Now.

http://www.pcats.co.uk

pca

(I told you it would be soon )

Whoo Hooo! Number six! Now to go and read the rest of the tuner page. Thanks again for all your hard work, we all appreciate it.

Matthew

That poor, poor, poor web server... It'll never know what hit it...

Number 10 !!!!

Number 11

Hallelujah, now people can stop bitching (at least until the first 50 sell out)

Number 14 ... :-)

I think to mess with people, Patrick should have started the numbering system at like 300 or something.

You'll never know how tempted I was...

pca

Number 15, finally the long wait is over!

Ack! In my gleeful haste I seem to have accidentally placed 2 orders! Anyhow I *meant* to have my order shipped to Mark and only order one, but if both orders went through could you remove one? I would hate to mess the count up and screw someone out of their discount!

Well, that'll be about an hour at the current rate

pca

I'd actually guess closer to 45 minutes.

Patrick... I have asked for it to be sent to me, but have emailed Jon Andrews to see if he will build it. At the time of payment, can I change the delivery address? I didn't want to lose out so I ordered before I contacted Jon.

I've checked, and you only seem to have put one through.

pca

To be honest, when I saw there was a message on Announcements I assumed it would be for 2.0final

Believe me, the smile on my face is about a mile wide!

Yes, I'll allow it just this once

pca

You'll never know how tempted I was...

Well, then at least make sure that this guy's order number is somewhere in the 10,000 range.

Thank you!

LOL, I filled in the form, pressed the order button and *then* looked to see how much it will cost me...

Gareth (#19)

In reply to:

---

LOL, I filled in the form, pressed the order button and *then* looked to see how much it will cost me...

---

Me too, nevermind, it'll be the flexible friend taking the strain anyway!

Me too! I'm now reading small print! What number are we at now?

Numer 12.

Your order number is 22.

I feel kinda special.

whoo hoo! # 150!

*jk*

Your joking, right?

Oh, funny:
I 'm back to the bbs after about ten days, and I have the possibility to be one of the first lucky buyers of the long-awaiting tuner kits
However, I need to buy three tuner (for me and two of my friends) and, since I don't really need it very badly, I think I will wait when we can use credit cards and buy more than one for person (and maybe a reduction of price - 110£, ugh!)

So, guy number 50, you have to thank me... you should be #51

I'm the lucky one with order number 25.

27. Get in quick people.

Yeah, #9!

Also the currency is UK pounds correct?

Ahh I see it now on the web page. I didn't read it very will the first time since I wanted to get my order in so I wouldn't miss out.

Yes. Sterling.

Yeah. Anybody that wants one should get one now.

Your order number is 17
Order placed at Sun 2 Feb 2003 7:18 pm

Lucky that I checked the BBS when I came back from dinner!

- Trevor

Only checking since dinner? Pff... I've been camped here since October time!

Where'd all the crazy turbine experiments go to in the new site though?

- Trevor

Only checking since dinner? Pff... I've been camped here since October time!

I guess I'm one of the guys who waits until they fling open the main doors and then slips in the side entrance and hope no-one notices.

edit: and gets the crap kicked out of them *ouch!*

Gareth

- 29... Mark, I sent you email!!!

so is anyone gunna charge to put these together? hehe, Im waiting for the credit card options on the page, no 10% discount for me

I am sure there would be some time and handling charge for any assembly. I just wonder how Mark will keep up with it - between button kits, the newly available docking stations and now the tuners...

Your order number is 34
Order placed at Sun 2 Feb 2003 8:19 pm
---
Shipping Status
Orders 26 through 50 expected to ship in 8 - 10 days,

Let it be 2 weeks, I'm verry happy :-))))


Greetings, Robert

Alright! I'm number 38. So exciting!

How do the new tuners compare to the orignal tuners? Any new features or Easter eggs?

Thats what I was wondering. How many memory spaces has it etc etc.

Unbelievable,
I left my PC for just 3hrs after checking the forum several times a day for month now and when I returned from dinner the tuners were already available all over sudden...

