Global Supply Shortages - Duet / Pi Impact
-
So might be the elephant in the room no one is talking about - how are the supply shortages impacting the Duet products and are there any supply shortages in the near future?
If you haven’t noticed, nearly every Raspberry Pi supplier is sold out in the US of every Pi 4 model. The projected restock dates are in February. It’s crazy! This even includes the compute modules.
Any transparency here from the Duet team? Are you mitigating any supply chain risks with redesign? For the main products, how much of a back-inventory do you keep? Have you tried to secure chips recently for new production runs?
I’m thinking it’s only a matter of time until these problems strike…
-
This post is deleted! -
@tlas ?? Amazon has pages of them sure the ones you can get fast (1-3 days) are in kits rather than plain boards. but even the plain boards are only delayed about a week...
-
@nurgelrot
Amazon entries appear to be 3rd party resellers or clones quite a bit over base price. All the ‘official’ vendors on the pi vendor links are sold out.https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/
-
@tlas
Even before the new Covid-mutant showed up, experts said the shortage(s) will last till end 2022. Hard to imagine what will happen when we see another worldwide lockdown. Better stock some really important stuff like toiletpaper.
OTOH, does it have to be a Pi4? RPi3 seems suitable and some NOS should be available.
-
"The Pi Hut" has Pi 4 B 4GB and 8GB in stock - I've just got one for my next printer build, a Kossel XL+ style.
https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b
(They are an official reseller, according the the Raspberry Pi site).
-
-
@tlas the global electronic component shortage has been a significant issue for us (and of course other manufacturers). Most reporting within the industry expects it to last for some components into 2023. Availability of components we use is variable (some have good availability, some have very long lead times).
What we have been doing for well over a year, and will continue to do to help mitigate this issue:
- Purchasing well in advance and holding much higher stocks of components.
- Working with our suppliers to project our demand and place advanced orders (in some cases 1yr+).
- Encouraging our volume customers to put in projections and orders well in advance.
- Where necessary prioritising existing customers with a product using our controllers under production.
- Where necessary adapting designs to work around a particular component shortage.
We have had to devote very significant internal resources to this (both time and funds for stock). This has necessarily slowed down development of new hardware designs.
-
@t3p3tony Just wanted to chime in that as a reseller working with many companies, Duet3D has done an outstanding job of navigating supply chain issues. Well done!
-
I don't really think Duet3D can be held responsible for the Raspberry Pi availability. If anything, they are to be commended that to this day, the SBC mode is strictly optional and standalone mode gives you a fully operational
battlestcontrol system. -
This post is deleted! -
The question may not have been asked in the most friendly way, but seeing that Duet3D is foremost doing OEM delivery, I assume that OP just wants to know how much risk they would run in Duet3D being hard-pressed to fulfill orders. I think that has been answered in this thread (-:
-
This post is deleted! -
Nnot sure what you're hintig at. That this forum isn't the right venue to ask this question? Duet3D representatives and business partners answered, so that's fine. That it's inappropriate to ask about the Pis? A benign reading sees this as a commonly well known issue to illustrate the issue at hand OP inquires.
-
@t3p3tony
Thanks Tony, I appreciate the overview and the steps you guys are taking!
