I thought I had explained this before, but it's OK - please let me clarify.
When I originally announced the bASIC we were just testing a preliminary prototype and I really had no idea of the response we would get to it or how nicely the product itself would develop.
I was thinking of the volume I was currently handling with the ModMiner Quad - and based those very small and I admit very ignorant numbers on that. Basically I was not planning to expand my operation but considering the volume of sales we have been able to achieve - I am in the process of expanding my operation significantly.
Batches of 30-50 every 5-10 days is about the maximum I could handle by myself and that's why I quoted that. The assembly house that actually produces the boards can handle whatever quantity I need at whatever rate I need them made at, I could literally have 1000 ModMiner Quads made by them in 24 hours (it would not be cheap) but this demonstrates their capacity.
However everything is changed now including changing some things about the design that make it much easier and faster to get out the door than the ModMiner Quad, and I am upgrading my operation quite a bit to handle the increased demand.
What has changed?
(a) The ModMiner quad goes through a lot of steps that take time
- The PCB boards are fabricated in one place in china
- The FPGA Chips are purchased from another place
- Everything is shipped to me and then
- Everything is shipped to the assembly house
- I purchase some final parts and have them shipped here
- Everything gets nearly assembled and shipped here
- I put them together and test them, package them up myself and ship them out myself
- All while trying to handle support issues, customer service and the logistics of the whole thing
So with the bASIC I decided to streamline a lot of these things, for one I have a very good relationship with the place that assembles the ModMinerQuad and they have taken over a lot more responsibility with this project:
- Their engineers are designing the final production board
- The PCB's will be fabricated by them
- The Boards will be assembled by them to completion
Then final boards will be shipped to me
And here is where I have made another change and upgraded my operation:
I have also leased a 2500 square foot office space / store front which I am in the process of moving into and will be hiring full time employees to help when the bASIC units ship out, their duties will include opening up boxes from the assembly house - loading firmware - testing for 24 hours - boxing them back up and shipping them out to customers.
I was going to wait and announce this later this week but now seems like a fitting time:
If anyone lives in the Central/Northern NY area (has experience enough and time to do this job efficiently/effectively) and would like to apply for a job please call me any time to arrange an appointment (seriously)
when the bASIC units come in from the assembly house you will get a lot of overtime - we will probably need about 5 people working 8-12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
Also this place will also be open to the public during daytime hours - however it wont be very exciting until that first shipment of assembled boards comes in.
with the ModMiner Quad I did everything myself - but the bASIC has an incredibly higher demand there is no possible way I could handle this kind of volume by myself - but I will be assembling an experienced and hardworking team - hopefully at least partially from this community. If you want to get paid in Bitcoins that will be a big plus!
I know the order numbers are in the 900's already but they are high for a couple of reasons.
For one thing the order numbers started back in May selling the ModMiner quad which had some reasonable success. We also have sold other products on the site from time to time.
The other major factor that makes the order numbers keep jumping is because of failed payments and abandoned orders. People will try a credit card that does not work over and over again, every day people get on the site add products to their shopping cart - register an account and then inexplicably abandon their order. Some people even do this with fake names and obviously fake information - for what purpose I have no idea.
In case anyone is interested - Just looking over the numbers - we have sold approximately 400 bASIC units since 09/03/2012
This is about twice the amount of ModMiner Quads that were shipped between May-August 2012
other interesting facts:
The very first bASIC order is #266, the next one in line after that is #269 and then #273
MRB: there are 25 orders between #273 and your #338
Hope I was able to provide enough information.
If anyone ever has any specific inquires I encourage you to call me anytime
thanks
Tom
BTCFPGA.com
this kind of transparency is amazing! Thanks for the clarification.
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