Fortunately I managed to be #47. Woohoo!

Peter

Uh, I forgot:

Thanks PCA, Du bist der Held...

Peter

BTW,
how much are £110 in €?

Peter

110.00 GBP United Kingdom Pounds = 168.060 EUR Euro
1 GBP = 1.52782 EUR 1 EUR = 0.654529 GBP
as of 2003.02.02 22:25:22 GMT

Snuck in under the gun, as well: #48!

I have to admit that it couldn't have come at a worse time, though -- I just shelled out a whack load of money for a vacation in a couple weeks and the bank account is at an all-time post-student low.

Thanks for the info.

Peter

Guess what.... Number 49 !!!!!! I'm soooo happy !!!!
Thanks Patrick

Cheers,
Thorsten

Phew....

"Your order number is 50"

Damn, I missed the first batch. There is never much traffic here on weekends so I rarely check the boards.

This is just a thought, but I could maybe assemble kits. I havn't had much time to look at all the components that need to be put together and I obviously don't have a kit. I will look at everything tonight. Just let me know if there isn't enough people to put these kits together and i'll figure out if i can help or not. Couldn't be much harder then soldering mod chips in playstations ; )

-Greg

In reply to:

---

so is anyone gunna charge to put these together?

---

The offer still stands for us to assemble the tuners. Those of you who have purchased a digital out board/ installation know we're more than capable of tackling these. Details to come shortly on the website (later today or tomorrow).

Stu

You might want to get a link on Patrick's site.

I can't believe I didn't check the board earlier ... but I'm still happy with being #60. Thank you Patrick!

Slashdotted... or should that be empegged or empegbbsed, just doesn't sound the same...

By the way. If anyone in Australia/NZ etc wants one built I can do it.

I think its a router or DNS propagation issue - I can't get in either and our ISP uses Telstra in Sydney to connect to the outside world!

I've been trying since 5 minutes after the link was posted and its not working for me.

Nah DNS is fine for me, lookup happened pretty much straight away. I'm on Telstra ADSL although I run our own DNS. Took about 2-3 minutes for the first page to load and then about 1-2 for the others - I assume because the buttons etc were cached.

Yep, I have it pretty bad, just ordered a tuner with FEDEX International Priority, and set the image of the assembled unit w/o case as my desktop wallpaper.
Wadda you gonna do?
Yeah #67!!!!!!!

I already ordered a tuner kit (#25) for myself. Hope to get it soon...
If someone from Switzerland is interested, I would offer to assemly and test the tuner module for you. Just send me a (private) message.

Hi!

Well, my order number is #74. I'll get one!
Sure I find it quite expensive, but here it is!
¿What happened with the old lists where we sign in to be in the order cue? Several months ago, it's true...

Thanks:

Miguel.

¿What happened with the old lists where we sign in to be in the order cue? Several months ago, it's true...

I believe there was one (or more) "interest" lists so Patrick could gauge whether it was worth putting the (pretty large) amount of work into redesigning the board into a through-hole design.

It wasn't an order list remebering previous discussions, as it would take an age to find the posts and follow up each one individually and find out whether they are interested etc.

Gareth

Heh Miguel,

I've got the one before you..... HAH, HAH !!

......only joking mate , but its going to be a long, cold wait for those of us with numbers over 50.

Cheers, Sim

Your order number is 73
Order placed at Mon 3 Feb 2003 8:27 am

Phew....

"Your order number is 50"

Thank papinist.

If only I had a damn player now

(working on it though )

Hi all

Sure it's going to be a hard wait... (enough time to have all the money!) Meanwhile i'm using a damn 10€ portable radio plugged to the Aux ins... no RDS, no tuner stability, no fidelity... but I can listen to the traffic state!
I'm making plans about what to do with the extra relays the tuner has, I don't know yet what to plug, so I'll take that wait time thinking about it :-)

Cheers!

Miguel.

(enough time to have all the money!)

I knew their had to be an up-side to waiting


Cheers, Sim

Your order number is 73
Order placed at Mon 3 Feb 2003 8:27 am

Patrick, i sent you an email re: the sympathy tuner.

