[chicof]

I'm kind of wondering if the "X" (i.e.G201x) means that Bipolar Paralell connections will be way more widely used with the upcomming drives?

Any predictions when the Rev.1 of the 201X will come out?

francis

[ger21]

At least another month. They got a bad batch of boards in.

[Mariss Freimanis]

We have had a minor disaster here. By "minor" I mean minor. A bunch of new board revisions were sent out to our main board fabricator and what came back 4 weeks later was screwed up.

The G250 boards (used in the G540) were screwed up and the G201X boards were messed up. Who is to blame?.. (drum-roll)... Me.

I don't multitask very well because I'm immersed in the step servo project and I sent out incomplete and faulty gerber files. What we got back were fatally flawed G201X and G250X drive boards. About $4,000 worth.

The fault is entirely mine and it also was procedural fault. It has been analyzed here and corrective measures have been put into place. They are:

1) I do not vet my own work. Stands to reason. "I designed it, how can my work be wrong?" Wrong. That is the mindset that led to this predicament. Someone else has to vet my work; someone who is as eager as a junk-yard dog to find fault with it. If it stands up, it stands up. If there is a mistake, the dog will find it. That's good for the company.

How to fix the mess:

We have a big back-order on G540s. About 448 of them; people have been waiting 2 weeks and their patience will wear really thin in another week.

I contracted with a quick-turn PCB house for 2,000 G250 REV9s. Quick turn is 4 days which means we see boards early next Wendsday from Illinois. Product ships next Thursday because our SMT line can turn out 250 G540s a day when pressed.

Quick turn around also means a lot of $$$ for their effort. The boards will cost 6-times had I not screwed up.

The G201X has no promised date so there is no obligation. The quick-turn company isn't one we have any experience with before but my research shows they are a good one. We will will see what their boards look like. If they are as good as they claim, we will order 2,000 G201X from them as well and have them available before the end of the month.

That should take care of my screwup. Once it's under control, I want to make it like it never happened. My son Marcus just bought a his first house. I suggested he tile his "man room" with these useless drive panels. If he needs to hang a picture, he can solder it to the wall. Beats pounding a nail into drywall.:-)

Myself, I don't trust my own work and I should have never trusted it before. It must be vetted by someone else than me. Moral of the story? Throw enough money at a problem and it goes away. Moral of the story? Figure out how you don't have to throw money at the problem in the first place.

Live and hopefully learn.

Mariss

[pminmo]

1) I do not vet my own work. Stands to reason. "I designed it, how can my work be wrong?" Wrong. That is the mindset that led to this predicament. Someone else has to vet my work; someone who is as eager as a junk-yard dog to find fault with it. If it stands up, it stands up. If there is a mistake, the dog will find it. That's good for the company.

Oh that 2nd set of eyes.......

Mariss, I wish there were more companies in this world like Gecko. Most companies these days would do everything they could to keep a mistake internal and completely quiet. And if possible, jury rig a fix and send the screw up to unsuspecting customers! And why, who in this world never makes a mistake, stuff happens, that's part of being human.

[Steven C.]

[QUOTE=Mariss Freimanis;660597]

<snip>
Someone else has to vet my work; someone who is as eager as a junk-yard dog to find fault with it.
</snip>

That's a great idea! I'm going to get my wife to double check my work; she would fit that description :-)

On a serious note, thanks for posting all you do over the years; you are an inspiration and an example of good engineering. I've learned a lot from you.

[youngjim]

Oh that 2nd set of eyes.......

Mariss, I wish there were more companies in this world like Gecko. Most companies these days would do everything they could to keep a mistake internal and completely quiet. And if possible, jury rig a fix and send the screw up to unsuspecting customers! And why, who in this world never makes a mistake, stuff happens, that's part of being human.

I agree, the honesty to have transparency on things which need to be fixed is a meaningful selling point for me.

Jim