1088XEL Arrived from The Brewing Academy

[+Larry]

12 minutes ago, Firedawg said:

Oh my!  I built 4 XEL (two for me and 2 for others) for under that amount with some variations, but not many.  The hours spent building the XELs was the true value for me.  Either way, the enjoyment of having a well designed, built, and awesome device is now yours Sir!  Congratulations!

Can you estimate the amount of time per build?

[Blues76]

48 minutes ago, Firedawg said:

Oh my!  I built 4 XEL (two for me and 2 for others) for under that amount with some variations, but not many.  The hours spent building the XELs was the true value for me.  Either way, the enjoyment of having a well designed, built, and awesome device is now yours Sir!  Congratulations!

I understand. I don’t have the time nor the manual skills to do this, otherwise, I would have save money. 

 

The biggest problem is time because I could learn this (but I’m clumsy with hands). 

[+mytek]

3 hours ago, Firedawg said:

Oh my!  I built 4 XEL (two for me and 2 for others) for under that amount with some variations, but not many.  The hours spent building the XELs was the true value for me.  Either way, the enjoyment of having a well designed, built, and awesome device is now yours Sir!  Congratulations!

One must keep in mind that when running a business the intention is to make money, and not simply break even. No reason to think that TBA is any different in this regard. An an example: an Electronics Technician minimally makes $20 per hour. And a fully outfitted XEL probably takes at least 10 hours of work for assembly and testing. However if you also include incidentals like troubleshooting and mechanical assembly into the enclosure, the total hours is likely closer to 12 hours. 12 hours labor x $20 = $240. A business won't be salvaging parts from old Atari computers, so purchase of NOS Atari VLSI will run about $120 factoring in shipping and handling. We're now at $340 and that doesn't even include the other needed electronic components, which are numerous ($50-60), or the enclosure and panels (at least another $175). And before I forget, U1MB $75, UAV $25, SIO2PC $25, Sophia $100, ... It all adds up .

 

Of course as an individual hobbyist doing this for fun, you can save the cost of labor, and likely raid some other systems for the VLSI.

 

Edit: I'm probably under estimating the hours, and a labor base rate of $20 is pretty piss poor for what a technician usually gets paid in California, especially in our proximity to Silicon Valley.

Edit2: The prices I showed for the components does not include dealer mark-up which MacRorie is certainly entitled to add.

Edited December 26, 2020 by mytek
made some cost corrections

[+Firedawg]

40 minutes ago, Larry said:

Can you estimate the amount of time per build?

Michael's synopsis of time is accurate as an estimate for building a XEL.

[Blues76]

@mytek is right — They have to make money but I actually think that @MacRoriehas great prices — I went overboard with the options 

 

Correction ; I have single CF. 

[+Larry]

As I was thinking about the hours/effort building a 1088XEL, I was struck by the comparison to the hours of time and cost to Michael in developing it.  Wow!  I'm sure others have commented on this, but thanks, Michael!  And the same to all the others who have developed hardware and software for our enjoyment.  

[massiverobot]

On 12/24/2020 at 2:44 PM, Blues76 said:

I want to thanks Marlin @MacRorie for sending me a beautiful product, creating this amazing video, and delivering sooner than promised (way sooner).

 

I still need to get me a PS/2 keyboard or find the one I have somewhere.

 

I'm going to be honest. The U1MB has so many moving pieces that it is not easy for me to grasp everything right away but I'm excited.

 

I have not turned on yet because I need a few things but I'm extremely happy.

 

 

 

if you have a moment check out my "Missing Manual" for the XEL

 

 

it needs an update, but it may help with all the moving parts....

 

-andy

[Dmitry]

I've got a machine sent in to Macrorie.   As far as the price goes, if you get a better price, great.  I figure people do comparison shopping and factor in the price, so little need to discuss it.  But what I do find very helpful about having a company like that around is  is you can just buy something and they ship it.  Or ask questions, and they answer it.

That is such a convenience.  It's way better than ask someone if they have a few things in stock, they write you a week later to tell you they have communication rules and have decided to answer only some of your question because you broke their invisible rules.  This type of eccentricity is sometimes present with some Atari dealers.  

 

Another great thing about The Brewing Academy is the working shopping cart.  Again, you can just order something and pay for it and they send it.  I've been to some Atari websites where they don't have a working shopping cart, they have some kind of weird rant they wrote in the 90's....and thats supposed to help you order somehow.

 

Anyway, to each their own, I say, the more the merrier.   I don't have any review of the work yet, but I expect no problems.  I will say, so far so good with the ordering process.  They are a professional outfit.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Dmitry