JNIOR DMX Control supply issues

[Frank Cox]

I used to buy a new computer about every second year. The improved speed and overall performance was always worth the cost involved.

My main computer (the one that I'm typing on right now) is now twelve years old. (I just checked.) It was a custom built high-end machine when I bought it and it's still more than adequate for everything that I use it for. The only change I've made in it since I bought it was to add a ssd to it for a system drive a few years ago.

The point of diminishing returns seems to be long past when it comes to computers.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I think the global supply chains have highlighted a problem with how things are manufactured and distributed. Too much is being farmed out. Yeah, people like cheap goods and services. But they also like clean environments and non-slave-labor. However, it would appear that pollution and essentially slave labor is just fine, so long as one need not see it. And, if machines are making most of the stuff, why does that machine have to reside half-way around the world?

You'd think that this entire pandemic and the supply-chain problems it created would be a real eye-opener, but I somehow doubt it will really fundamentally change anything. As soon as this thing is yesterday's news, I'm sure we pretty much pick up were we left. If something forces things to change, it's probably the bigger, macro-economic forces at hand. For something highly automated like a fab, I doubt that labor costs is really the biggest factor that determines the location of such a facility. Given the scale of those plants, they always come with a big impact for the local environment and the community, so getting them built in developing countries is usually far easier, getting government incentives is easier, etc. But countries like China are changing rapidly, as they are only willing to take so much.

As for ordering to hedge bets on shortages. I am guilty to some extent. I am sure that distributors get excited about the EAU numbers that they estimate from our orders only to wonder where that business went. I have over a year's worth of many of the critical components like the microcontrollers and relays.

I do fully understand that manufacturers want to secure their own supply chain as much as possible, but it's for a large part all the crazy hedging of stock why this entire thing is happening. For example, a bunch of Fortune 500 companies seem to have bought billions of actual hardware stock of networking equipment from the likes of Cisco, Juniper, et. all, so that their expansion plans aren't being hampered by non-functoning IT. Meanwhile, companies like Cisco and Juniper are hedging large stockpiles of Broadcom's output of essential chipsets for networking gear. The end-result is that much of the networking gear now has lead times of 400 days or more... We've been buying some refurbished equipment to get stuff done and even that's being bought up in large chunks by some dealers hedging on those shortages, while just increasing the shortages for anybody who actually wants to do anything with them.

Well, the new Intel campus being built in Ohio is nice and all, but I doubt they make any of the chips you fellows are using.

The funny thing is, probably none of the newer fabs are producing the kind of microchips large parts of the industry a waiting for. One of the major complaints I've heard from the chip industry is that folks like car manufacturers rely on decades old silicon and that they wouldn't have those issues if they would upgrade their designs to more modern silicon. For me, this kind of reasoning sounds completely backward, but then again, I'm not in the business of producing ICs, so I'm probably missing something...

Maybe we should ask Sam, as Sam's Garage's Law seems to beat Moore's.

The point of diminishing returns seems to be long past when it comes to computers.

I guess unless you're a gamer or work with high-end graphics, we've passed that point a few years ago. Most of the developments seem to focus on graphics and mobile chip efficiency nowadays. I guess your average desktop experience doesn't require the latest CPU and multi-thousand-dollar graphics cards.

[Bruce Cloutier]

Well maybe all of those proponents of Just-In-Time manufacturing have learned a lesson.

A few years back we brought production in-house. Among other things this allowed us to invest in components and take advantage of quantity pricing. When we used contract manufacturers, too often they would purchase just what they need for the current order. That basically came at a premium even before any mark-up. When the pandemic hit we were ecstatic that we could continue to build through the shutdown. We had parts and just a few of us could get the work done. All in keeping with the shutdown regulations.

Um... but now the few of us are still doing it. The novelty of that is wearing off. The low overhead has allowed us to absorb most of the related cost increases (including the tariffs which have not gone away as we had hoped). We've avoided price increases and held our discounts even in the absence of the volume business they are meant to reward. In fact the Model 410 is the same price today that it was 15 years ago. A fact that is lost in the noise level. Perhaps not even all that smart on our part.

I am not sure that we can hold off the price increases much longer. If we see component costs starting to drop and business heading back towards pre-pandemic levels we will stay the course. Maybe there is still a year before we can see the light at the end of that tunnel.

There is a lot of stress looking to vent. I could use a support group.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

This may be why GDC used the Raspberry Pi in the SR-1000, could they have forseen what was going to happen? It's also cheap, fast and uber reliable. It would make a great automation controler too.

[Carsten Kurz]

These PI's are difficult to get currently, too. But it's probably still easier to source a complete PI than to harvest all the individual components if they'd wanna build their own controller.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

These PI's are difficult to get currently, too. But it's probably still easier to source a complete PI than to harvest all the individual components if they'd wanna build their own controller.

They don't seem to be over here.... I just got two Pi 4-8GB boards from EPay. Now if you needed 100, then you may be shopping at various sources. But you could still get them.Even Amazon has them.