Netusbee reopen factory.

[Decky]

I am definitly interested in one with USB.

[damo2929]

can I be put down for 2x units without usb.

would ultrasatan be in production again soon ?

[1st1]

I also would be interested in 2 or 3 pieces, with USB. The third is depending on if the network interface also can run with a normal TOS 2.06 machine (support for Sting?) - on the other two machines (a falcon and a TT) I will install easymint.

I just conted the number of entries in this thread and I can see a series of 10-20 adapters would not be enough, please add some more. I also would be able to solder the device by myself, I just need the PCB, the network chip and a list of the other components (or a full set of all components to solder them by myself)

[Stratagem]

i would take 2 with usb

[Methanoid]

Is this going to happen then or what????

[1st1]

I don't believe anything to go on here... I am already thinking to start my own production... Found already supplier for chips, checking for making pcb now. But if I would offer the things to others, then probably only for self soldering.

[Methanoid]

Would be great.. but some of us are deadly bad with soldering

[1st1]

Good news. My friend in South-East-Asia has a company on hand which can make professional PCB of the gerber file with interconnects between the two layers. I asked now him to get pricing for 30 pieces (atari-forum.com and atari-home.de). I would not deliver fully working network cards but only the PCB and probably also the chipset for networking and USB - the next step is to find out the delivering conditions for these chips, I already found supplier in China, maybe I also need to check out for the USB and LAN connector which might be difficult to get. Other version for the connectors could be to put them out from an old PC mainboard. If you are interested in a PCB with or without chipset please contact me now by email, that I get a number how much PCB should be produced. Then I will check out the exact costs per PCB and and chipset and reinform you about the final pricing. If you say Ok, then I will do an order to the PCB maker and chipset supplier. Note that I also can not guarantee for the correctness of the PCB, that company will not be able to test the PCB as they do not have an ATARI computer. If you are interested, send me an email at netusbee at t-online.de and put [netusbee] in the subject, and the number of PCB and chipset you want. I will collect the total amount of PCB and let my friend check for the final price of it, the more we order, the cheaper it gets. Iwill not wait very long for your mail, and this will be a one shot.

A similar message also appears in : http://forum.atari-home.de/index.php?topic=9636.0

[1st1]

A bit of schedule for the project:

I will be personally for vacation in South East Asia for four weeks starting mid of August, also meeting and travelling with my friend who knows the manufacturer of the PCB. So I hope that I personally can bring the PCB back home mid of september. Until then I also should have the conditions to get the network and USB chip. According to the chinese website the FOB price per chip is between 10 and 20 US Cents and they deliver with a minimum qty of 5 or 10 pcs. So getting the chips shouldn't be that difficult if they also deliver to private peoples, only the payment procedure is unclear yet. Have to check that...

So for claiming your interest in the project, i would need your first contact mail until beginning of August. Meantime I hope that my friend already can submit production price for the PCB so that we can estimate the costs for PCB, USB/LAN-Chipset. For other components like the connectors I also can check if they are widely available or if we need to get them from somewhere in ASIA for cheap price.

I personally will put them off defective mainboards as there are connectors USB and LAN in one chassis and I will connect them by wire to the PCB. Advantage: I can place them elsewhere, the LAN connector of the NetUSBee is just in front of the MIDI-Ports, that disturbs me. I will see if I can get little chassis where I can put in the card for better protection and then I can place the connector in a more flexible position.

By the way, in the german ATARI forum someone offers assembling of the cards, if you don't like to solder by yourself. See hanswurst4711's message in above linked thread.

[1st1]

Actual status: I found supplier for USB and LAN chipset in China, but maybe it is a bit risky to order there, so at least for the LAN chip I also have a reliable supplier in Germany. Beside the PCB manufactor in Asia I also contacted one in Germany, where example PCBs in that size cost arround 15-20 Euros per piece. Let's see the pricing of the asian service...

[Masken]

I´m in for two with USB if the price in resonable...

[1st1]

Hello actual info. I found a supplier which can do the PCB in Germany. When we order at least 10 the price gets interesting.

1 / 3 / 5 / 10* / 20 / 50 / 100 Pieces
160,53 / 53,87 / 32,53 / 16,53* / 8,53 / 5,87 / 4,11 / 2,62 EUR per Piece plus Tax (19%)

I also found a german supplier for the Network chipset, its much expensiver than the chinese supplier but much less risky, there the chip costs less than 4 Euros. For the USB chip no german supplier yet, but USB is only priority 2.

Now you can see in which direction it can go for the price.

Anybody interested, send me an email at netusbee (at) t-online.de with subject [netusbee].

Until now I have a total of 12 NetUSBee.

[Methanoid]

Assuming 10 orders what is the total for the kit of parts? Is anyone able to offer assembled ones?

[1st1]

I will check if all the required parts would be available at the supplier who has the Realtek Network chip. That would be possible as this supplier has a lot of parts. Maybe I can make a list of the article numbers and pricing and quantity. The best is, everybody can order there, but no idea if they deliver also to foreign countries. Otherwise I can do that order, maybe... First target should now to be to get as much interests for the pcb as possible, because the cheaper it gets.

[Methanoid]

You're not going to do complete kits then?

[1st1]

I definitively will not have the time to solder them. Only those three/four which I want to have for myself I will solder by myself. But maybe somebody else of this forum can help you, also in the atari-home.de forum one offered help in soldering them, maybe he is also willing to do it for you.

