Holtite sockets (2017.03.21: Closed)

The group buy is closed, long live the group buy. You people appear to have had some socket-shaped holes in your lives.

Final numbers:

88 participants are purchasing a total of 24000 switch sockets.
62 participants are purchasing a total of 15400 LED sockets.

Next up, data wrangling, invoicing and aquatic bird arrangment. I'll start work on this tonight. This will likely be a little slow as I've never mass-invoiced before and need to figure out a sensible workflow.

You will get a transaction number with your invoice that is distinct from the Paypal invoice number. This number will identify a row in a (not yet extant) Google spreadsheet. That will be the place to look for status and such about particular orders. This is where to look for general updates, but you already knew that.

Thanks so much to all you lovely folks. So far, so very smooth.





Go here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScp3tmDekJvYTP9vgHUs3xo88pcXo54UNRtVAW0RYtYF_sr0g/viewform?c=0&w=1


The IC thread, which of course contains much good discussion, lives here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=87127.0

What:

Holtite sockets. Stick them in your PCB holes, hot-swap your switches, no soldering. There are also sockets for LEDs.

Of course, nothing is quite that simple. They don't work on all boards, or all positions on boards, because the sockets are a consistent size, and through-holes on PCBs aren't. The good folks at r/mk have worked on a compatibility list that may provide some assistance: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1qt70E2mcuaHBXYrpPHXlpl7FNaXLo0u_TOe67cVdY/pubhtml?gid=986897710&single=true . As a vast oversimplification, the seem to work better in Korean boards. There is more discussion in the IC thread, linked above.

When

Now.

Who

I'm running this. This is my first GB here. I'm also a bit new-ish to the community, less than a year with this obsession. I like to think I've been a good neighbor, but have no problem at all with folks having trust issues. I'm not running this for a profit; all accounting will be public to the extent that that's reasonable. This is simple enough I can't imagine how it would, but if anything goes massively pear-shaped with this, I'm financially stable enough to fix any problems that arrise, and will ensure everyone who takes part ends the GB whole. In the past, I've spent over a decade either running a company or working for myself, so I feel fine about the logistics, comms, accounting, etc.

What, part II

This is a buy for two types of sockets, 8134-HC-8P2 for switches, 8134-HC-5P2
for LEDs. For simplicity, we'll have these packaged in lots of 100. Based on IC responses, people want the gold kind, so we're going with that to keep the volume discount as high as possible.

NOTE: This is an addition since this was posted.
If you order a quantity in multiples of something not 100 I will round up to the nearest hundred. (So if you order 347, I will round that to 400. If you order 12, I'll round it to 100.) That way you get what you need, and I don't go crazy.


Cost is based on total volume; if everyone from the IC purchases the switch sockets (8134-HC-8P2), the cost will be 19 cents each. For the LED sockets (8134-HC-5P2), they will be 13.1 cents each.

To be clear, this pricing is not guaranteed. This assumes we hit IC numbers.

You need two for each switch/LED. If you're not a superstar at dealing with tiny, fiddly things, I recommend planning to lose/ruin a few. (As anecdata, I'm not a superstar, and in the process of fiddling with these on four boards now, I've lost probably 15 and ruined another 5-6. Tip: put cloth over your hard work surface; if dropped on finished wood or similar, they skitter like a very skittery thing indeed, and hide in carpet exceptionally well.)

There's an installation video here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/5a399o/guide_how_to_make_your_pcb_hotswappable/ . My experience with the hot-iron thing was that it didn't seem to make a difference until I tried it with the iron cold, at which point I realized it did.

I want to emphasize again that they are not magic. Hole-size variation and overlapping holes lead to less than perfect results. On boards with lots of layout options on the bottom row, you will have problems and likely end up soldering some switches in, simply because the through-holes are squished or don't have enough surrounding material to properly seat the socket. Depending on the hole, the latter problem can sometimes be overcome by soldering the socket in. That depends entirely on the hole and your skill at that sort of thing.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you want to socket support for alternate layouts as well, you need more sockets. That sounds stupidly obvious, but I was stupid enough to not take that into account in my first attempt.

When, part II

This will close in a week, at 11:59pm PDT 2017.03.20. The order will then be made.

There is some uncertainty on when the full order will be shipped; if nobody beats us to stock on-hand, a partial shipment will be shipped immediately, with the rest coming from upstream. They won't commit to timing for that, so I won't either. They publish a lead-time of 10 weeks, but verbally indicated more like two is typical.

I will ship as soon as is reasonable after I get them. I'll give all participants a number, which will be on a Google spreadsheet with order info and status. I'll update here with any meaningful movement, changes, or when long, annoying philosophical screeds spring to mind.

Shipping will be tracked. I'm collecting $5 for US tracked shipping, which includes a bit against packing materials. Any leftover funds will be donated to Geekhack. Additionally, I will add Paypal fees.

I'll at least post weekly musings, or real status updates if I have it, in this thread until we're done.

So there we are.




Questions asked via PM, answered here for reference:

Q: Can the sockets be removed and reused?

A. First, I'm no expert. This is newish to me, too. It depends, but with the switch sockets, you can generally remove them. On some PCBs, the holes are big enough that these are loose, and won't work unless soldered. If you solder them, then of course they're harder to remove.

As far as reusing them, it is possible. They are a little delicate, so I'd expect some to end up ruined if you do that. I've ruined a few just installing them.

The LED sockets are more fragile; I think the same applies, only more so.

Q: How much per hundred?

A: If we hit 20K pieces for switches, which the IC suggests we will, they will be $19 per hundred for switches. The LEDs sockets will most likely be $13.10 per hundred for LEDs.

Q: What about international shipping?

A: Working on getting a firm price. I suspect tracked international shipping will make the pricing less attractive unless you're ordering a ton of these.