As you may know, we are sold-out of our PandwaRF V3 boards since a long time now and I would like to share with you an update about the PandwaRF V4 production status (04 March 2022).
PCB & components
In April 2021, we received an alarming email from our MCU provider, announcing the end-of-life of the main component of the PandwaRF board 
. The reason was several components and materials required in the module assembly are discontinued. This was a direct effect of the Covid pandemics.
This was expected and we always new at some point we would have to make a new design for the PandwaRF boards. But the product discontinuity was effective almost immediately, so we had to quickly redesign a new PandwaRF with components more widely available.
New PandwaRF V4 boards
So we re-designed the HW, and the PandwaRF V4 was born, with new features like:
- Asynchronous mode (knowing the data rate is no more required when capturing data)
- More robust USB-C connector
- External power switch and buttons…
We started the design and all components were in-stock, but by the time we received pre-production samples and make HW & FW validation, once again many components were out of stock everywhere.
| NTR1P02T1G | Small Signal MOSFET 20V 1A 180 mOhm P-Channel SOT-23 |
| BSS84,215 | 60V 0,13A Single P-Channel HEXFET Power MOSFET SOT-23 |
| DMG1016V-7 | Mosfet Array N and P-Channel 20V 800mA (Ta), 720mA (Ta) 150mW (Ta) Surface Mount ES6 |
| 2N7002DW | 2 x n-ch, 1.6 Ohm, 60V, 0.115A |
| MCP73832T-2DCI/OT | Single-Cell Li-Ion/Li-Polymer Battery Charge Management Controllers 4,2 V 500 mA |
| LTC2941IDCB#TRMPBF | Battery Gas Gauge with I2C Interface |
| DD_AT25QF641B-MHB-T | NOR Flash 64 Mbit, 3.0V (2.7V to 3.6V), -40C to 85C, DFN 5×6 (Tape & Reel), Quad Enabled (Single, Dual, Quad) SPI NOR flash |
| MCP1711T-33I/OT | Linear Voltage Regulator IC Positive Fixed 1 Output 150mA SOT-23-5 |
As you can see, some of them are very basic ICs, like MOSFET. For these ones, we managed to find replacements quite easily.
But for more critical ICs, the ones that interact with firmware like Battery Charge Management Controller, I2C Battery Gas Gauge or SPI Flash memory, replacing the component by a new one would have caused some quite consequent rework of our FW.
So once again we had to struggle to find compatible components, and it ended up with changing for bigger components & adapting the PCB footprint.
The good news is that now all the components have been secured, and we are good to go with the board 
. Fingers crossed 
.
Battery
We still have stocks, but we are securing another batch of batteries, that should arrive to France by end of March. 
Enclosure
There is a huge delay also in manufacturing the PandwaRF enclosure. This is the last blocking point and we hope it will be resolved soon.
TL;DR
We initially planned to ship in March 2022, but we have to delay shipping to April 2022.
For backers
If you already pre-ordered your PandwaRF, you shall have received a Kaiju License key, that you can use right now in Kaiju if you want to.
Don’t worry about the Kaiju License expiration, we will extend it as many times as needed.
For PandwaRF V3 owners
We will continue to support all 6 variants of the PandwaRF V3 boards (Rev. D, DE, E, E4, F, F2) so rest assured your device will continue to receive bug fixes and as many FW improvements as possible.
Note also that PandwaRF V3 is fully compatible with Kaiju .
Djamil, ComThings & the PandwaRF team