[Methanoid]

I definitively will not have the time to solder them. Only those three/four which I want to have for myself I will solder by myself. But maybe somebody else of this forum can help you, also in the atari-home.de forum one offered help in soldering them, maybe he is also willing to do it for you.

I understand that.. but will you be selling complete kits - that is a kit of ALL the parts needed?

[1st1]

I will check for this, other solution could be that I give you supplier adress and order numbers. If I am not too tired this evening I will check the supplier's webshop if they have everything needed. The only thing I checked already is that they have the network chipset, but not the USB chip. But they should have all the needed small logic chips, resistors, capacitors and even maybe the connectors, etc.

[1st1]

I have now checked the suppliers reichelt.de, conrad.de and segor.de. Reichelt can deliver everything except of the USB-chip, network connector and Eeprom. Conrad can deliver the network connector and segor has the Eeprom. Only the USB chip is missing now. In total I have a list of article numbers and a total price of a bit less than 15 Euros for all components.

[1st1]

Hello, based on the partlist.xls from the netusbee.zip file with the circuit and gerber files from the original source I have researched suppliers, part numbers and prices here in Germany and compiled that into a new excel list. The only variable is the number of PCB to manufacture, at the moment I calculate with 20 pcs as I have 13 orders and hope that another 7 will come in if you now see the total costs. If we don't reach 20 orders I have to rise the price to EUR 14.04. Note that if we reach 30 PCB orders the PCB price is lowering to less than 5 EUR per piece. Please note that the sum is always without shipping costs.


This thing is the printout of the excel sheet with the calculation for one card. On the top left just insert the number of PCB you want and it outputs the quantity of each part to order and the costs. For Reichelt.de I will check if they accept such a copy&paste list for ordering instead of putting every part via the online shop into the basket what is some work. Everybody wanting the PCB from me and contacts me by email will get that Excel file as soon as I place the order for the PCB production.

Note: I haven't found the USB chip yet from a reliable german source, but on eBay.com I found a canadian bid who sold 30 pcs in total, I got the last three for myself for USD 5 plus shipping costs. At the same time I asked this supplier if he would be able to supply more of these chips. If he can, I will let you know.

[wongck]

Looks interesting...
You mean the target price is EUR 14.04 per piece for components + PCB.
How about the material cost & labour cost for assembly?
or you're thinking it will only come in a kit format ?

Also where are you... as in which country... Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland... etc ... because postage cost will also be different.
Excuse me if you if already mentioned it but I cannot find it.

[1st1]

As I look for german source for components and my mail adress ends with .de where should I sit...? The concept is that if possible that I only let produce the PCB and provide you reliable source where you can order the components by yourself, as you see I already have article numbers and pricing for all parts, so ordering the components should be an easy task for everybody. On the other hand, here is the component list, if you like to find a supplier in your country, you are free to do it and to publish your list here in the forum as well for the other members. And you solder by yourself or find somebody doing this for you. In the atari-home.de forum already one person offered to do the assembling/soldering ( http://forum.atari-home.de/index.php?to ... 3#msg69603 ). This way is to reduce the risk for me to sit on components somebody claimed to have and then not to pay, and I also haven't to spend too much money in advance. It also reduces shipping costs for me as I only have to ship only the PCB in a small envelope to you. Finally it helps all of us to get NetUSBee cards quite cheap as nobody else likes / wants to / can produce the PCB at the moment, in this and atari-home.de forum two other persons offered to do, but since then nothing happened. What I wonder, in this thread, more than 30 persons claimed to want one, but less than 1/3 of them contacted me yet. Ok, it's vacation time and you have to solder yourself, but that's better than waiting endless...

Little update to above list: Now I also found the LAN connector at Reichelt, so one supplier less, no need to order that additionally at Conrad. List above not updated yet. Article number at Reichelt is MEBP 8-8G, 0,55 EUR.

[wongck]

Ok, Thanks for pointing out your location and especially the concept of your plan.
I ordered one netusebee from Tuxie on Atari-home.de. It never came. The thread is also locked, I think it may be open again now.
Going to Atari-home.de with Google translation is lots of fun.... you can laugh at the translation because it makes no sense.

Anyway, thanks for making this PCB happen. But I will give this a miss.

[1st1]

I have been in contact with Tuxie. He also ordered PCB somewhere, but they were faulty, maybe he has lost a lot of money because of that, I don't know. This is a risk on the project, but I try to avoid it as I am checking for different PCB maker services and see if there are complaints about them in different forums or if the peoples have good experience with them. Curently I have a request running for pricing on another supplier which seems to be better than MME where I use the example pricing at the table at the moment.

[wongck]

I have been in contact with Tuxie. He also ordered PCB somewhere, but they were faulty, maybe he has lost a lot of money because of that, I don't know. This is a risk on the project, but I try to avoid it as I am checking for different PCB maker services and see if there are complaints about them in different forums or if the peoples have good experience with them. Curently I have a request running for pricing on another supplier which seems to be better than MME where I use the example pricing at the table at the moment.

Tuxie may have lost money on it, I don't know, but I never bothered to ask him for my payment back. I just gave him the benefit of the doubt, and the project goes bad and money is gone.
I guess if the company is located in Germany, then high chance that it will be good quality (Germany is well known for good quality products) but the price may be much higher.