OK.

I was going to wait a little longer to say this, but what the hell...

It doesn't look likely that Sonicblue will be making more tuners, since
the batch size needs to be quite large ( >= 1000 units ) to make it worth
their while, especially for a no-longer-produced product.

The same problem exists for any third-part supplier that wishes to produce
the original design. There is a lot of investment, in the 80-100 kilodollar
range needed to do them this way.

I need a number of tuner modules myself, for friends, family, and the like.
Also, I get the impression that there are a few other people that might be
mildly interested if the tuners were available.

So. What to to do? After some thought, I have decided that the best solution
is to redesign the PCB of the existing tuner to be mainly through-hole, then
produce it as a kit.

Note: this is not a firm promise (yet) to do this. I am chasing the supplier
of the tuner modules for pricing and availability, and I'm still waiting for
a final price in small quantities. They're more than happy to deal with me,
but they are themselves waiting for the data from Temic in Germany. I have
also enquired as to the price and availability of the weatherband version as
well.

In addition, I have to finish the PCB (a few days work at most), work out
exactly what the kit contents should be, and decide on what case to use. This
last item is, oddly enough, the most difficult to solve.

Once the costs have been worked out, I then need to finalise a price to the
end user, and solve a few vexing questions, such as how to accept the payment
and the best way to ship the things at minimum cost. However, these are all
fairly achievable goals.

Assuming everything works out from a cost basis, I then need to make a couple
of test units to check that everything works, have one or two assembled by
someone else to check it's easy enough to do and the instructions are valid, and
work out what batch size to produce.

Based on the information I currently have, I think that batches of 25 kits at
once would be the best size to go for initially. I am estimating the final
kit cost will be approximately $150 US, but there may be some modification to
this as the prices of the parts come in.

The idea is to produce a kit containing everything necessary to allow someone
moderately comfortable with a soldering iron to build. I have neither the time
or really the inclination to build them myself for sale, but I'm sure that there
is someone present who does. So even the programmers can get one made

In addition, I intend to add a few small modifications to the basic design, ie.
bring out to some suitable connector the 3 unused A to D channels the PIC has
available, and possibly add a couple of digital IOs. It would also be doable
to add one or two thermocouple inputs, if this is of any interest.

With a little luck, it should be possible to produce the first kits for around
the middle of June.

Comments?

Patrick