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The $11185 Connector

bigmessowires.com

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Re: The $11185 Connector

#41

Post by frozenport »

Alupis wrote: post #24
frozenport wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and my cousin Vinny can get you a better deal, too bad you aren't family.

> Yeah and my cousin Vinny can get you a better deal, too bad you aren't family. I can appreciate your sarcasm here, but it's not constructive and doesn't change the economics of custom fabrication. These factories don't sit around waiting to get small-time jobs to fab a handful of some custom components.

Alibaba was a reasonable place to look, the other suggestions require insider knowledge, and are significantly more speculative.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#42

Post by tylerritchie »

That's too bad: Steve Chamberlin appears to have taken the post down probably due to unwarranted "UR DOIN IT WRONG" in his page comments.

There are a couple other comments [1] [2] that touch on this. But it does seem like there are some shortcuts that could be taken with DB-25 connectors. Anyone who's still manufacturing them (which may not be many) might be able to modify their tooling to not add 6 pins on one side and not add the protective cowling.

Is it a safe, strong connector? No.

Would it cost $11k in tooling? I have no idea I'm a biologist.

It'll be interesting to see what he settles on.

edit: Ha, he's already doing that: http://www.bigmessowires.com/2015/02/01/designing-a-db-19-su...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9012293#9012602 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9012293#9012695

Re: The $11185 Connector

#43

Post by bsder »

sounds wrote: post #22
bsder wrote: post #9

Talk to Sullins Connector Corp directly. http://www.sullinscorp.com/ The last time I had a connector I needed, they took something they had off the shelf, milled it, stuffed it with different pins, and charged me $100 for 5. I was stunned . I haven't had customer service that good in decades. Really. Call them. Even better, take a factory tour. They may not be able to do it, but they have 30 years of designs archived…

Except he did. They declined. Maybe if he knew somebody higher up at Sullins?

Unlikely. If they are "phasing out" a product line to the point of it being gone in a couple months it means that they only have inventory and aren't manufacturing them anymore. So, even if they have the designs, they no longer have the equipment and materials.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#44

Post by DanBC »

cellshade wrote: post #15
Alupis wrote: post #8

The title is very misleading... it's not an $11,185 connector, that's the price of setting up custom tooling for this component. After-which the factory quoted a very reasonable $0.13 per piece. The author went into this stating he'd be willing to pay for their tooling... then is sticker-shocked when they quote him for so. It's like the author went into this thinking they'd pay a few hundred bucks (for the custom too…

Since you seem to be familiar with this sort of thing, what is the best way to find a fab if not going to Alibaba?

One thing you can do is go to brokers. These people buy old stock from suppliers but also buy old stock from manufacturers who go out of business or who no longer meed the part.

The parts you get are espensive and don't have the same chains of paperwork and may have been mishandled.

There is a problem that you can end up bidding against yourself and driving the price up.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#45

Post by bsder »

Alupis wrote: post #8

The title is very misleading... it's not an $11,185 connector, that's the price of setting up custom tooling for this component. After-which the factory quoted a very reasonable $0.13 per piece. The author went into this stating he'd be willing to pay for their tooling... then is sticker-shocked when they quote him for so. It's like the author went into this thinking they'd pay a few hundred bucks (for the custom too…

And, to be fair, I'm kinda surprised he didn't do this.

If he needs 1,000 connectors, that's $11 per connector. That's a little expensive, but not outlandish.

Obviously, he knows his volumes and we don't. But, he's spending probably spent almost $2K-$3K buying up the worldwide stock of these. How many more does he need to sell before that $11K is reasonable?

Re: The $11185 Connector

#46

Post by DanBC »

bsder wrote: post #45
Alupis wrote: post #8

The title is very misleading... it's not an $11,185 connector, that's the price of setting up custom tooling for this component. After-which the factory quoted a very reasonable $0.13 per piece. The author went into this stating he'd be willing to pay for their tooling... then is sticker-shocked when they quote him for so. It's like the author went into this thinking they'd pay a few hundred bucks (for the custom too…

And, to be fair, I'm kinda surprised he didn't do this. If he needs 1,000 connectors, that's $11 per connector. That's a little expensive, but not outlandish. Obviously, he knows his volumes and we don't. But, he's spending probably spent almost $2K-$3K buying up the worldwide stock of these. How many more does he need to sell before that $11K is reasonable?

He says he recently bought 500 for about a dollar each and that other places had quoted him between $2 to $4 per part.

That variability in pricing is already a bit scary but going from $2 to $11 is something you'd only do in extreme need.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#48

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

Alupis wrote: post #8

The title is very misleading... it's not an $11,185 connector, that's the price of setting up custom tooling for this component. After-which the factory quoted a very reasonable $0.13 per piece. The author went into this stating he'd be willing to pay for their tooling... then is sticker-shocked when they quote him for so. It's like the author went into this thinking they'd pay a few hundred bucks (for the custom too…

>The title is very misleading...

Yeah... but... I think it's kind of obvious. Not sure where the line is between "enticing" and "bait" but BMOW isn't selling crap, so it's not like you had to tolerate some nasty popup surprise or ad spam or anything.

>he went to Alibaba which is essentially the Amazon of factories... definitely not the "best price" you can get.

Good enough for a first approximation. Maybe he'll at least figure out that he can probably bargain that down quite a bit.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#49

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

DanBC wrote: post #44
cellshade wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you seem to be familiar with this sort of thing, what is the best way to find a fab if not going to Alibaba?

One thing you can do is go to brokers. These people buy old stock from suppliers but also buy old stock from manufacturers who go out of business or who no longer meed the part. The parts you get are espensive and don't have the same chains of paperwork and may have been mishandled. There is a problem that you can end up bidding against yourself and driving the price up.

>One thing you can do is go to brokers.

Those guys will skin you alive if they can. I'd almost rather take my chances making a production run... almost.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#50

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

frozenport wrote: post #41
Alupis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah and my cousin Vinny can get you a better deal, too bad you aren't family. I can appreciate your sarcasm here, but it's not constructive and doesn't change the economics of custom fabrication. These factories don't sit around waiting to get small-time jobs to fab a handful of some custom components.

Alibaba was a reasonable place to look, the other suggestions require insider knowledge, and are significantly more speculative.

Commissioning a custom production run is an insider thing. But, yeah AliBaba was a good place to start if you have no contacts.
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