Production of Hermes-Lite 2.0 Suspended

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Group,

I am sorry to inform you that Makerfabs and I have agreed to suspend production of the Hermes-Lite 2.0 until the global integrated circuit supply chain is in a more normal state. Although Makerfabs was quoted a price of $60 for the FPGA just a few days ago, the price is now $135. Makerfabs has checked with more than 20 reputable suppliers and has not found stock at a reasonable price. A price of $135 for a part which is typically $20 to $30 goes against the spirit of this project which is low-cost. It is also a business risk for Makerfabs to invest in a build of 100 units when the price of the FPGA is so volatile. 

There are 40 plus people who have already ordered at the new $289 price point. Makerfabs will refund your money. Again, Makerfabs and I are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience.

We will not be making partial kits. Given the large number and wide diversity of expectations and skills of people interested in the Hermes-Lite, this just opens up a Pandora's box of support issues. The Hermes-Lite is entirely open source and open hardware, so those who believe they have the right set of skills, expertise and patience can download all the files from github and build their own. I know of maybe a dozen users who went that route.

Please monitor this group for details on when Hermes-Lite production will begin again.

73,

Steve

kf7o

[si...@sdr-radio.com]

Steve,

 

That’s a blow for your project ☹ . I have HL2 / N2ADR / Case ordered, ideally Makerfabs will cancel the whole order. At least I do have a complete HL2 from a few years ago that I can use.

 

The advantage of software – write it once, ship it 10,000 times.

 

Simon Brown, G4ELI

https://www.sdr-radio.com

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[Sid Boyce]

Hi Steve,
That's a pity but I could see it coming as I've indicated in very recent
posts, so no surprise having read of the impact of chip shortages on
just about all industries.
73 ... Sid.

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[Roger David Powers]

Sorry to hear of the outcome.  Clearly you and the team at Makerfabs burned the midnight oil and did everything that could be done to keep things going.  Hopefully there will be availability in the not too distant future and we can all enjoy more of these really fun devices!

Regards,

RDP

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[Mehmet Raşid ÖĞÜNÇ]

very bad news 

I was thinking of buying it, but the price has increased all the time and paypal is not used in my country, I don't know what to do, I hope another company other than makerfabs will make hermes lite 2, I want to buy it.

26 Eylül 2021 Pazar tarihinde saat 18:08:39 UTC+3 itibarıyla RD Powers şunları yazdı:

[Neal Doxsee]

So when will they refund ALL of our money? they aren't going to still try to ship the case and charge DHL fee I hope?? do we need to contact them?

I'm very surprised they took orders not having everything lined up.

[Neal Doxsee]

order still shows active, do I need to open a dispute with paypal?
Total
$396.27

Order History

Date Added
Status
Comment
22/09/2021
Confirmed

23/09/2021
In Production

:-(

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Group,

I just informed Makerfabs to cancel and refund complete orders. They should not ship just the N2ADR filter board and enclosure. 

Makerfabs said yesterday that they will initiate refunds in two days. Please wait until Tuesday or Wednesday.

73,

Steve

kf7o

[Neal Doxsee]

I will post the refund status here in this thread.

IF and when the product restarts will you give priority to the 40 of us who send money to China?

quote::::

softerh...@gmail.com 

There are 40 plus people who have already ordered at the new $289 price point. Makerfabs will refund your money. Again, Makerfabs and I are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience.

end quote:::

it more about disappointment than inconvenience.  I'm wondering why you didn't cover the difference between the $60 quote and $135 out of your 'repair fund' for the 40 orders you have canceled, or is that part of your profit. Do you report the income from this project to the IRS??

you can email me me direct if you like, I noticed you don't list your email on qrz dot com like the majority of hams do.... and have reply to author disabled for this group.

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Neal,

If you or anyone needs to contact me directly, please go to the Group about page and use the "Contact owners and managers" link. The settings for this group do favor people's privacy. I prefer if people only contact me privately if it is a sensitive personal issue. I prefer for discussion to be open on this group. I have participated in other groups in the past where a good deal of the development took place via private e-mail between just a few members and would like to avoid that with this group.

The repair and R&D fund is not setup to subsidize crazy IC part price increases. Quotes are only good for 24 hours in China. Makerfabs informed me yesterday that the FPGA price is now $187. Around 45 orders at $187-60 = $5715 and would wipe out the fund. In my opinion, it would also be a poor steward of these funds to pay 5X for the FPGA just to have immediate product. Our mistake was to open the ordering 3 days before all part orders and pricing were confirmed and in the pipeline. For this we apologize and will try to do better in the future.

Of course I report income and expenses to the IRS. It would be illegal not to. This project is not a significant money maker and is only something I do as a hobby. 

73,

Steve

kf7o

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Neal,

I will also ask Makerfabs to keep the list of ~40 people who purchased and send an early announcement to those people for the next build.

73,

Steve

kf7o

[si...@sdr-radio.com]

PayPal just notified me that a refund is happening, “It may take a few days for the refund to appear on your statement.”

