I appeared on The Model Railcast Show #182 which was posted Mar. 27. You can find the podcast here: Model Railcast #182. Craig, Tim and Ryan do not keep these links up permanently, so I would suggest that you listen to or download this podcast in the next month or so. I won't give away what I talk about, so that you'll listen to the show. BTW, please support the Model Railcast, I have; but I was not able to do so last year due to my period of unemployment.
Since the show has been posted, page views on this blog have taken off. So all of you hackers out there; let's see some projects!
The show was recorded about 2 weeks before posting and, at that time, TI had raised the price of a LaunchPad to $5. About the time of the show's posting TI boosted the price to $9.99 !!!! I certainly hope that the further price increase was not a result of anticipation of increased sales because of the show. So for all of you who listened to the show and now find that the price is much higher I want you to know that it came as a surprise to me too! I feel bad abut recording the show, only to have the show's listeners hit with another price increase.
Mouser Electronics and Newark Electronics, which I mention in the show as alternate sources of supply, have kept up with TI's price increase. Mouser had over 6200 of these in stock at the time of the price increase to $5; and they have since increased their price to $19.32!!! They are price gouging for sure, and making a bundle on the units they purchased at less than $5. I've always bought my electronic components from Mouser, now I'll reconsider my purchases from them. It would serve them right if no one bought a LaunchPad from them and they had to sit on the 5000+ units that they have left until hell freezes over! Newark is sold out, but has only raised their price to $10.
On a happier note, several Arduino-compatible motor controller modules that I ordered from China have arrived. I will be interfacing with these shortly and I intend to include one into the small display that I am preparing for the clinic at the Streetsville Junction convention. Building said display proceeds slowly, and I have to pick up the pace if it is to be ready for the convention.
The price at mouser is now listed at 10.54, might have been a data entry error to list them at the $19.32. So that's a relative cost to the TI price and Mouser says they are stock, however I ordered 6 of them from TI and even through they said it would be 2 to 4 weeks I got them in 2 days.
ReplyDeleteI find this project very interesting. However, I thought it was flawed from the very beginning though. I think TI wasn't making any money selling its LaunchPad at original price. It counted on subsequent microcontroller sales. Just like printer and ink business. I am not surprised they have increased the price.
ReplyDeleteOpen source HW/SW project is way to go. I understand there is Arduino but it is way too powerful and expensive for most model railroading animation projects.
I am not surprised at the price increase either. However, I would have preferred that they increase the price gradually, rather than more than doubling it in one shot.
DeleteTerry