Contaced a Factory in China about producing a run of fully populated Mini-migs

[Crom00]

Hello,

With all this talk about Mini-Migs and the hours required to solder all the chips I figure it may be easier in some ways to just spend more money on purchasing a fully populated motherboard without power supply or abs plastic case.

I contaced a factory in Shenzen China about the producing a run of fully populated Mini-Migs. They should be able to give a minimum order quantity and cost per unit based upon the files on Dennis' site.

I have tried to solder surface mounted componets. To say it ain't easy is an understatement. If you misalign a chip even slightly you can ruin a board and hours of work.

My background is in the toy industry. I have sent many items out for cost analasys since 2000. I have worked on many products and have dealt with Chinese manufacturers in the past.

At the very least we will get real world costs on producing this item.

[downix]

Let us know, I'd be curious myself, even if I am rolling my own board design.

[amigadave]

I would be interested in this opportunity to get a fully assembled Minimig v1.1.  Please keep looking into this possibility and tell the Chinese manufacturer not to paint any parts of it with that lead based paint that they like to use. :lol:

[neuroflip]

nice...

The minimig it's an interesting piece of hardware... i'll keep reading to know prices.


 ;-)

[Piru]

@amigadave

tell the Chinese manufacturer not to paint any parts of it with that lead based paint that they like to use

Interestingly Mattel sorry for 'design flaws'

[Crom00]

Reducing costs is paramount for US toy companies. The low cost of munufacturing in Asia, allows US firms to have elaborate stateside showroom trade show displays, big ad budgets, and take care of the US employees, managers and executives.

It's a vicious cycle that I'm surprised hasn't been exposed in the media up until now.

But for projects like low run specialty market Mini-MIG... Low cost Chinese manufacturing is a win win situation, this isn't a mass market 5 dollar item for childern 3 and under.

[Hans_]

@Piru

Piru wrote:
@amigadave

tell the Chinese manufacturer not to paint any parts of it with that lead based paint that they like to use

Interestingly Mattel sorry for 'design flaws'

I don't think that design flaws can be attributed to formaldehyde in bedding and t-shirts, especially as it's 900 times World Health Organization's acceptable concentration limit.

Hans

[little]

This sounds very, very interesting. I am curious, did you asked for an estimate up to 1000 units? I ask because at the freescale site that the is the minimum amount you must buy to get the "budget price" for the 68000. I know that quantity is pretty big for an "open project", but with quantity prices lowers and it would be feasible for more people to get their board and maybe add an extra "contribution" of say 10 USD per board to fund the AROS project. Also, will there be a minimig 2.0? Maybe it will be better to wait a little, specialy if it will include supoort for DDR RAM (32mb? 64mb? 128mb?), a pc floppy disk connector (to read those protected disks like the catweasel), RTC and maybe a wifi and/or USB interface.

Anyway, thanks for looking into it, I will keep reading :-)

[tonyyeb]

Looking forward to seeing the prices....

[Crom00]

I asked the factory what the minimum order quantity is for a product like this. It helps if they can get a big fat order. In prevoious toy projects we were not allowed develop a product with Integrated Circuts if orders totalled less than 50,000 units.

Ideally you have enough orders to cover costs before tooling anything, you can even work it so that orders ship directly to Amiga dealers from China instead of warehousing the inventory doemstically. This way you make only what sell with a 5-10% portion of invertory stored to cover defects & returns and promotional giveaways.

[Crom00]

These factories often have good relationships with suppliers that make small run projects possible. It helps if they believe in the project, or belive they can re-use hardware for other prjoects.

[little]

... we were not allowed develop a product with Integrated Circuts if orders totalled less than 50,000 units.

O_o wow, we are no longer in kansas toto ^^; But I think the minimig might sell that amount of units. Because if enough people get interested in it, it can be lots of things with some changes. It has the potential to become an atari st, or a classic macintosh or a x68000 all in a nice little package that you can plug and unplug without much hassle.

[Darrin]

Keep us informed on how you get on.  I'm certainly interested in 2 or three units for myself, so that might just leave you 49997 left to sell.   :-)

It's a shame this wasn't happening 2 years ago as I was working in Shekou.

[Crom00]

Just contacted an expat living in HK who is an expert manufacturer of toys and electronics. If Mini-MIG were to be produced he would be the go to guy, He can tell us if it's possible to do at a reasonalbe price point.

[Tomas]

I am definitely interested unless it ends up very expensive, so that is one more potetential buyer.  ;-)