BOARD BIZ BLUES
David Ray of Cyber City Circuits gives us a
fascinating view from another stratum of the
shortage. His company in Augusta, Georgia,
provides PCB design and prototyping services
for small businesses, which gives them unique
insight into the challenges faced across a range
of projects.
One interesting facet that didn’t come up
in other conversations was the prevalence of
counterfeiters and scalpers in the supply chain.
It turns out that if a hard-to-find microcontroller
like an ATmega328 mysteriously becomes
available at a single random source, chances are
it’s a fake. But not so fake that it’s immediately
obvious. Basic functionality like blinking an LED
will have parity with the genuine article, but
then using the ADCs will reveal that they’re of
disastrously low quality, or an attempt to use
interrupts will reveal that they simply do not exist.
And it’s not just suppliers who are faking
it. Overseas brokers are just as likely to burn
customers and come back the next day with a
different name and Skype account. If they claim
to be able to get that one part that nobody else
can — be wary.
As other vendors mentioned, it’s not just
components that are more expensive, but basic
materials like solder paste, as well as staff,
electricity — everything. In addition to scarce
SAMD21s and ATmega328s, voltage regulators
like the LMR23610 and even proprietary parts
like Cinch connectors have caused designs to
have to be started from scratch when supplies
evaporated. Asked when things will get back
to normal, David makes a subtle Deltron 3030
reference: “Crisis precipitates change.”
G
David Ray (left] and Chris Williamson (right] in
front of CCC building.
make.co
PREDICTIONS: WHEN WILL
THINGS BE BACK TO NORMAL?
• Kevin Walseth, Digi-Key
Technology’s not changing
— a new car has over 10,000
capacitors, and that’s just cars!
[We’re hearing predictions of a]
slow ramp up in 2023, then a slow
decline in lead times.
• Alessandro Ranellucci, Arduino
Even suppliers seem to have
trouble forecasting. [Arduino is]
going to continue to fight!
• Phillip Torrone, Adafruit
We’ve been preparing for all
this, at least in the ways one
can — we’re now “designing for
purchasing” versus “designing
for manufacturing” and/or “just-
in-time inventory.”
• David Ray, Cyber City Circuits
Crisis precipitates change. Lots
of small companies [will] get
bought up … things we like get
deprecated and not reissued …
[we] don’t know what normal is
anymore!
• Diego Fonstad, Lectrify/
Imagination Supply Co.
I think it’s kind of like “When is
Covid going away?” I don't think
it's ever going back to normal; I
hate [the phrase] “new normal”
but the extreme flexibility we
were used to [is past] — we’ll
have to do more planning, be
more flexible. It’s going to be
more local.
• Joey Castillo, Oddly Specific Objects
[I’m] adapting the way I work
and design things [and] will
probably keep that mindset.
Simplify! Simplify!! Make it as
easy on yourself as you can.
Headshots pls
David Ray
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