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Raspberry Pi Production Delayed By Factory's Assembly Flub
nk497 writes "The first shipment of Raspberry Pi devices has been delayed, after the factory manufacturing the cheap educational computer used non-magnetic jacks instead of ones with integrated magnetics. The problem is already nearly fixed, but new jacks need to be sourced for subsequent shipments, so those could be delayed slightly. 'It's inevitable, isn't it — you're freewheeling along perfectly happily and then you get a puncture,' said spokeswoman Liz Upton, apologizing for the delay."
Can someone explain to me what advantage a magnetic 8P/8C connector has over a non magnetic one? I have no idea where this would be used. My cables have that little lock tab not a magnet. Does it not need the little tab anymore (that always breaks off)?
Procrastinating life a way at a rapid rate of speed.
From the Raspi forums :
"It doesn’t mean no network connection at all on all devices, but this board has been designed for a magnetic jack. The magnetic bits mean better signal integrity, better filtering and shorter transmission distances for data."
"Magnetics refers to the presence of transformers and chokes which are used to isolate the Ethernet wires from the RaspPi’s power supply. and each other and probably to reduce high-frequency noise. Without them you would effectively tie the RX and TX signals together and probably turn the entire network into an aerial for Radio 2 reception."
The magnetics in question aren't to hold the connector in like those in a Mac power cord, but rather the tiny transformers that are required for Ethernet differential signal isolation/transformation.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
I can understand this critisism as I've had it many times over many different periods of "omg, not another <whatever> story".
But I'm way too damned excited over the Rasperry Pi to care! Kinda fun being on the other side of things for a change :D
How do they work?
Someone in China (the same guys that did the mistake in the first place, which most mentions have assumed to be a deliberate cost-saving measure rather than a true accident) has to receive those units back, hand-unsolder 10,000 connectors and hand-solder 10,000 correct connectors back into place before then packaging them up and sending them back to the UK.
Where, still, as far as we know, there's been no tests of functionality other than networking (i.e. they haven't seen if similar issues affect the other ports like the display, etc.). And then someone has to test a good portion of them again before sending them onto the suppliers.
Meanwhile, they have to source a supply of 100,000's of the proper connectors for future runs, which they are just starting now. And hope that the network WAS the only problem.
In effect, they did no actual testing of the actual device functionality ("it'll all just work if the factory did their job") until the entire first batch was opened in the UK. The testing in the manufacturing facility was purely electronic and COMPLETELY missed this problem (surprise, surprise). And immediately upon opening them here, they spotted a problem, which took FOUR DAYS to isolate (and was isolated only because they were baffled and broke one of the connectors open and happened to spot the difference) and now it all has to be sent back for more work.
That's a mite more than a "minor bump". Not irreconcilable, but certainly not a bump. More like a hard jolt with metal grinding. I sincerely hope it doesn't turn into another OP, but given that we've gone from "No preorders" to well, pre-orders, and a full launch to, well, we'll tell you when we have a working device in the same country as our distributors, the slippery slope has certainly started. Of course they can recover the situation. The question is, what other mistakes have they made in their supply chain of making 10,000 bare PCB's with components (something that happens thousand-fold times every day).
Bye Bye, my Raspberry Pi,
I thought that I might buy you,
but the warehouse was dry,
those good old boys say just wait one more month,
but you keep running into delays,
yeah, you keep running into delays.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Blame the extortionate tariff on importing components versus the lack of tariff on finished goods for production being outsourced. Here's a direct petition on the matter: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/27158 -- that is the direct reason manufacture is being outsourced. From what I understand of the Foundation's statements on the matter no economy of scale could overcome the cost of the tariff because the bill of materials cost would be too high to be profitable at the desired price point as a result.
And I don't see any cost increase. Model As are $25 before tax and shipping. Model Bs are $35 before tax and shipping. That has never changed.
Actually, no. This is what happens when you outsource manufacturing to vendors in countries like China where it is common practice for them to quietly substitute parts between the reference design stage and when the device hits production. Sometimes, you get lucky and they even tell you in advance that they're doing this and you have a chance to evaluate impact on the design. Most times, they simply do it and pocket the difference in cost while hoping not to get caught.
Still good value?
What about when the returns start flooding in because a 1 cent component failed when a 2 cent one might have soldiered on? Budgeted for handling that?
I know these guys are amateurs, but do they really need to keep demonstrating it?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Perhaps you would be interested to find out what the tariff actually is? Or perhaps your definition of "extortionate" isn't the same as mine. Hint: the upper limit across the various electronics tariffs, last I checked, was 14%. Broadcom does not deserve the blind trust geeks seem to be awarding it over this Raspberry Pi project: even though some of the characters may be familiar, we're a long way from the days of the BBC B where a bunch of bright uni students got together with academic entrepreneurs.
It is, of course, quite absurd to charge on components but not on finished computers. A tariff should be a function of rights imbalance and amount of work involved. So a relatively free nation would not be subject to significant tariff, whereas a nation like China would be subject to a high tariff, the tariff increasing for completed products as more work was done under conditions not acceptable to the consumer nation. I cannot think of a better way to get developing countries to improve their citizens' fortunes. Can you?
Quotesdfrom the forum
''Jamesh is right – they sent us test units which *did* have the right part on before they moved to a larger batch. "
who where what when now?
This sort of thing is precisely why the standard Slashdot rant of "all they did was put x, y and z together, this isn't innovating!" is so much silliness. It's not easy to mass produce things. It takes planning and more planning. It takes money and more money than you planned on because some small aspect of Murphy's law is going to pop up and rip your balls off.
It's why the Motorola Xooms of the world come with stupid little missing bits and even why our fearless denizen of perfection, Apple, still screws first releases up 99 times out of a 100.
Production electronics is not building a Heathkit in your bedroom.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I hate to stereotype, but this is quite typical for China. You need to watch them closely or they will cut corners whenever possible.
I have only dabbled in electronics, but I don't care for the term "magnetics" (nor I have ever heard it before). I would think "inductor" would be a better term. Anyone who actually knows what they're talking about care to illuminate what the difference is between "magnetics" and inductors?
Better known as 318230.