Open source hardware

Wed Jan 8 19:50:52 UTC 2014

On (2014-01-08 13:56 -0500), Ray Soucy wrote:

> Just to toss in a few more vendors so not to look biased:

Instead of suggesting names, I'm giving some suggestions want to ask for
vendor when looking for new partner

- DDM/DOM, should be included in each (<1USD price premium), min/max TX/RX in
  eeprom should match that of PDF specsheet

- accountability - supplier knows what they've sold to you, and where they've
  sourced them, so if there is problem, they can easily state you which of
  your optics are affected

- replacement - advance replacement for non-critical replacement

- eeprommer - usable by field-tech without training. If they are 'x compatible'
  it only means that someone programmed the eeprom with 'x' data. That someone
  might as well be your field tech, as it reduces your spare cost and ensures
  you always have correct part. Verify software has codes for kit you need it
  for.

- if you need part (like for example dwdm) when 1st party only support
  something like SR, make sure you get the eeprom saying something that still
  allows you to inventory it correctly for easing operations when it needs to
  be replaced

- part numbers - product ordered with given partnumber should be same part,
  single source laser, microcontroller, casing etc. If some source/supplier is
  changed, part number is changed. (So you can rely on getting something you
  know to work, to avoid testing everything)

- product change notification - if something is changed with 'compatible' part
  without part number change, you should be informed of what was changed and
  why

- prices decrease rapidly, it's chore to keep renegotiating constantly, try to
  negotiate contract where your price changes in reflection to vendors
  supplies becoming cheaper

And of course make sure they sell all the stuff you need, so you don't need to
have many sources, fewer sources, larger volume, better prices and also less
parts to track/test. Chances are if you're just using 1st party, there may be
lot of interesting optics available which will allow you to engineer some
problems lot cheaper than you've used to.

> When all is said and done, my experience with third-party optics has been
> that they're identical to brand-name optics except for the sticker.  In
> fact, it's pretty clear most of the time that they're often made by the
> same place.

-- 
  ++ytti