[time-nuts] Furuno GT-8736 group buy status

[Bob Darlington]

Hi all,

As mentioned a few times over this year I've been kicking around the idea
of doing a group buy for the Furuno GT-8736 GPS receiver boards:

http://www.furuno.com/en/products/gnss-module/GT-8736

I have a quote from a vendor here in the States from last year that puts
them at roughly $27 a pop at QTY 100 units.  But... the guy retired and the
latest quote I got back (yesterday) was for the original QTY 1 price of
$35.  I sent them the lower quote and am awaiting a response.

I'll also see about buying a couple tubes of the PCB connector.  I believe
Mouser part number 855-M50-3120545 is correct ($1.45).  Looking at the
measurements, a 10mm stand off should allow the board to mate properly, and
I can supply these as well.

These are bare boards and need an MMCX pigtail cable to go off to an
antenna as well as a cable for data IO.   Antenna power comes in through
one of the pins, independently of the main power to the receiver so you can
run a 5V antenna from this 3.3 (2.85 to 3.6) volt board if you wanted to.

One of the units I had at home was just sent out today to a list member for
some testing.

Hang tight.  I'll start taking orders once everything looks good and I get
the price down to where it was.  I want to stress that I'm doing this at
cost so I will not gouge anybody.   And sorry to clutter up the list with
non-techie stuff.  I will ask that any inquiries come directly to me unless
they're of a technical nature.

-Bob
N3XKB