Orders 000-012 are ready to go out, including -001 which happened because Excel plx. One of those is still waiting for payment to print the label. Turns out that packing these orders and getting them invoiced took a total of about 11 hours, technically a little more since I had this set of boxes folded beforehand. I've got some stuff fixed up that should speed that up a little bit, but it is still a pretty time intensive process of:
- folding boxes and half taping them for packing
- digging through boxes of pieces to put together an order,
- re-picking PCBs or plates if the first ones I grab are too bad,
- testing the PCBs and doing some repair on the PCB if need be
- assembling the case, which is a bit tricky and requires a specific process going from completely unassembled
- packing the PCB inside the case and packing the case in the box for shipment
- add stabs that were assembled with the washers beforehand and the bumpons
- weighing the fully packed boxes and recording that
- going through each of the original invoices and using that to calculate shipping cost for each order
- throwing the numbers into a batch file with the original order info for paypal to turn into invoices
- at least once a week throwing everything in a car and hopping over to the post office
Just letting people know what exactly goes into packing the orders so they don't think it's just throwing everything in a box and yeeting it at the mail box. I'm aiming at trying to get around 25 orders packed a week if I can, but I am limited for the amount of space I have for orders to sit between packing, waiting for shipping, etc and the amount of time I have. This isn't the best time of year to have stuff on a schedule since I still have tax stuff that needs to be finished in like 3 weeks here, so that will most likely slow me down a little among other obligations.
Also now that they're going out, I remembered I need to talk about assembling it:
- All cases come already assembled with the PCB packed inside them since that's the best way to ship them.
- For the lowpro case I recommend removing the top screws only to take it apart. The middles have the standoff holes a wee bit tapered due to the nature of laser cutting, so the bottom screws will keep the middle layer held in place and the standoffs lined up for the most part.
- For the hipro case, you want to remove the bottom screws only. The hipro layer has the standoffs anchored to it and should retain both the top plate and the mid layer. Even if the mid layer comes off, leaving the top screws alone will leave the standoffs still keyed correctly to fit into the middle layer holes.
- DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN THE SCREWS
- Forreal, it's unnecessary to tighten the screws any more than lightly snug, and cranking down on them will cause them to force their way through the FR4 and potentially impact the ability to hold the plate in place. That's unfortunately the weakness of the design trying to keep the screws reasonably low profile without the ability to properly countersink the plates. In the future if I ever recover from this GB enough to try another board, I'll likely look into a fab that can give me the countersunk holes.
- If you're one of the people that ordered extras plates, the easiest way to swap them is one side at a time. So far it's been my experience that assembly from the fully disassembled point is a little tricky, again due to the design of the plates not being optimal.
Thanks for the update, Donut.
Btw, since you're an ECE student, have you considered asking a professor in your department?
I haven't been a student since early-mid 2017, and not an ECE since early 2014 or technically never depending on who you ask. School was a bit of a trip.
Regardless, I have the docs they asked for turned in, now it's another waiting game. For anyone interested in how much of a cluster**** PayPal *really* is, you can't email to ask them anything or you'll just get automated responses. I was told in an email to submit documents via two methods that were inaccessible, one of which is because since *at least* July 2015 PayPal has not given business accounts a method to access the "Message Center". I know this because I found a thread from July 2015 complaining that it was not accessible, same as it is in March 2015. When I tried to respond to their emails to tell them I had no way to do what they wanted, I just got automated emails twice before they cancelled my appeal *again*. I had to call them *again*, get the dispute reopened for appeal, and then talk to someone to help get the stuff uploaded. *Apparently* the way for business accounts to upload stuff is to to paypal.com/confirmcard :/ Like they actually just are so jank they have you use their system for having your card reactivated to submit important documentation. Meanwhile personal accounts can still access the message center. Like, I have no words for how ****ed their entire system is. I really am at this point considering what I'd have to do to never use PayPal for my store ever again because of how ****ing **** this entire experience has been. I'm still absolutely ****ing floored that they can't read the ****ing descriptions on an album of high res pictures of repeated ****ups and be like "oh, there are *70* images of this product being clearly damaged, the seller should be responsible for this." It's obvious that they care more about protecting their potential business investments in high rollers more than they do someone who depends on them to pay their bills. If you're just someone buying something then you're probably fine as you're probably a one time issue, but if you're a small business prepare to not be worth the change covered in lint in their pockets. They'll protect a consumer over you, and they'll protect a Chinese manu over you, and it'll be a **** experience the entire time and thereafter. I will at least say that the support people specific to the debit card seem a fare bit more competent than the normies.