Overview Features Coding ApolloOS Performance Forum Downloads Products Order Contact

Welcome to the Apollo Forum

This forum is for people interested in the APOLLO CPU.
Please read the forum usage manual.
Please visit our Apollo-Discord Server for support.



All TopicsNewsPerformanceGamesDemosApolloVampireAROSWorkbenchATARIReleases
Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Waiting Time for Vampire Acceleratorspage  1 2 

Igor Majstorovic
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 406
26 Oct 2020 13:24


This will be attempt to explain situation as I have seen on various topics on this forum and on social networks comments about production and increasing waiting time for Vampire accelerators. Often questions were in places who are not topic related so in order to not mislead or drive specific topic in different direction I didn't want to comment there. I will do my best to sum up all the questions here and at least try to explain what is going on. I don't want to be another person who will hide his lack of work behind problems caused by COVID-19 but simply that's what happened this year. Our pre order lists were nearly cleared by the end of last year regarding V500 and V600, situation with V1200 production was improving greatly, we were not so far behind. Plan was to clear everything we had on our lists, for every model by the end of February. Unfortunately, parts I have ordered in January were in my hands in August/September. Lot of packages were lost or returned to senders and some of them I still didn't get. For simplest things like connectors who costs in large volumes fractions of the dollar is something I couldn't get anywhere, not even proper ESD bags. To maintain production I had to order from Reichelt where everything is expensive and even then waited for one month to get the parts. Simply, airport was closed, still very limited, and even when I made cards I couldn't send them because postal service was down on my side. Still, I can't send to several countries. Cleaning solution I m using in ultrasonic cleaner is something I couldn't get, easily. I had to smuggle several bottles in very interesting mission I had. I m mentioning cleaning as one of the most important steps here as it takes most of my time in production process. Something that can't be avoided. Things that were simple before become very complex and I was fighting this situation best I could. Don't know what will happen on my side, maybe everything will be closed again, especially since schools are again closed from today. Trying to be honest here and say what's waiting time for the cards now but it is unrealistic to predict anything. I m very sorry that people lost patience or got angry from waiting. I m just saying that my will or amount of work for this project didn't change and that I ll do everything to speed things up. Now, with lot of parts in my hands I will push production harder and try to pick up with the demand.


Nick Fellows

Posts 176
26 Oct 2020 14:15


Thanks for your openness. Times are very difficult for everyone at this time. Of course there will be delays and difficulties thrown upon us by the virus and the terrible response by our governments. I appreciate knowing you are doing what you can under these circumstances and im sure others will agree.

Cheers

Nick


Antony Coello

Posts 153
26 Oct 2020 14:44


Just thought I would give my opinion, from an impartial (non Vampire team) 'customer'...

From the dealings I have had, Igor is really a nice guy. He goes out of his way to help people.

Anyone not happy with any delivery times should really look up the postal restrictions for Bosnia. There is not much that is not on the restriction/banned list!

Alot of people would have just given up by now with this situation.

Please bear this in mind before getting upset.


Sean Sk

Posts 488
26 Oct 2020 22:05


Antony Coello wrote:

From the dealings I have had, Igor is really a nice guy. He goes out of his way to help people.

I can vouch for this, he was very patient and kind with me when I had a question about my delivery. Igor, thank you very much for your excellent standard of customer service under these difficult times.



Nikos Pagonis

Posts 109
27 Oct 2020 09:11


Thanks for explaining the situation. Could i ask for the information of where orders stand till today so we can have a very vague estimate about when we will receive ours? What i mean is to tell us which orders (date expressed interest) are being produced these days so we can get an idea of where we stand with our order.

Thanks again and lets hope things will speed up a bit.


Igor Majstorovic
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 406
27 Oct 2020 12:28


Thanks everyone for understanding.
Right now as I said we stuck in this year for two models:
V500 - 2020-01-09
V1200 - 2020-01-02

For V600 situation is worse and stuck somewhere at the end of 2019. but this will be cleared very fast since this model is something that has been produced much longer than other two and we covered large portion of Amiga 600 users already.

Anyway, on Thursday I have meeting in PCBA factory to speed up production. I hope that they will find a way to help me as they did before. I will discuss about possibilities of testing and cleaning cards there as those are the things that are most time consuming for me.


Nick Fellows

Posts 176
27 Oct 2020 13:50


It looks like i expressed interest on the 9th Jan 2020 - does this mean mine will be in next years batch ? (v1200)


Igor Majstorovic
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 406
27 Oct 2020 21:01


No, new batch of V1200 should be done within next 15 days if everything goes as planned.


Nikos Pagonis

Posts 109
27 Oct 2020 21:11


Ok good. I was talking about V1200 as well. I have placed my order on the file 20th January so it seems that I am not very far away!! Can’t wait Igor to try your amazing card. Take care


Rod March

Posts 119
02 Nov 2020 05:23


Thanks for the update Igor,

It's always nice just to hear that things are still moving (even if very slowly!).

