Hello again, to some of the most patient people around. We are still moving forward, albeit not at the speed that I'd like. And I'm sure not at the speed you'd like.
Let's start with the good news.
After a lengthy back and forth with Fed Ex, Bob and I were able to track down the lost programmers and cables -- in case you didn't hear, all 50 programmers were lost for approximately 1 month, and none were available in back-order stock. But we got them and they're all now sitting in my office as of a week ago! Whoohoo!
The panels have been shipped from Royal Circuit Solutions to Advanced Assembly. Although no one has said anything, I can imagine a bit of skepticism lurking in the mind of people far too kind to say anything about it, so I've included a picture for proof :) It looks like Royal used a black FR4 with clear soldermask and yellow silkscreen. This is just one panel, so don't panic if you don't see your board on here. I've not received pictures of the other panels, but I imagine they're all identical.
So what's the hold up?
Well, we're trying to impact AA's production process as little as possible, so they see each panel as one big board. That means there's one setup for the machine operators. That leaves me to do the work of combining everyone's BOM into a single file, adding overages, etc... That's relatively easy to accomplish.
The hard part is the XYRS files. Royal moved the parts on the panels to maximize space -- which is great -- but that means that some people's boards are rotated and translated, while others are just translated. I can write a script to translate the boards easily enough. But I still haven't figured out how I'm going to deal with the rotation and translation.
Anyhow -- thank you for your continued patience. I hope everyone has a great week!
Mark