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My little outfit I'm a part of was trying to get a prototype fabbed so we could present something for our end client to bang on, but the company fabbing the board keeps pushing the deadline out and out. Chip shortages. It's now a month since we were supposed to receive the boards.
So now we've take to creating wire wrapped prototypes like this is the 1970s.
Why? So we can build the elephanting board with parts we can buy off of Amazon - somehow they never seem completely out of stock where WROVERs are concerned.
Not only that the delays mean less work, meaning less income for the past month, and just it's no fun all around.
If you asked me a few years ago if I ever thought a chip shortage would impact my work I'd have laughed.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Couple of decades ago, we were using a combined battery backed RAM and clock module, all in a single chip - worked for years, and years.
Then TI bought the manufacturer as it was quicker and cheaper than building a new fab and axed the whole product line. Overnight the chips became unobtainium, and we bought as many as we could find (my boss was on holiday so I just spent £70,000 of his money and told him when he got back) then had to redesign the hardware to make a plug in module to replace it out of discrete components. Which meant doing our first SMT design to fit in the physical space, which lead to a complete switch to SMT in just over a year.
PITA, but the alternative was no product to ship ... and that would have been serious.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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ouch!
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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My first thought was Vinegar with Sea Salt chips -- then I thought - oh, she means hardware.
(What happens when I'm dieting, I guess.)
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Not a joke here in Canada. There is a disagreement between Frito-Lay and our biggest grocery chain, so no chips.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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On Digikey I'm waiting for a part that's arriving December 26. I bet it's in Santa's sled 
Mircea
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Digikey is our supplier too. Can't get a WROVER to save my life.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Sometimes I've been lucky going between Mouser and Digikey.
Mircea
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Yeah I don't necessarily have the option. The guy running things is stuck on digikey, and we need a supplier that can (at least typically) reliably source good components at wholesale quantity for when we go live. It's a lot easier to do that if you prototype with the same supplier you end up producing the end product with, or at least that's what I'm learning. 
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Oh I realize that, it's just like I said, the guy running things is stuck on digikey. Plus we're getting several of our other supporting components there too, and it's actually a lot of work to move everything over to mouser. We don't want two suppliers for our project if we can avoid it.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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With the current supply change cluster ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) , you're probably better off dual sourcing everything. You might lose a bit in smaller volume discounts, but the increased resilience should reduce the risk of your being totally dead in the water with no parts.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Not just chips but common things you would never imagine and if you can get them the price is outrageous.
Plywood $80 a 4x8 sheet...about 2.5 pre-covid
Plumbing part 1.2" cpvc connector...don't have em at the local mega store and don't know when they will.
I won't even attempt to estimate what the price would be to have a house built.
Thank god we did most of our remodeling before the gouging began.
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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Yeah, I was looking at that. Crude oil is falling in price, but the oil companies are gouging the elephant out of people.
I'm sure they're not the only ones.
Inflation is a thing, but also it was kind of expected, given the 'rona, and the economy heating up after a return to global economic activity.
On the other hand, unemployment claims are the lowest in the US than they have been since the 1970s, and there are ton of job openings right now, so it's good time for the bottom earners to be advancing themselves by looking for better jobs - and indeed many are. It means McDonalds is having trouble staffing. That's actually sort of a good thing. We don't need minimum wage jobs propping up adult households. As a society we can and should be doing better, whatever it takes to accomplish that.
So there's reason to be optimistic, economically speaking, despite the inflation, and the gouging.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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We have boards with CPLD's and FPGA's going obsolete, and the replacements have lead times over a year.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Slumming it in a first world country. 
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Hey now, the US has been trying like hell to earn 3rd world status. Give a budding banana republic some credit.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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So, true. 
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Herself has been complaining that her Dell desktop (running Windows 10) was incredibly slow to startup. So I checked it yesterday and it took about 5 minutes to start.  I tried several tricks but northing worked, so as a last effort I upgraded her to Windows 11. Problem solved! It started at the usual speed. Thanks Windows 11!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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So, MS is making all old versions like 10 startup slow now, so we are forced to migrate to 11?
Inconceivable!
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I thought that ploy was copyrighted by Apple?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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“Usual speed”
So 4 1/2 minutes now?
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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My Windows 10 system does this if I go several weeks of not having it on. It'll take 15-20 minutes before becoming responsive. It ended up being downloading and installing updates, and then doing a virus scan. Once all of that was done, startup times are back to normal. Weeks later, it'll do it all over again. I've just learned to hit the power button and walk away if it's been more than a week or two.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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I don't know how you walk away from your computer for two weeks. I would die.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Because, unlike some newer generations, I have a life outside of computers. I wouldn't expect the younger crowd to understand that, however.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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