On 3 May 2007 04:29:20 -0700, Telstar Electronics
wrote:

+++On May 3, 2:13 am, sp5it wrote:
+++ Lol. SSM2166 on the PCB.
+++ I built that by myself long time ago. Nothing new.
+++ PCB could be designed more compact... those big VR's...
+++ Anyway nothing revolutionary.
+++
+++You're absolutely right... the SSM2166 is nothing new. This IC has
+++been ignored in the marketplace because of its high price. Since I
+++only build premium electronics in small quanities... I'm not concerned
+++with that. My products are expensive... but are robust and reliable.
+++Some people are willing to pay for that... many are not.
+++
************

My opinion is that it has been ignored because of its marginal need.
At $2.75 per 1000 units budgetary price that is not all that far out
of line for low production runs. Now if you want to buy 50 pieces from
your favorite broker who deals in obsolete and hard to find parts, yep
you might pay $10 to $15 per IC. That would be high price. But in a
market that may sell 50K to 100k units per year, you should get the
ICs for about $2.25 a piece. Trust me in a consumer electronics market
50K to 100K units per year is small sales. You start to get into big
sales at around 1 to 5 million units per year. Then you can get big
price breaks.


+++As for the pots... you're also right. The production PCB (being
+++fabricated as we speak) will be using smaller 6mm diameter pots for
+++the adjustments. The whole unit will be 1.6"x1.6"x0.32"
+++
+++Thanks for your comments.
+++
+++www.telstar-electronics.com
********************

You need big pots so that the idiots with big screwdrivers can see
them to monkey with.

james

Well... the latest revision VoiceMax boards with smaller pots and
minor improvements for manufacturability are due to ship tomorrow.
These units will be offered again out on Ebay (at a price below
production units) in a week or so as pre-production units. It's very
likely that these units will be exactly the same as production units.
Thanks to everyone out there that have helped in the development of
this product.

www.telstar-electronics.com