Finally: Digitalrooster Mk3b

I hesitated quite some time to place a new order with PCBway. The design was ready in May but component cost have gone way up since last November. Some parts cost more than double.

But when my friend told me some of his friends are also interested in DigitalRooster it was time to go ahead fast. PCBway was quick, I only ordered 8 assemblies. Which in hindsight might have been an error, it looks they hand-soldered again instead of using a pick-and-place. DigitalRooster is ready for adventurous makers to use it and abuse it!

I am happy to see the there is interest in digitalrooster. I would not have expected that. I tested the assemblies I keep for further development and sent out the others to some friends for analysis. It seems there is no hardware bug so far.

Now is the time to prepare how to produce a larger batch and sell it on tindie.com. Turns out this raises some burocratic issues. Most bothering are VAT, or Mehrwertsteuer as we call it in Germany. When selling to a end customer it is pretty straight forward, I will charge 19% German VAT and give the tax to the german government. If I sell to a business the receive will pay the VAT. Unfortunately Tindie does not have the option to state a price without VAT - the tindie-price incldudes VAT.

Fine for the private customer, confusing for the business customer, annoying for me: Tindie charges 5% sales fee + 3-4% payment processing fee on the total price including shipping. This means Tindie charges fee on taxes - not sure how I will do the accounting for this. I will have to ask.

I also have no clear idea on packaging and shipping. Apparently Corona Virus affects the postal service. DHL now does no longer ship “Päckchen XS” i.e. small packages to the US. This drives shipping costs beyond reasonable…

https://www.dhl.de/de/privatkunden/kampagnenseiten/coronavirus.html#usa