availabilty of boards for larger orders?

P

pqov

Member
Hi -- I'm totally new to this microcontroller world, so this will be a dumb question :) --

Looking at the avialability on the website, it seems like the Teensy boards might be similar to Raspberry Pi's in the sense that they aren't always easy to come by?

I'm putting together a tech package for a client and considering the Teensy platform for it... how hard would it be to get on the order of 50-100 boards? Is that something that can be figured out by talking with PJRC? Or maybe it's easy to get this many in general?

This wouldn't be likely to be a recurring thing, just a one-time purchase, and if some lead time is needed that would probably be OK... I just want to get a sense for the general availability before we commit to a platform.

When a board is obsoleted by newer tech, is it the case that they are no longer available? So we would need to buy any backup replacement boards we needed in advance to avoid getting caught with no supply?

Thanks!
 
First, quick disclaimer - this message isn't a promise or guarantee.

In normal times (before 2022), you could just order 50 or 100 of any Teensy and it would usually ship within 1 day. But right now we're in the middle of a global semiconductor shortage. Most Teensy models are out of stock. When we do get chips, it's usually not enough to meet all demand, so they run out of stock until more chips arrive, repeating over and over.

Today Teensy 4.1 is the only model in stock. If you order 100, it should ship within a couple days. Teensy 4.0 should be back in early December, or maybe even the last week of November if we get lucky with timing. For the first 2-3 weeks, we'll probably have a limit of 2 to 10 per person. We did this a month ago when Teensy 4.1 returned and it worked out pretty well.

People at NXP are helping us to get more chips. I'm optimistic we'll have enough to keep Teensy 4.0 in stock until at least mid-February. More chips for Teensy 4.1 are also arriving in a couple months, so if we run out (probably Nov-Dec time frame) we should have plenty more coming in January. Again, this isn't a promise or guarantee, only my best guess based on the info we've heard from NXP about when they will deliver more chips.

Beyond February is harder to predict. But we have some rather vague assurances from people at NXP that the supply of chips for Teensy 4.0 and 4.1 is expected to be strong.

Sadly, the news isn't nearly as good for the older Teensy models. We do have some Teensy LC and Teensy 3.5 in production now. But they are not very large batches and more chips aren't expected for many months. It's very likely Teensy LC, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6 will keep suffering shortages throughout 2023.
 
Thanks for that solid information, Paul -- very helpful. And thanks for doing what you can in trying circumstances. :)
 
Eventually the semiconductor market should recover and things will return to how they were before, maybe even much better as the many fabs being built now start churning out chips. If a lot of new fabs are built with 20 nm and smaller, we could have a hard-to-imagine future where 1 GHz microcontrollers with extravagant peripherals have smaller dies and end up cheaper than 8 bit 16 MHz and 32 bit 100 MHz microcontrollers.
 
Good news on Teensy 3.5. Production is going well and expected about 1 week earlier than originally planned. We should start shipping by Nov 2nd. I've updated the web page, which previously said Nov 8.

We will open it up to pre-orders, probably with a limit of 10 or 20 per person, around Oct 28. If they're not all completely sold out after a week or so, we'll relax or remove the quantity limit.
 
PaulStoffregen said:
If a lot of new fabs are built with 20 nm and smaller, we could have a hard-to-imagine future where 1 GHz microcontrollers with extravagant peripherals have smaller dies and end up cheaper than 8 bit 16 MHz and 32 bit 100 MHz microcontrollers.
Click to expand...
Even simple parts like voltage regulators and sensors are often made in QFN, very difficult to solder. And when those parts will come in ballgrid it's over for every amateur.
 
Yea this sucks.
We designed a whole host of (quite complicated) 3.2 based PCBs for our business, and then they disappeared from stock just before we did a big order.
Been waiting for them to come back, but they are not likely to return to in a realistic timescale now I doubt.

We have had to look at redesigning with other options. I had hoped to use the 4.1, but I am not sure they are going to be available (in the hundreds) either
 
PaulStoffregen said:
sWe do have some Teensy LC and Teensy 3.5 in production now. But they are not very large batches and more chips aren't expected for many months. It's very likely Teensy LC, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6 will keep suffering shortages throughout 2023.
Click to expand...


Just curious, if you know, what is affecting the production for the Kinetis chips? Is it a production/manufacturing problem, or is it a demand problem?

I've got thousands of MK20 chips on backorder since April 2021 :eek:
 
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