Well I had a long talk today with a great sales guy Ron at Future about many things, including the lack of availability of singles. They have 500x reels but rarely show sub-500x stock as available, but they used to have singles available. Which to me makes sense IF you are low on 500x reels because you don't want to disappoint a big mfg by saying sorry we're out of standard reels but we have a broken one and we wish you best of luck in getting that set up in your machine. Project managers like to order a 500x reel of devices and 500x reels of driver components and have 500x products.
I found out something that surprised me. Future now has ample stock of the 500x reels. And IMHO if they break a 500x reel there is enough market that it will be completely sold before becoming obsolete, and they get to charge a 20%-100% premium on sub-500x quantites. The reason they don't break is not a Future stocking decision but actually from Luxeon, Luxeon specifies a Minimum Release Quantity of 500x reels and does not allow an official vendor to break a reel on their own, the broken reels that people have been getting samples from were supplied by Luxeon to the vendor in that form. Probably the reason here is that, if you've ever dealt with Rebels, the little tray row has problems with the plastic cover film peeling off and dropping the devices out, and also there are specs in how long the device can sit outside the packaging before it needs special procedures for reflow due to increased moisture content.
Oh, hmmm... one thing I didn't think of. With a 5x order, well any yahoo can cut 5x off a reel. With a 100x order, I bet Future's going to have to address the issue of how to physically count off exactly 100x devices before cutting. Huh, well, Digikey, Mouser, and the rest of Future stock provides any quantity of reeled smd devices this way. So whatever the solution obviously there IS some kind of solution out there.
I think this is a downer because it's smothering the developer market. I could even live with them providing broken reels "as is" without warranty even. I mean most of us reflow with toaster ovens or heat guns anyways so it's not exactly like we follow all Luxeon specifications and are probably voiding any warranty anyways.
Ron says he can start some dialogue on that issue. I don't know what will come of it, in the end Future and Luxeon will do whatever generates the most profit and I expect nothing more or less from them. I think the case for readily available sub-500x quantities is strong, it not only is a sale you would not have with only 500x reels available but the small mfg looking to do an experimental run of 50x parts may turn into a 1000x customer.
I found out something that surprised me. Future now has ample stock of the 500x reels. And IMHO if they break a 500x reel there is enough market that it will be completely sold before becoming obsolete, and they get to charge a 20%-100% premium on sub-500x quantites. The reason they don't break is not a Future stocking decision but actually from Luxeon, Luxeon specifies a Minimum Release Quantity of 500x reels and does not allow an official vendor to break a reel on their own, the broken reels that people have been getting samples from were supplied by Luxeon to the vendor in that form. Probably the reason here is that, if you've ever dealt with Rebels, the little tray row has problems with the plastic cover film peeling off and dropping the devices out, and also there are specs in how long the device can sit outside the packaging before it needs special procedures for reflow due to increased moisture content.
Oh, hmmm... one thing I didn't think of. With a 5x order, well any yahoo can cut 5x off a reel. With a 100x order, I bet Future's going to have to address the issue of how to physically count off exactly 100x devices before cutting. Huh, well, Digikey, Mouser, and the rest of Future stock provides any quantity of reeled smd devices this way. So whatever the solution obviously there IS some kind of solution out there.
I think this is a downer because it's smothering the developer market. I could even live with them providing broken reels "as is" without warranty even. I mean most of us reflow with toaster ovens or heat guns anyways so it's not exactly like we follow all Luxeon specifications and are probably voiding any warranty anyways.
Ron says he can start some dialogue on that issue. I don't know what will come of it, in the end Future and Luxeon will do whatever generates the most profit and I expect nothing more or less from them. I think the case for readily available sub-500x quantities is strong, it not only is a sale you would not have with only 500x reels available but the small mfg looking to do an experimental run of 50x parts may turn into a 1000x customer.
