Where, oh, where are is the TPS7A3901DSCT?
It continues to be a challenging time to get components for our circuit boards. We have been in the chip market for a while now, and during the last few months, there have been a few parts that have been…. well, basically flatlined. Here’s one example, a 20kOhm digital potentiometer — the AD5262BRUZ20 from Analog Devices:
An integrated circuit flatline.
In some cases, the components are available—they are just selling for 10-20x their normal price. And while we would love to just buy the parts, whatever the price, we just can’t make it work when individual components that should cost $4-5 are going for $80-100.
Wanted: Volatile Digital Potentiometer, 20 kOhm, Dual, SPI, Linear, 4.5 V
The good news is that a number of these inventories are somewhat “spiky”—we may see 50 or 100 components pop up for sale, and we are incrementally accumulating what we need for the initial run—as of today, we have supplies of most of the integrated circuits needed for production.
We will keep you posted!
The Light4Sound Team
Firmware and Updates
Yahoo!
The firmware is finally up and running! It was a more herculean effort than we had hoped for—we have been having a mysterious issue with the over-the-air firmware updates, which we were just able to get resolved this week. This is a critical feature, since it is the only way we (and you) will be able to update the ōPik without disassembly.
With that hurdle out of the way, the path towards shipping is getting clearer. There is still a fair amount to do, but we are hoping to get our first units in the mail soon.
The biggest issue now is obtaining all of the components we need for the circuit boards. There are some supply issues… we will keep you posted.
Meanwhile, we wanted to show you the latest revisions of the ōPik and the PowerPod:
All the best from the Light4Sound Team!
The Light is Getting Brighter!
After all of the supply issues in the past year, it is great to be able to say that we have been producing and assembling ōPiks! It’s a limited run, as we are still running tests and confirming all of the design details and features, but this is the production version!
Early run of the ōPik circuit boards—and incredible number of very small components in a small space!
We have also been comparing some components from different manufacturers, just to make sure we are delivering the best possible product. So far, things are looking really good, and we are confident about scaling things up from here.
The photodiodes and LEDS being assembled onto the boards. The wires are trimmed before the lower board is attached.
We have one issue that we are working on overcoming before we can moving into shipping mode, and it is in the software side of things. That is both good and bad—in principle, it is relatively easy to fix, and we hope to get to the bottom of it soon. Thank you for your support and immense patience. We are working very hard to make sure that they are rewarded!
The Light4Sound Team