Yesterday we received two “first article” production NTH PCBs from Screaming Circuits.  These are the first NTH PCBs not hand-assembled by us.  The boards look and work great.  This is an important step because it validates our BOM and proves the ability of the assembler to manufacture the board to our spec.

Acrylic panels for the production enclosures are being produced in batches.  Approximately 35% of the panels are complete.  Here is a video of the two first article NTHs in production enclosures alongside the two previous prototypes.  We’re having a bit of fun chaining together all 4 NTHs to create a synced “NTH ensemble”.

We have completed our order of electronic components for bulk production.  In our possession are six boxes full of ICs, switches, pots, sliders and other parts in an assortment of reels, tapes, trays and bags.

We have received all of the production components except for, unfortunately, the rocker switches used in the design (NKK G12KP-YA).  The orginal April ship date provided by the distributor has been pushed back to June 25th.  We have contacted the switch manufacturer about the situation.  Since there is no stock available within North America, we have no choice but to wait for a shipment from the factory in Japan.

If we are lucky, the switches will be shipped sooner than the estimated date.  (We’ll keep our fingers crossed.)  In the meantime, we are planning to do whatever we can to minimize the impact of the switch backorder.  We may have the contract assembly done without the rocker switches.  Then we can complete the boards ourselves, immediately after the switches are delivered.

We are about to place the bulk order for production PCBs.  But because everything is gated by the availability of the rocker switches, we may not be able to begin shipping NTHs until late June or early July.  We appreciate your understanding and patience.  We will do our best to answer your questions and will post new information as the situation develops.

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