Sorry for the delay folks, I forgot about this
one.
Thanks for the reminder, Ken and you're
absolutely right. A customer doesn't have to upgrade firmware or RAM to
copy a 128KB Memory Card. They have to do four insertions for each card,
but it still works. If they wanted a one pass copy, and a 1.94 version was
available with this feature, then they would only need to upgrade the RAM and
the ROMs, but not the Smartwatch Chip.
But if a customer wants the 2.0 version of firmware, they will
have to upgrade the RAM, the ROMs, and the Smartwatch Chip because the Version
2.0 firmware uses 32 pin ROM chips instead of the standard 28 pin ROM chips and
Version 2.0 will probably expect 128KB RAM chips to be installed.
If a customer wanted to upgrade an
Infra-red Accu-Vote to 2.0 they would need to purchase the
following:
Qty
Description
1 - DS1216-F SmartWatch
Chip (32 pin socket)
We're currently selling the new chip (which is more expensive)
at the same price ($35.00) as the old Smartwatch but that will change.
They will probably be charged out at $45.00 to $50.00, but that's up to Howard
and Larry.
2 - 128KB
SRAM
Chip
They currently go for $25.00 each
1 - 2.00 ROM Chip
Set
We've never charged for ROM upgrades in the past but that has
got to change.(See "My two cents worth" below)
If a customer wanted to upgrade a
Visible Light Accu-Vote to 2.0 they would need to purchase the same as the above
but minus the 128KB RAM Chips (those are already
installed).
THIS PRICING IS A GUESSIMATE FOR YOUR
INFORMATION ONLY. DO NOT QUOTE PRICES TO CUSTOMERS UNTIL LARRY AND HOWARD
HAVE SET AN UPGRADE PRICE. WHEN THE UPGRADE PACKAGE PRICE IS AVAILABLE, I
WILL POST IT.
Here's my two cents worth:
I believe that as long as we have a stable firmware level
(1.94w looks good so far) for the current Infra-red configuration (i.e., 32KB
RAM and Old SmartWatch Chip) and the Visible Light configuration (i.e., 128KB
RAM and Old Smartwatch Chip), then we can supply them with a free upgrade of
that firmware (say 1.94w) to fix the bugs they experience with their current
firmware.
But when it comes to the new features of 2.0, the customer
should pay an upgrade fee that will have to cover the material and installation
costs and generate some reasonable
profit (remember our mission statement? That's why
we're in this business). We've been giving our firmware away since the
dawn of Global. With this stable version (1.94w) under
our belts to satisfy existing customers, I believe we can start to generate some
revenue by selling the new versions (2.0).
Who knows, maybe we can start covering some of the costs of
the software development.
(Oops. Sorry about that, I just had a momentary lapse of
common business sense).
Ian