
>>>>>> One note: JLPCB is the only “fab + assembly” outfit I’ve tried. Their
>> boards
>>>>>> are no better / no worse than a lot of other board fab outfits. I
>> have no
>>>>>> idea how they compare to other assembly houses. My selection
>> criteria: “
>>>>>> are they the cheapest I can find?”
>>>>> 
>>>>> Currently, you will not find any other fab+assembly service that is as
>> cheap
>>>>> and requiring (almost) no human intervention. For protoype runs with
>> two to
>>>>> five boards assembled there is no competition. I'd say even for 50
>> boards
>>>>> there isn't.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The JLCPCB PCBs are ok, the biggest letdown is the solder mask. It's
>> just
>>>>> plain bad. It flakes off on the tiniest rub with a hot iron.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The biggest obstacle for sure is the limited parts catalog. They have
>> a decent
>>>>> assortment of passives but almost all active parts come from the
>> "extended"
>>>>> listing (extra cost, 10 uniques only) and they may not stock the
>> footprint you
>>>>> want to use, and the wildly fluctuating inventory.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'm treating them mainly as a layer of convenience. I let them place
>> all the
>>>>> boring passives and maybe a few common actives, but I don't go out of
>> my way
>>>>> to design along their catalog only, knowing that they might not have
>> stock of
>>>>> all the parts anyway when I order the boards.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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