I was wondering how well the preorder 1 boards were going. I believe that the original plan was for them to be done and starting to ship today. Any word on how assembly & test are going?
FYI: Shipping times have been particularly long recently. We did the registered ship upgrade/option for an order that was shipped on Dec22 and it took 14 days just to get to Hong Kong and 5 days to leave there (just yesterday). Hopefully some of the delays were from the tail end of the holiday season, but we'll just have to see. Xiang says that they're trying to find a better courier to get their stuff to Hong Kong and into HKPost faster.
I'll get an update from Seeed and post it ASAP.
Thanks for the shipping info, I didn't know about the additional delay getting things to HKPost. The shipping has been really disappointing lately. When I started ordering from Seeed, PCB orders always shipped on Monday (they send boards out every Friday) and were delivered in EU on Thursday or Friday. Now I'm waiting on PCBs for 2-3weeks+.
My last seeed order took alone 2 weeks (!) to get from seeed to hongkong post. I could live with 2 weeks to delivery but recently it is more 4 to 6 weeks. I hope the learn to handle the big volumes at hong kong post. But since september last year it is getting worse and worse.
Cheers
Rubi
Same here, exactly two weeks from Seeed to Hong Kong. Which is very strange indeed given that you could probably walk it there in about 15-18 hours.
The other thing to keep in mind is that even though the "Western holiday season" has concluded, the "Eastern holiday season" is coming up soon. Chinese/lunar New Year this year is February 14. During that week much of continental Asia shuts down, just like everything except breathing (and after-Christmas sales) stops between Dec24 and Jan2 in the western world.
So if there's going to be culturally-unencumbered shipping throughput, it seems unlikely to start until late February. Perhaps by then things will get back to semi-normal, where semi-normal is defined as September-like, as many of us have observed. In total, it appears that Silly Season seems to start roughly with American "Black Friday" and ends with the conclusion of Chinese New Year. I guess not altogether unlike how continental Europe implodes during July/August.
When I wrote to Eric about the Web Platform shipping, I also asked for an 'interview' about the shipping situation. Maybe I can get some more details.
Just made another Seedorder, lets hope shipping times will be better now. :)
well at least some of them are shipping.
Mine still says on backorder. but it could be the other stuff i ordered on the same order.
I have several updates, I'm writing them up now. Kits have shipped, assembled are being programmed and tested, and will ship shortly. I also interviewed Eric @ Seeed about the shipping times, he seems confident they will go back to 'normal' starting now. I'll get these posts up in a few minutes.
Thanks for bearing with me. Small manufacturing runs can be unpredictable, and I couldn't do it at all without Seeed Studio as my fulfillment partner.
[quote author="ian"]
When I wrote to Eric about the Web Platform shipping, I also asked for an 'interview' about the shipping situation. Maybe I can get some more details.
[/quote]
Seeed's already put up a blog entry about the shipping delays, but those only address the (weather) problems elsewhere. Apparently our snow's created snowdrifts that have wreaked havoc upon Highway 9 between Shenzhen Bay and Hong Kong, delaying shipping by 1-2 weeks ;-)
Eric already knows that people aren't thrilled with the Shenzhen-HongKong delays and says that he's trying to fix his couriering delays. However, Ian's mention that PCBs only went out once per week was news to me, as that would certainly have an effect on some orders -- although not for a full two-week delay to HKPost. I was kinda thinking that by upgrading from free to registered shipping would free me from being in the slowest-service shipping pool, but this doesn't seem to be the case.
I guess that it was me that opened the shipping can of worms in this thread, but I was actually more interested in knowing how the manufacturing was going.
Is the free shipping an option? I thought that was for non-shipped items (like prepayment for a preorder).
Have you used that service? How long does it take? Is it better than the current times with airmail?
I also get the impression from Eric that they have found a new local courier, but he wasn't really specific. It feels like that would solve half the slowdown.
By PCB's I meant the Fusion PCB service - they send gerbers to the board house every Friday, and they get mailed out every Monday (in my experience).
Hi Ian
Thats good news, thank you.
I would also like to clarify my statement.
Fan (Eric) does a terrific job at seeed, fast shipping, tons of new proto boards, great prices,... Recently I prefer his shop to sparkfun, the no.1 for prototyping needs. Imho he cannot be blamed for the lousy shipping times of HK post.I hope the will learn to handle the great shipping volumes better or at least dhl will get cheaper. :)
Cheers
Rubi
[quote author="ian"]
Is the free shipping an option?
