[Elecraft] Musing on K3 Production and other things

[Don Wilhelm]

Lee,

Having been on the sidelines observing the manufacturing process for 
boards in the past (OK, I left that 10 years ago, but the principles are 
the same), I can say that there are vendors who will do any and all of 
the work you ask questions about.

The quality of the end product will depend heavily on the level of 
Elecraft's requirements with any vendor and with Elecraft's quality 
inspection on the incoming boards, assemblies, etc. as well as attention 
to the final testing processes.  The end-of-assembly-line test setup is 
an important item in the overall scheme of things, but the module level 
testing is also an important piece of the overall equation.  These 
pieces of the process can only be defined and put into place by the 
engineers at Elecraft, and it does take a lot of time and energy to get 
all those ducks in a row.

Yes, the K3 design should be complete (except for some firmware 
tweaking), but all the manufacturing pieces of the process are not yet 
completed, so we have to wait until July before we can have a K3 in our 
hands.  We can expect everyone at Elecraft to be busy until then working 
with the board vendors to assure that all steps happen properly.

If Elecaft's past reputation for quality is any indication of the 
future, we can expect that the K3 will be also be a quality product.

I have no information about how K3 repairs will be handled, but I 
believe we can expect the same quality level for repairs that we expect 
from new, whether that be by refurbishing or replacement or some 
combination of the two.  One advantage of SMD is that refurb and retest 
can result in a refurbished board that is indistinguishable from a new 
one, and that has not always been the case with thru-hole boards.

73,
Don W3FPR

Lee Buller wrote:
> 
> Ladies and Gents....
> 
> As I was falling asleep last night dreaming of a k3....(OK, stop laughing)...it occured to me that even the modular kit form of the rig is rather a radical departure from Elecraft's kit philosophy.  Not bad, but made me wonder.....
> 
> Who makes the PC Boards?
> Who stuff's the boards? (or what ever you do to surface mount components)
> Who checks the boards?
> Who fixes the boards?
> Who puts the radios together for those people who want a assembled K3?
> Can they handle the number of orders? (over 1K now I've heard)
> 
> Isn't that a lot of manufacturing overhead?  Maybe not...not know the economy of such things.  It would be interesting to know....just curious.  Anyone have any answers to these questions?
> 
> Now for the other random thought.....
> 
> I wonder if Elecraft will have a board swap program?  This is cool.  Lets say something went wrong with my K3 and it was diagnosed to Board A.  It would neat of they could cross ship that board and all the user has to do is a plug out/plug in situation and your rig is fixed.  Then, Elecraft can refurbish the "bad" board and send it back out for a repair.  I am sure there are some legal issues here, but I think that is what the computer industry has done for years...at least I know the Data General Corporation did that cause their fixed equipment was trash.  At the end of DG...all you could get is old stock refurbished.  But in the end, fixing a K3 is going to be very different than fixing a IC or a FT or a TS.
> 
> Random thoughts are free...no charge.
> 
> Lee - K0WA
> 
> 
> 
> In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense.  Is Common Sense devine?
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