[gta02-core] components: a game of "what if"

Werner Almesberger werner at openmoko.org
Fri Mar 26 08:26:32 CET 2010


Patryk Benderz wrote:
> I would add one more point of doubt here: do you have enough storage
> space to keep all these components, Sean will send you? Or will you ask
> him to send components directly to university (of san Paulo?) which has
> this SMT line?

Oh, storage space is by far the least of my worries :-) Components
usually come on strips of tape. This tape is usually wound on a
reel, which is what the SMT machines (pick and place) need.

A common reel size for small parts is 9.2 mm wide with a 180 mm
diameter. Let's round this up to 20 x 20 x 1 cm. That's a volume of
about 0.4 liter. So all the about 80 electrical components on our
FIC/Openmoko wish list, including some that need wider reels,
should fit in a volume of less than 50 liters.

Since the reels would be almost empty (a reel can hold hundreds if
not thousands of components while we need only a few of most of the
parts), also the weight would be low, probably less than 100 g per
reel. So roughly 8 kg for all the components.

Case parts, LCM, etc., eat a bit more space, maybe 0.5-1 liters for
everything that goes into a single device. So that would be another
10-20 liters of volume and maybe 4 kg of weight.

I think I could quite comfortably stow away parts for about ten
times the number of FreeRunners produced to date at my home without
feeling overly crowded ;-)

But I don't want any stuff sent to me. That wouldn't make sense.
First of all, it would be a royal pain to get any of this through
customs. Then there would be a 50+% customs fee. And then I would
have to get it all to Sao Paulo - same continent but different
country, with its own not so easy customs system.

No, all the parts would ideally go straight to the SMT line.

- Werner



More information about the gta02-core mailing list