Global chip shortage  

RE: Global chip shortage

Does the global chip shortage effect Prusa production?

The current production doesn't use any very sophisticated chips so probably not.  As for the new models in the pipeline, until Prusa release more details we won't know.

PS I tried to search for this issue on the forum but was not able to find a search option. Is there one?

There is a search icon at top right of the forum pages - but the search isn't very good; it's often easier to use one of the major search engines.

Cheerio,

RE: Global chip shortage

The thing that impacts Prusa more than anything else is demand, they simply cannot make them fast enough.

The lead time for all Prusa products has held pretty consistent, even considering the global pandemic,

As diem says, it is mostly PC GPU's and other complex components that are being hit hard by the shortage.

RE: Global chip shortage

Actually thats not quite correct.  All manner of embedded chips are being hit, with more to come.  Not just the high end ones. 

Manufacturers rejigged their production capacity during the pandemic early stages to change production lines over for other chips designed to build mass production items.  This led to the initial drop in the availability of the specialised chips for specific customers.  However there were also problems with the supply chains of the raw materials need to produce ANY type of chip.  This along with juggling production capacity around to try and serve many different sectors that all now have increased demand above what they normally want has resulted in trickle down effects to the whole supply chain for all chips.

The whole industry pretty much operates on Just In Time supply with no one really holding great stocks at any one time.  This is proving to be a costly mistake and those 3rd party distributors that did hold some stock have now made a killing.  No one can keep up with current demand.  Estimates put a conservative minimum of 6 months for things to settle down with others estimating much longer periods.

It all depends on what Prusa's board manufacturer keeps in stock normally.  I can tell you that very few companies are actually advertising the supply issues they are having.

RE: Global chip shortage

@diem

Thanks. I found the search option!

RE: Global chip shortage

Hi all,

Thanks for all your replies.

I ordered the pre-built Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ on 04/19/2021.
On 05/03/2021 I received an email telling me that there are no problems with my order and it is going through the production process and will be shipped according to the lead time stated on the product page upon purchase.

So, apparently, and for the time being, the global chip shortage is of no consequence!

RE: Global chip shortage

Posted by: @keesmod

Hi all,

Thanks for all your replies.

I ordered the pre-built Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ on 04/19/2021.
On 05/03/2021 I received an email telling me that there are no problems with my order and it is going through the production process and will be shipped according to the lead time stated on the product page upon purchase.

So, apparently, and for the time being, the global chip shortage is of no consequence!

I ordered mine on 13th April, and I recieved it yesterday with the standard (aka slow) shipping 🙂

RE: Global chip shortage

The upcoming 3.10.0 firmware for the MK3 series is going to address this issue; it adds support for a different brand of external flash chip, so new EINSY RAMBo boards can be made with either chip present, and not affect the user experience. I presume that the new boards will ship with the new firmware on board by default, otherwise they wouldn't be able to operate the chip that lets you flash the new firmware 😀

RE: Global chip shortage

I am seeing this shortage effecting many lines of products we use in medicine.  It would not surprise me that it hinder Prusa.  

RE: Global chip shortage

Posted by: @matt-2

The upcoming 3.10.0 firmware for the MK3 series ...

(Checks RSS feed notification pop-up) Ahem - I mean the *newly released* 3.10.0 firmware for the MK3 series... 😊