...and just hope he remembers his promise to you after all these months!

Hmm, so with shipping and assembling these things could easily cost over $250.00 USD.
Seems a bit pricey at the moment for me at the moment.

Great work on delivering the product though! I hope it satisfies everyones need.

he did, but i wouldn't have been upset if he didn't. I never expected it in the first place. =]

In reply to:

---

You might want to get a link on Patrick's site.

---

I will ask. Our site is up with all the info regarding tuner assembly.

Stu

I wonder if http://www.pcats.co.uk has been up the past 12 hours or so? I know I will not be in the first batch of kits delivered but still wanted to place my order. No luck getting the site to come up on my browser or pinging. Comments?

It's up now.

Stig

Out of curiosity, what order number are we up to now, the highest I have seen so far is #73?

My coworker Nick got #100 yesterday afternoon... so probably above that.

I can't see Patricks site either - havn't been able to since it was announced
- we may have the same problem esp. if you're in NZ currently.
I suspect its a DNS "zone" problem.
If you're in NZ, are you using Paradise.net [or any ISP that routes via TelstraClear's network? - if so, then you're in the same boat as me so to speak.

I've tried dial up using a different ISP with no luck either.

I've checked, and there is indeed a potential problem with connection to the server from Australia/NZ (also korea, russia, and a few other places), following a number of ddos and hack attacks. There was a group of script kiddies in Sydney who persistently tried to hack it, and as a result much of australia was put in a geographical IP block. ICMP (ie ping requests) has been turned off due to the ddos attacks, and no connection from russia or korea is accepted at all since they're always hack attempts!

Anyway, the server owners have been asked to look into the block to down under, and much of it should be removed soon.

Sorry about this, to anyone who lives in kangarooland and wants a tuner. I wasn't aware of the blocking, although I knew about the cracking attempts. My only suggestion as a temporary workaround is to try connecting via a non-australian/nz proxy, or via a web anonymiser service.

pca

Mmm.. interesting. My own server logs show numerous DAILY crack attacks from all over the planet, but typically .kr, .ru, and other asian domains. These are in addition to the extremely common Code Red and SQL Slammer packets.

The firewall (Linux, of couse, plus some personal customization and coding..) just drops the lot of them, and keeps me informed as it goes along.. (crossing fingers behind back).

Cheers

Ick. It's annoying how worms can basically live for years on the internet now. There are always unpatched systems out there without anybody looking after them that will become infected.

- Trevor

In reply to:

---

My coworker Nick got #100 yesterday afternoon... so probably above that.

---

Huh. I got #97, yesterday around 2:30EST. (That's what I get for having to go down to Fla to take care of my horses for the weekend. No Internet access down there. Hell, no cel coverage, either.)

If the first 50 batch was going to be made first, anyone know what the wait is for the next 50 batch? Anxious to finally get my baby mounted in my.. uh.. baby.

Me.

I am in New Zealand presently using xtra.co.nz as an ISP. XTRA belongs to Telecom New Zealand, the largest ISP, in this country. I still can not access the tuner order site so I have asked a friend in Seattle to add me to his order for a tuner.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that your time available will allow orders above number 100 to be shipped in another month or two. Thanks for all the work including the gorgeous documentation.

Michael

I just checked a currency conversion website, and the tuner and shipping would be well over $200US. I guess the exchange rates just aren't very favorable here on the other side of the pond at the moment. As much as I have looked forward to this day, I think I will have to sit on the sidelines until it becomes a little more economical to upgrade my two Empegs. This saddens me greatly.

Patrick, do you see any potential price reductions down the road as you scale up production?

- Chris

Patrick, do you see any potential price reductions down the road as you scale up production?

It's very difficult to say. The quantities are very small for production at the moment, and likely to stay like that. The tuner modules, which are by far the single largest cost of the project, don't have a major price break between hundreds (what I'm buying) and thousands.

