[dorkbotpdx-blabber] OpenTechSpace list

[Barton C Massey]

Thanks hugely for this list!  It looks like you really put a
lot of work into it, and it contained a couple of things we
hadn't considered that I'm pretty sure we'll get.

I'm not too excited about trying to support PCB etching at
OTC.  Potentially messy and slightly dangerous, and at
current prices and turnarounds for board houses seems to me
to be a marginal win.  If others feel differently, I would
like to hear about it, in which case I'll try to figure out
how we might support it.

I'm pretty sure we want to get a reflow oven; they aren't
that expensive.  I'm seriously looking for some way we could
afford to have a pick-and-place machine.  If anybody has any
ideas about who could donate one, or at least where we could
get one for a few thousand dollars, I would really
appreciate hearing about it.  Too many things these days
come on SMT chips that are kind of tricky to hand-place; the
tedium of manual placement will kill you in any case if you
have to put 50 SMT Rs and Cs on 10 boards, which I wouldn't
call an unreasonable-sized run for some applications.

    Bart Massey
    Assoc. Prof. Computer Science
    Portland State University
    bart at cs.pdx.edu


In message <496B4191.3070605 at pjrc.com> you wrote:
> > What I really want is someone (or a group) who is willing to put 
> > together a list of tools and equipment that OpenTechSpace can acquire 
> > that will support the community, and help us acquire those tools and 
> > equipment.  Anyone willing?
> 
> Ok, I'll bite....

[extensive shopping list]