Express coop

[ChristmasattheY]

I'm looking at a few more LE's for this year and I see on the FS/WTB area there's a lot of traffic for these.  If I had time I'd run a coop but I'm short on that end of things.  Is someone out there in talks with RJ for a second coop for this year before time runs out?

[tbone321]

I would think that the chance's for an Express coop for this year are little to none.  IIRC, the chip that controls the display is no longer available which would require a replacement for it and possibly a redesign of the board to deal with the new chip.  Between locating the replacement chip, protyping of the board, mods to the firmware, and testing, you are looking at months worth of work when time is available and at this time of year.......   Even if no changes were required, a coop normally takes a month or more under ideal conditions and being the end of September already, it would be close to the end of November to finish the coop and that's if there were no delays at all.  Also, with most people moving to RGB smart and dumb strings, the demand for the Express is not what it once was.  There is also now a commercial version available of it but that one is not part of these forums.

[ChristmasattheY]

I didn't realize that there was issues with parts. Oh well guess I have to rely on others selling boards as I have no intent of moving to rgb. Thanks for the info.

[Rainlover]

I have 2 Unassembled LEs.
Let me know if you are interested a I will see what I paid for them.

John

[RJ]

I ordered some chips but they are not here yet. Once they are I will be selling the pcb, heat sink & display chip together in the store. At least the ones I have. If that goes well I may order more.

RJ

[Nightowlz1966]

OK
tbone said the chips where no longer available and RJ said he has ordered some and may order some more which one is it ?
It surprised me there where 4 LE co-ops last year and only 1 this year.

[rdebolt]

OK
tbone said the chips where no longer available and RJ said he has ordered some and may order some more which one is it ?
It surprised me there where 4 LE co-ops last year and only 1 this year.

Not sure where RJ is getting the chips from. The reason for only 1 LE coop is that most people are going the way of RGB. So the future is SSC, Zeus and other RGB stuff that I hope RJ is working on!!!! Hint, Hint!

[RJ]

The chips are no longer avaliable but I found someone in China who bought a truck load. I order some and just received them. I will be testing to make sure they are real and work. Then offereing them in the store as I said. If they sell I will look at if I can get another order and do this again.

RJ

[tbone321]

OK
tbone said the chips where no longer available and RJ said he has ordered some and may order some more which one is it ?
It surprised me there where 4 LE co-ops last year and only 1 this year.

I suppose the correct term should have been End Of Life for the chip.  That doesn't man that they cannot be found at all, but it does mean that they will be increasingly hard to get as existing supplies are bought up.  If you look on Mouser, you will see that it is no longer available there.  I would suspect that RJ found them somewhere else and ordered them from there.  Now even the 485 that it uses is being flagged as EOL. 

[therealbigjim]

I hope RJ tests works out I have I have 3 le boards I have to order parts for.

[RJ]

Test was good. Got 40 of them need to see how many pcbs and heat sinks I got and get them in the store.

RJ

[Mike Hill]

I have three LE's that I will sell.  I would prefer to sell them together so I dont have to go through the trouble of separating parts.

PM me if anyone is interested.

MH