Putting the kits together, by which I don't mean assembling them , is very labour-intensive, and the rest of the parts are moderately pricey. I'm buying everything in quantities of 50 at a go, and again to get significant savings I'd have to go up to at least 250 off. I don't think the number of orders is likely to get to the point this could be sustained.

There was an initial huge burst of orders placed (25 in the first ten minutes, fifty in the first hour or so, nearly a hundred within 24 hours), but this has steadily dropped to around 5 a day (it's up to about 130 now). So as a result, I'm not going to be rushing out and buying $16000 worth of tuner modules which is what I'd have to do to get even a few percent better price.

The situation may change, but don't bank on it.

pca

Just in case anyone was curious, here is the order status as of today:

Your order number is 239
Order placed at Wed 28 May 2003 3:57 pm

I can't wait...

Your order number is 239

hmmm... Any idea what order number is currently shipping? That is what I'm curious about.

I've emailed PCATS reagaring that but haven't received a response.

- trs

After ordering, a message is displayed that says they are working on orders "50-100 right now." Again, I've got a long way to go!

Patrick is not the best at answering emails. I'm STILL waiting for a postage refund after my order was screwed up. No response. Suprise surprise.

To give you an idea about the shipping status here is my automaitc reply I got from the website but no tuner so far.
Seems 51+ is not shipped yet...

------------------------
Your order number is 61
Order placed at Mon 3 Feb 2003 12:17 am
------------------------

I also am very interested in news about my two tuners I ordered :-)

In reply to:

---

Patrick is not the best at answering emails.

---

He's always replied to my e-mails; I guess I'm special .

Stu

He's always answered mine promptly, too, though mine weren't "so is my tuner almost ready yet" emails. I could understand if he's simply ignoring requests for status email. If there's a major delay or cause for concern, I'm sure he'll post up here on the board as he has in the past.

Till then, remember that patience is a virtue (says the guy who already got his tuner).

He was having big problems with antenna connectors; I've not heard anything since.

Hugo

What specific problems was he having? I've found my antenna connector to be a little intermittent...

I found that the antenna connector didn't screw up tight enough, and the metal shield in the connector wasn't touching the screen clamp causing the connection to be broken and the reception to be lost.

I removed the socket and soldered the coax directly to the aerial plug and taped it up, works better.

I am still experiencing a problem with reception where the quality of the bass and treble varies up and down over short periods of time. The signal meter shows good signal and the antenna is brand new and has a good ground. There are no shorts between the centre and screen either.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Oli.

Sounds very similar to my problem, i'll fiddle with the connector when I get a spare moment....

Hi! My tuner module has similar problems. It only happens with stations broadcasting RDS signals.
I've send my tuner back to pca, but he's telling me that it works fine. Maybe it helps if someone else has similar problems. cheers

You have no idea how fortunate you are. I purchased my original empeg tuner for $220. Shortly after I did people were purchasing theirs for upwards of $400!

Totally insane.

Greetings to all who wait for pca's tuner kit!
I think we all want some news about the shipping status - but there is no update here or on his site.
If he will not ship any kits from now on I would understand... but _please_ tell us some news.
For me it's also fine to just have the schematics and the PIC software - make it public, so I can build my own tuner.

many thanks

you can't, you won't be able to purchase the actual tuner module itself - it's not possible to buy it in one offs (barring buying the evaluation kit and ripping the tuner off of the board) and I think the pic code is a closely guarded secret!

Adrian

Actually there was an update a few days ago in another thread. I'd look for it but I already have a tuner

Rob

That would be this thread posted by pca on 01/06/03 12:20 PM.

Does anyone have ANY idea of what number he is at on shipping? I am #123.

I think he's currently processing 50-100 (or 50-75). I know he's done 1-25 and 26-50 (I had queue number 28)

/Michael

ok.
The last email I got from him was a month ago, saying my order would be processed in a few weeks.
Oh well, I'll keep waiting

I am in the range of #80 and am waiting, too.
So stay tuned (or not, without tuner ;-)).

Rolf

finally :-) my 2 tuner kits - order #61 arrived this week.
there is hope for you out there...