We are heading down the final K3 production stretch, and we can finally
see the finish line.
We received all of the first production run K3 painted and silk-screened
enclosure sheet metal late Friday. This was one of our major concerns
since the vendor was late, and if a part is bad it can take several
weeks to fabricate replacements. Fortunately all of the sheet metal
looked excellent following our incoming inspection. :-)
We have received initial shipments of the higher accuracy TCXOs, so
those of you who ordered this upgrade will receive them with your K3.
As mentioned before, our other major parts problem has been the wound
toroids. We received another major shipment from the vendor this week
which filled in a number of missing toroid values, but there are still
several values outstanding. While they are promising to get these to us
in the next week, we are not relying on that. We have started an 'all
hands on-deck' toroid winding operation in Aptos as an insurance policy
to cover our initial K3 shipments. We ordered and received the raw
toroids and wire last week and we are in the process of winding each
missing value. Both our production team and anyone else in our Aptos HQ
who has time available is winding toroids. (Even Lisa is becoming a
toroid winding expert. Ask her how her fingers feel..) Our goal is to
get enough sets of the missing toroids wound and tinned so that our pc
board stuffing sub-contractor can get initial quantities the four board
types that need these values wave soldered late this week and early
next. This should cover us in case the remaining toroids arrive a week
or two late from the vendor.
The only new parts surprise we had was when we discovered that the
relays we had received for the KBPF3 option had the wrong coil voltage.
Fortunately this was caught before the boards were soldered. They were
exchanged for the correct value and the new ones should be here in
several days.
Wayne and Lyle are focused on final testing of the K3's firmware and DSP
code with our Field Testers. They are doing a great job of beating up
the K3 and making sure it is as solid as possible. Wayne is also working
with out team on the release version of the K3 operating manual. We hope
to have it posted in the next 7-10 days.
We are testing the assembled PC boards as they arrive and everything is
beginning to feel like it is converging. Key sub assemblies for the
built version of the K3 are getting built and tested, awaiting the final
boards mentioned above. For a while it seemed like new parts supplier
problems were cropping up faster than we were solving them. That trend
has now sharply reversed.
So whats the bottom line? Wayne and I discussed the schedule and our
open issues today. While we both felt that we may start shipping in two
weeks, we agreed we should add a week to that and conservatively set the
official K3 first ship date for Monday Oct 8th. That gives us some
additional safety margin for any last minute issues. (Plus we can work
the weekend getting the first units ready to ship! :-) We understand
the frustration is creates each time the schedule slips and we want to
avoid another last minute delay.
Every one of us appreciates the patience you have shown while waiting
for the K3. We're doing our best to make the wait worth while, and to
get a quality product out the door to you as soon as possible. We're
optimistic that we are on track and we will keep posting weekly status
updates between now and Oct 8th to keep everyone aware of how everything
is going.
73,
Eric, WA6HHQ
and Wayne, N6KR
--
_..._
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