Doombot
USA
Asked
— Edited
If you can hand-build V4s and test them at your facility, why not offer both versions, the made in china "pedestrian" version, and the "made in Canada" version? I'm sure the Canadian would be 4-5 times more expensive, but would be nice to have a choice. Guitar companies do this all the time, you get your Chinese $200 B.C.Rich Bronze version and you get your $6000 USA handmade version. Just thought that may apply here too.
Maybe $250?
@Doombot and Jack......! Great ideas....perhaps even a "kit"
I'm not EZ Robot staff but I imagine the reason is they rather spend time on customer service and developing new capabilities. ( like the EZB V5 one day) instead of soldering. It's ok to do one every once in a while but it really is tedious. You don't want to spend all day doing it. Also the V4 uses some chips that are soldered by precision machines and it's a pain in Butt to solder those superfine surface mount leads.
Oh that's right, Surface mount. All I have for reference is the V3, which is a simple board in comparison.
It's been mentioned before that EZ-b will never be a kit because it is not open-source.
I can't see under one of the chip covers but that one might even be a BGA . Solder ball connection that uses hot air jet to solder a chip on without leads stocking out the sides. Anyways , they are doing it right, a machine is best for ones this small. Personally it would still be awesome to sell the V3 as well all this time because I know there's hundreds of people who want it even knowing another version is coming.
I agree! Still sell the V3 at a lower price...since support is still offered anyway, why not coexist with the V4?
The v3 will eventually have an end of life. The v4 has so many amazing features that continuing to support the v3 will cause interface and performance issues as the software grows.
As for hand building v4's - that takes a day per board to do. It's simply not possible. However, our first batch of ezb's which are shipping next week are made in Calgary
I'm sure they will announce it when the ARC version stops supporting the V3, as they did when support for Windows XP/Vista stopped. Read the release notes before installation.