Borads arrived and assembled, but how to sell them now? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2015, 08:26:52 pm
content: Boards I spun for the Sparkfun USB to UART replacement board and PIC SO-28 breakout boards arrived and I have assembled a few of them, all perfectly working. Now I wonder how can I sell them.USB to UART board is based on CH340G chipset and it is a functional equivalent of the Sparkfun and Adafruit adapters, with the same Sparkfun pinout.PIC SO-28 adapter boards broke all pins out into a breadboard-friendly format, with onboard crystal and ICSP on a separate header. Current run of this board used my stock of PIC16F72 and the second batch will use a more modern PIC18F24J10 (both chips have the same footprint, and power, ICSP and crystals are on the same location, so the same breakout can work)Suggestion on how to arrange sales and international shipping please?Excuse me for the crude soldering job, This test run is built with my friend's less powerful iron and less-than-ideal leaded solder. My own iron is more powerful and it works better with my own lead-free solder.

author: SArepairman
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2015, 08:29:22 pm
content: You need to write up an advertizement for your board, get orders. You gotta sell it. Good pictures, convince people to buy it and that its better then the competition. Helps to be likeable and to give a spec for your product thats clear and concise.and either hire a shipping house (high volume), try to negotiate a deal with a postage carrier (high (with alot of work) or medium) , or just handle the orders on a case by case basis (low volume)there is always ebay too, tons of chinese board sellers there. But then you pay fees...also, don't call them borads lol. hahah thats bochen trimpot level

author: Towger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2015, 08:46:38 pm
content: You could try selling them onhttps://www.tindie.com/

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2015, 08:51:46 pm
content: Quote from: DiligentMinds.com on May 21, 2015, 08:44:07 pmI think I will sell them on Taobao (Mainland China only) and Tindie (rest of the world) simultaneously. Is it a good idea to offer multiple versions of the same piece, like different pin style for the USB UART or different MCU/crystal for the PIC breakout?My own test run boards have two USB UART pin styles while I can offer three; and PIC16F72 at three different clock rates while I can offer quite a selection of MCU/clock combination.

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2015, 08:55:49 pm
content: Quote from: Towger on May 21, 2015, 08:46:38 pmI will sell them on Tindie to the rest of the world. In Mainland a China please catch me on Taobao

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2015, 09:10:14 pm
content: Quote from: DiligentMinds.com on May 21, 2015, 09:00:05 pmIt is sort of variants of the same product.For the USB to UART I have three possible ways to mount the pins: straight pins up, straight pins down, and right angle pins facing opposite the USB connector (like in the picture)For the PIC breakout there is a whole bunch of PIC chips compatible with my board and they can run under a wide variety of clock frequencies. Of course I can sell unpopulated boards and just let the buyer solder it themselves but that does not seem like a good idea, so The question here is how can I offer the customers a choice?Can I just say "Shipped with right angle pins facing away the USB port by default, other variants available but please contact" or "populated with PIC18F24J10 @ 24MHz by default" or the like, or just list different variants as different products?