Buy designs on OpenHardware.io
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Shipping cost is now much lower for small orders!
During testing/integration with the pilot manufacturer PCBWay.com we discovered that shipping cost calculations was a bit too un-flexible. This resulted in a quite large shipping cost for small orders (like 10 PCBs).
This has now been resolved by letting manufacturer do advanced calculations based on PCB properties (weight). Hope you like the result!
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Are there any plans to also add the option to buy the boards from PCBway fully assembled?
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The manufacturer evaluate the possibility to offer kit/assembled version for each board that has the sales function activated. A few requirements:
- Complete BOM with components and package sizes.
- Its also hard for them to offer boards that consists of multiple sub/child PCBs (like an Nano/Pro Mini, breakout sensor boards). As they would have to source these parts from different vendors.
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I really like the idea of kit form availability, especially for the through-hole boards for the new comers/beginners. Allowing them to assemble and understand how the module works on a hardware level.
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Ok, well regarding boards that includes Arduino nano/Pro mini etc. in my opinion it would be great if they just soldered the pinheaders so that you could just place your own arduino without pinheaders on those and just solder that part. I just looked quick but all boards I found on openhardware that contained a standard arduino looked like it would be easy to place it as the last component and where easy to solder.
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Yes, a possibility.
But it must be totally clear for the buyer what (s)he actually get when buying the kit/assembled board. So if parts are missing it should be mentioned with bold text on the project page and in the BOM perhaps.
The author can give instructions to the manufacturer about the details when creating a new revision for them.
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Would it be possible to mix assembled / kit parts?
Ideally I would like to create a project with some components assembled on the PCB (especially SMD) and a few through-hole not assembled as they may be customized by the user (terminal block, mosfet) -
I'm happy to launch a new feature I've been working in for the last few weeks!
We will now allow authors to sell their designs on OpenHardware.io through Ebay or via our manufacturing partners.
This feature is currently in beta testing together with the first manufacturer PCBWay.com. I hope to smoke out any bugs during the next couple of days. Please report any problems you might find in the contact form.
There is just a few of steps to make your PCB available for sale as an author:
- Upload and publish the Gerber files for the PCB (you've probably already done this part).
- Add an optional BOM to allow the manufacturer to create DIY kits or fully assembled boards.
- Fill in the PCB characteristics and create a new revision in the "Selling" tab where you edit the project.
When someone buys through OpenHardware.io , the author will get a small commission sales! Pretty neat to give some encouragement back to the talented open hardware designers we got here right?
When a board is available for sale (all variants) it looks like this:
@hek said:
When someone buys through OpenHardware.io , the author will get a small commission sales!
How much is the commission?
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If all else fails, another way to address the kit issue would be to pick a vendor known to have a wide selection of parts (e.g. Digikey, Mouser, or the like) and have the author also give that vendor's specific part numbers on the BOM. Then, anyone who wants to buy the parts to go with the board can just go to one place (to hopefully save on shipping) and punch in the numbers and order it.
I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the big outfits supports pre-defined shopping lists, in which case you could just click on a link and have all the parts added to your shopping basket in one stroke.
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If all else fails, another way to address the kit issue would be to pick a vendor known to have a wide selection of parts (e.g. Digikey, Mouser, or the like) and have the author also give that vendor's specific part numbers on the BOM. Then, anyone who wants to buy the parts to go with the board can just go to one place (to hopefully save on shipping) and punch in the numbers and order it.
I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the big outfits supports pre-defined shopping lists, in which case you could just click on a link and have all the parts added to your shopping basket in one stroke.
@NeverDie, as i create my boards i'm trying to include the order number for farnell for every part (as and when i can). I'm also very very tempted to create these kits myself and sell them through Openhardware.io on eBay. So you guys only need to purchase the kit from eBay and we are good to go!
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actually most of electronics vendor already does this. when you have an account, you can save your boms. keep it private or share it. the maker just need to put a link, very easy..
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@NeverDie, as i create my boards i'm trying to include the order number for farnell for every part (as and when i can). I'm also very very tempted to create these kits myself and sell them through Openhardware.io on eBay. So you guys only need to purchase the kit from eBay and we are good to go!
@Samuel235
Well, I'm sure buiyers wouldn't care who kits the parts, but do you really want to be in the fulfillment business? I don't see enough upside in that to justify the bother unless your volumes were high. I'd say cross that bridge only if that's what the sales trendline objectively demonstrates. Otherwise, you're taking on inventory risk that could leave you in a hole. -
I was only tempted to allow people to get modules up and running tbh. If there is another way to do this, saved baskets like mentioned above, then i will happily go that route.
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It's tough for the manufacturers to produce assembled boards at competitive prices when producing 1 at the time...
I'm playing with an idea of doing some sort of mini-crowd-funding function. Co-shopping so to speak. Like campaigns for 20, 50 or 100 boards to get a better price for small batch volumes.
But it means I have to dig deep into payment provider apis and read the small print on their fees so we don't lose on big time their huge margins on every tiny transaction involved. Or if campaigns fail automate the refund.
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It's tough for the manufacturers to produce assembled boards at competitive prices when producing 1 at the time...
I'm playing with an idea of doing some sort of mini-crowd-funding function. Co-shopping so to speak. Like campaigns for 20, 50 or 100 boards to get a better price for small batch volumes.
But it means I have to dig deep into payment provider apis and read the small print on their fees so we don't lose on big time their huge margins on every tiny transaction involved. Or if campaigns fail automate the refund.
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Paypal is a payment provider.
Right now, I'm forwarding the payment handling to the manufacturer (to avoid double payment fees).
But PayPal actually have some advanced chined/parallel/delayed payments that could be useful for a co-shopping function and to handle commission to author for simple orders. But it all depends on how PayPal fees turns out (do the chop a fee in every step?). I've send an email to their support (no replies yet...) to help me understand what is possible.
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@hek How do you start a new (hardware) related topic without making a new project ? I have not figured that out.
I was wondering if I could start a non-Mysensors hardware project, but before I do that I wanted to ask the question. I know I can make a new topic in the HARDWARE section of the MySensors forum, but that seemed wrong to me because I wanted to start a hardware topic on motor control (tangentially related to LED and fan control).
So as they say in Singapore "so how to do lah ?"
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How do we know order's state for buyed DIY kits from OH? I ordered a kit Saturday and haven't received any news from PCBWay or OH since then.
I tried searching PCBWay site but no luck.