[/quote]
Clarified on blog:
By the way, many people were asking about the difference between Free shipping and Air mail. Actually all order over 50USD from our depot will get free shipping service, their orders will be shipped with HK post air mail, both with tracking number. It sounds like a perfect way, you can get item from us with good quality, amazing price and free shipping! But my suggestion is: Please choose couriers like DHL or FedEX for faster delivering if you are in hurry
I need to stop paying double for shipping then! :)
Yeah, I noticed that too a few days ago -- but couldn't tell for how long this has been the case.
I just asked Fan on their blog if this is a new feature or not.
Just got notice last night that mine has shipped. so it looks like the assembled ones are shipping.
Me too! yay! Looking forward to playing with this great piece of work from Ian. Now my Bus Pirate will have a friend!
Damn..... seems I accidently ordered the kit version by mistake - opened the parcel today to be greeted by a bag of *very small* components :-( :-( :-( Very disappointed... oh well - guess I'll learn how to solder Surface Mount Devices now!
How will I program it? I do not have a PIC programmer - can I do it with the bus pirate?
Hi
Mine is still on backorder, because of the missing chip. :(
For smd I use an old waffle iron as reflow oven.
It is the same model Jean from Jee Lab uses:
http://news.jeelabs.org/2009/07/13/my-first-reflow/ (http://news.jeelabs.org/2009/07/13/my-first-reflow/)
Cheers
Rubi
@will_j - The Bus Pirate can't program PICs...yet. PM me, I can probably find someone near you who would be willing to program it for you. If you want to send it to me, I will build and program it for you. I was concerned some people accidentally bought the kit because only a few (3?) were sold, most were assembled. I should have sent out a final email to check when I saw the sales stats.
@rubi - I'll check on that, they should have gone out by now. I'm sorry about the delay.
Hi
[quote author="ian"]
@rubi - I'll check on that, they should have gone out by now. I'm sorry about the delay.
[/quote]
Thank you Ian!
No need to be sorry, it is not your fault.
Cheers
Mine arrived today! Woo!
Worked first time too :D
Hi
Got mine today - a preassemled.
Just loaded it with the SD-card webserver demo and both the loader and the demo is running very smooth.
I'm looking forward to see more demos and hopefully also start some programming myself.
Bo :o)
My Web board turned up tonight.
Gotta love seed, , get a nice 10% off the enxt order., i wonder if these things stack. :)
anyway time to find a sd card and see what i can do
Thanks for the reports, I'm glad they're starting to arrive.
This Thursday I'll have a dsPIC basics tutorial for the web platform. A basic framework for config fuse settings, clock setup, pin setup, UART, peripheral pin select, etc.
Hi
got mine yesterday, as kits, i somehow ordered assembled, asked for a confirmation that i did order pre-assembed; Yes was the reply and i got kits. and so it goes another smd soldering exercise I hate smds for this!
board is however a nice size,
SM
Got mine today, looking forward to interfacing it with VFD display & radio receiver!
I received a preassembled web platform and a kit as ordered on Monday - it was shipped by Seeed Studio on schedule!
Hi
Finally my board got shipped, hope it leaves China before their new year feast starts. Somehow I doubt it though.
It seems even China Ems is slow nowadys.
Ordered a Rigol scope and since a week there is no progress, they just confirm that they have received the parcel. Usually Ems takes about three days from pickup to delivery,.... I cant await to get my first scope with coulor lcd. :(
Cheers
Rubi
My last Seeed PCB order arrived much faster than the previous. It only took 2 days from Seeed to HongKong, then 4 days after tracking information was available it arrived. I'm really happy about the reduction in time from Seed to HongKong, the HongKong->doorstep portion has always been pretty speedy for me.
My web platform and twatch LCD just arrived from seeed. Along with lots of other items :)
Ordered most stuff 4th of Jan, after preorder period took 2 weeks to get here, which seems normal and is what I was expecting
(http://http://data.coolnicks.co.uk/dangerousprototypes/seeedorder.jpg)
(http://http://data.coolnicks.co.uk/dangerousprototypes/seeedorder2.jpg)
Very nice stuff.
Porn for the engineer. :)
Received mine today! :) I ordered it as a kit and the way they packed the components is great! The component sheet has the small components attached to it, so you don't have to read all those tiny writings on them. I might take some pictures and upload them here before I start soldering away! :D