 

Simon Brown, G4ELI

https://www.sdr-radio.com

 

[Mooneer Salem]

The refund is already showing up as pending on my credit card company's online banking (I used my card through PayPal for payment originally). YMMV of course.

-Mooneer K6AQ

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[Mark Rotter]

Hi Steve,

Thank you - yes please - would still like to stay on the list as I still want to get into the HL2.

The Makerlabs guys (Allen) have been awesome - great communication and support and looks like the refund came back super quick.

This is such an impressive project ! (I'm new into amateur radio from Software/cloud/IOT/Raspberry Pi/light electronics background) so still very keen.

73

Mark Rotter

ZS6 call sign pending Exam this year 

[Joel Caulkins]

I am just wondering what FPGA chip the Radioberry uses. When there was some discussion on the group a while back I bought a Aursinc version from Amazon. There is a heatsink glued the the FPGA chip so I cant read it. Anyway just curious if the chip shortage is affecting them also. BTW, I have never done anything with the Radioberry board, it was more of a knee jerk reaction to the discussion that caused me to buy it and my Raspberry Pi V4 is being used for another project at the time.

Joel

N6ALT

On Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 9:00:25 PM UTC-7 softerh...@gmail.com wrote:

[Sid Boyce]

https://github.com/pa3gsb/RadioBerry --- near the bottom of the page
It's labelled CYCLONE III.
HL2 uses a CYCLONE IV
73 ... Sid.

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[Roger David Powers]

I agree it's unfortunate but the rate of change in chip prices is truly unprecedented.  Definitely best to step back and wait for the chip market to cool down a bit and hopefully for prices to return to something approaching historical norms.

Regards,

RDP

[Daniel Goller]

My Ali express radioberry I have yet to use has a Cyclone 10 LP, 10CL025YE144C8G

Bought as a "I can't have a HL2" project but then also picked up a RS-HFIQ and shortly after a HL2 at the last successful build.

According to the docs I think that's the normal expected chip: https://github.com/pa3gsb/Radioberry-2.x/wiki/Hints-for-getting-your-Radioberry-up-and-running

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[Joel Caulkins]

I'll answer my own question, the Radioberry uses a Cyclone 10 FPGA and there is no stock on it either, bummer.

Joel

N6ALT

[Sid Boyce]

2021, it's that type of year for chip supplies.
73 ... Sid.

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[Steve Haynal]

Hi Mark,

Makerfabs did agree to keep a list and will offer the next production early to those on the list.

73,

Steve

kf7o

[Mark Rotter]

Awesome thank you !

[radi...@mail.com]

I only just saw this post. I hope I am not the only one on here to find these comments offensive?

I've been one of the early HL2 supporters but have no direct connection with Steve. All I can say is that from every post I have ever seen of his on this group, I can say sincerely that I have only ever seen Steve act with the highest level of integrity in any of his dealings with the project and with the people on here who have been lucky enough to benefit hugely from his labours. He always goes more than "the extra mile" to smooth out any issues financial or technical to make sure everyone ends up with a working device. I have 100% confidence that he will see right done by all with this issue too.

Steve has always made it totally clear that this is 100% a hobby project for him and not in any way an income generator. He's done it for the love of the project as he has full time employment elsewhere and very likely does not need the huge hassle that this project generates in terms of the large amount of time and support that he freely gives to it so that us everyday users can benefit from his brilliant idea and labours. Furthermore I think his responses to criticism are always very restrained including his response to these comments. It's the mark of the man.

To even hint at any sort of personal profit or mishandling of funds really did take me aback and surprised nobody else commented on it in Steve's defence. I've also always found Steve fully contactable and responsive via the group.

Unpleasant comments, and no need or room for them on this group.

73

Max

On Monday, 27 September 2021 at 01:54:05 UTC+1 ndo...@gmail.com wrote:

I'm wondering why you didn't cover the difference between the $60 quote and $135 out of your 'repair fund' for the 40 orders you have canceled, or is that part of your profit. Do you report the income from this project to the IRS??

......... I noticed you don't list your email on qrz dot com like the majority of hams do.... and have reply to author disabled for this group.

 

[Sebastien F4GRX]

I agree that the comment below is definitely NOT acceptable in the context of this project.

BTW, publication of ham emails should be optional, as should be the publication of other parts of ham contact info. The fact that hams are forced to systematically "dox" themselves to the fcc is a hard barrier to many people (including a lot of hardware tinkerers interested in radio things) that would like to ham, but have no desire to publish their info. Mailboxes solve part of the problem but are not ideal, because privacy is a human right, and shall not require payment.

Moreover if you really want/need to contact Steve, there are several way to do that without relying on ham databases, so this is bad faith borderline.

Sebastien

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[Reid Campbell]

I found them offensive as well considering all the great work Steve has done and continues to do. I didn't want to start a bitching session but the guy seriously embarrassed himself in my books.

Reid
Gi8TME/Mi0BOT  

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[Hamish Kellock]

Hi,

I agree totally with Reid, Sebastian and Max in their comments. Steve and the others have done outstanding work in this project, far beyond what could be expected.

Hamish, OH2GAQ

Hamish Kellock

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[Chris Gerber]

Test