Keep up the good work!


CD32 Freak

Posts 25
02 Nov 2020 11:06


Thanks for you openness en dedication during these difficult times in your country, Igor.
 
  By the way, I didn't know what a Ultrasonic Cleaner was, but YouTube showed me how: EXTERNAL LINK 
 
  “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
 
--Albert Einstein


Igor Majstorovic
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 406
02 Nov 2020 17:16


@CD32 Freak yeah, mine is nearly the same as this one, but we have to move to much bigger scale if we want to clear our orders. People love Vampires and the scale of interest is enormous:)

After very productive meeting with people from PCBA factory I must say that I'm optimistic. I did notice that they greatly improvement their way of work and equipment from the last time I was there. Right now they have at least 10 assembly lines. Now I'm sure they can handle large volumes of production we need. Even before, they offered me much bigger help not just assembly. I'm talking about help with distribution, marketing, parts supply or even PCB production, in fact all the help I needed. It is time to accept that kind offer for benefit of the Amiga community:)

Now plan is to clear our orders according our lists, to do it quickly and then to supply only shops with large batches who will handle part of the work. This is the only way we can supply enough. Maybe all of this will sound like moving away from all of this as hobby project but this is reality, we need to bring this up to another level!
 
I will inform more soon about steps taken together with PCBA factory. All of this can bring only positive things and yes, it is learning process, always is.



Willem Drijver
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 127
02 Nov 2020 17:41


Respect for your open and honest story. I am sure that you have made the right decision to share the burden that is resting on your shoulders with professionals that can bring production to the next level and at the same time bring back the oxygen in your personal life. Sometime you almost need to crash, to make a major change in viewpoint. I wish you all the best in the upcoming period and may the positive energy flow back soon!!!


Chris Chris

Posts 25
02 Nov 2020 21:14


Dear Igor,
 
  110% respect to your work done for the Amiga Vampire Scene as well as for being honest and open towards the community. You are a man of charackter, backbone and honesty !!!
 
  Handing over tasks from point of view of an idealist, is hard but the right decision. I can image what you feel giving tasks from such a great project away. Such a project is seen like a baby.
 
  Optimization of production and distribution of a project that rises to that stage is no hobby anymore and cannot be handled by one person only. Why and for what?
 
  In the past all began as it was great fun ! This feeling - I wish for you - will come back soon. And this is what we Amigans are living for.
 
  Hoping that you get some support to re-organize the production as well as the order handling process to focus on things you like most.
 
  Wish you all the best.
 
  Greetz

PS: You are legend !


M Rickan

Posts 177
03 Nov 2020 02:45


Giving up control of anything is never easy - especially when you put your heart and soul into it.

However, a lot of people are capable of assembling PCBs... not a lot of people can put dreams into action.


Sean Sk

Posts 488
03 Nov 2020 10:03


m rickan wrote:

not a lot of people can put dreams into action.

 
This!
 
I hope, Igor, that you're able go back to what you do best, designing and creating like the true artist you are, and I also hope you go back to having fun! :D
Let others worry about all the the grime involved in distribution.


Hans Arvid Johansen

Posts 1
06 Nov 2020 18:51


Hello,

Thanks for the update, really appreciate it.
I was asking the same question you are giving us an update on, on the Discord channel and they said the waiting time for V2+ is about a year. With this new strategy and changes in manufacturing (PCBA factory, assembly lines etc…) what would be a more correct estimate?

After many years I have finally decided to do something for myself and I choose to upgrade my Amiga 2000 with a V2+. There is nothing better than this card. It is awesome! Waiting for a year, it just kind of broke my heart, sorry. Keep up the good work :)



Giuseppe Marra

Posts 14
15 Nov 2020 11:56


Hello Igor,
 
  Is it possible to give a short update about delivery?
  So that we can have a feeling how much time we have to wait.
  Thanks a lot.


Nikos Pagonis

Posts 109
16 Nov 2020 10:26


If you read above, Igor wrote that for a V1200 (which i am also still waiting for) up to two weeks ago the orders that were coming out were from 2/1/2020. He also wrote that the production got a boost after some help he was offered and agreed upon from the company selling him the PCBs. Dont know how faster that is but that is what he said. My order was placed on the 22/1/2020 and still have no answer about my V1200. That would give you an indication i think of the situation. That is what i know so far. I hope thinks will improve cause almost a year waiting time is too long!!


Giuseppe Marra

Posts 14
16 Nov 2020 17:08


Thanks to share your order so that we can have a feeling. Could somebody give also a feeling about a600 V2? I’m interested in this.
Thanks. Is there also one year?

posts 39page  1 2