Got this e-mail today...
OSH Park
Signal Generator copy sent to fab.

Hi H Hartman,
Your boards are being made as you read this!
We've sent the panel containing your boards to the fabricator. We expect to get them back around October 31st.
We'll let you know as soon as they're back.

Cool!

Harvey

 

Sweet! Generally it takes about a day or so after they get them back to ship and they usually ship USPS Priority Mail, so they'll arrive 3-4 days after that. All said, you'll probably get them around Nov 7th or 8th. If you're lucky they might show up on the 4th and you'll get to play with them over the weekend!

 

DJ,

Will the boards come already drilled or will I still need to do that?

Harvey

 

Yes, I believe my layout specifies the drill marks, so it should be pre-drilled and ready to solder and mount

 

In general any PCB with more than one layer and feedthrough holes must have the holes drilled since the holes are plated to provide the feedthrough connection after the holes are drilled.

 

It amazes me that they're able to etch, drill, trim, and ship 3 boards so cheaply and still make a profit!

Not that I'm complaining!

Harvey

 

One of the great things about OSH Park is the boards are actually fabbed in the USA, rather than some overseas sweatshop that will happily cut corners (materials, process, etc) to pinch pennies.

They reach the low prices by paneling a bunch of orders together on one "super-board" and then cutting that up, so they're only doing one setup for ~100 (or more) boards, instead of having to set up for each board individually. You can see what a panel looks like @ https://goo.gl/8rLErd

@crutschow to be fair, it's not easy to determine from the board pics that the corner mounting holes are actually designated to be drilled at the fab (at least if you don't have past experience with OSH Park board manufacture).

 

Got this from OSH Park at 2:44 this afternoon...

Harvey,
We've received the panel containing your boards from the fabricator. We expect to have the boards depanelled and shipped within 48 hours.

Those 48 hours went by FAST because I got this e-mail 32 minutes later!

Harvey,
Your boards have been shipped to you via USPS Free Shipping.

Now THAT'S customer service!!!
Harvey

 

I checked USPS Tracking this morning and it looks like I'll have my boards on Monday (31 Oct).

Harvey

 

Sweet! In my experience, I've found that they usually depanel and ship them within about 1-2 hours. I'm guessing they give that 48 hour timeline in case the panel comes in 2 minutes before the end of the day before a holiday

 

I'm guessing they give that 48 hour timeline in case the panel comes in 2 minutes before the end of the day before a holiday

From what I've experienced with OSH Park so far, they probably wouldn't hesitate to stay late on that day in order to maintain their reputation for great customer service!

Harvey

 

THE BOARDS ARE HERE!!!

 

THE BOARDS ARE HERE!!!

Whoopee!
Where's the champagne?

 

It doesn't look like it in the photo but dey be waaaayyy purple! (Which I understand is OSH Park's trademark color.)

Harvey

 

Got all of the thingys and doodads glued to the modulator PCB today, tested it and IT WORKS GREAT!



I've got a video of the circuit in operation. Can we post videos on AAC?

Harvey

 

Got all of the thingys and doodads glued to the modulator PCB today, tested it and IT WORKS GREAT!

I've got a video of the circuit in operation. Can we post videos on AAC?

Great news.
It's always nail-biting time when you first power up a new board, wondering if it's going to work.
Time for more champagne.

The board looks quite professional.
Wonder if anyone else has use for such a light flasher board?

I think you can upload videos.
Give it a try and see what happens.
I, for one, would like to see the result of my contribution to the final product.

 

I've been trying to upload the video for over 30 minutes now without success. It's a .MOV clip and apparently not an accepted file for uploading. I've also tried to convert it to another type of file but couldn't.

Harvey

 

I'm expecting a Mouser order tomorrow and it includes a Bud box for the modulator circuit. Once I get everything in the box, I'll temporarily splice it into the tower's ob light wires. (The tower already has ob lights installed but lacking a modulator until now, they're wired for steady illumination.) Will be neat to see 'em in action! In the meantime, I'll see if one of my computer geek friends knows how to convert my video into something that can be posted on AAC.

Harvey

 

If you click on the media button (6th from right), it will give you a list of sites you can download video from, such as YouTube.
So I guess you could post your video on on of those sites, and then upload it here.

You might also try changing the file extension from .mov to .txt and see if that will upload.

 

Here ya go...

Harvey