Micron News

24-Apr-2022:

Commissioning of the Micron pick/place machine is not complete so, to avoid further delay to MR603, a batch has been ordered from a UK PCB assembler. They will be delivered here by 1st June and will go on sale shortly after.

15-Mar-2022:

Mid March has arrived but still no production MR603. The status is:

• production PCB panels are here, but waiting on me to complete a vacuum table for applying solder paste; I plan to have that done this week
• the pick & place machine kit is here, but will take several days to commission so initial batches will be hand assembled
• firmware for v1.0 will be complete by the end of the week (see MR603 Programming Table), code will be frozen and subject to full testing
• some documentation is written and will be completed over the next 1-2 weeks.

6-Mar-2022:

Receiver development is taking longer than hoped/expected, for which I apologise.

MR603 is close but not quite ready. Pre-production boards have passed all tests which gives confidence for production. When I started this project, the plan was to have the receivers assembled in China. However, the continuing global semiconductor shortage has made that infeasible; PCB assemblers either would not quote as they had no stock of some components or the price per board made for an unacceptable retail price. Thus, we will be manufacturing in house. The advantage is that components can be sourced from multiple suppliers and allows flexibility to make sufficient stock to match demand - particularly inmportant as more receivers are added to the range. The downside to in-house manufacture is the startup cost and effort. A pick/place machine has been ordered but that will take some time to commission so initial batches of MR603 will be hand-assembled resulting in limited availability until we are up to speed.