Why did we start this forum? Here's my story
Sept 29, 2022 4:36:31 GMT
Kurt Friday, Jordan Nelson, and 1 more like this
Post by johnwu130 on Sept 29, 2022 4:36:31 GMT
Hey follow NI hardware user,
This is John Wu, one of the forum moderators. You've probably found this forum via google, linkedin, facebook, etc, and I'll bet you're probably wondering, why did we start this forum? Here's my anecdotal story:
So I do system integration using LabVIEW to make a living, for the most part. I've known and used LabVIEW for a long time, have a CLA certification, full disclosure I even worked at NI for a long time, so it's natural for me to use lots of NI hardware. Typically I might need to purchase NI hardware for a customer project, or I might buy some just to play around with, or I might stock some for a rainy day, any or all of the above.
Anyways, COVID hit in 2020 and everything went sideways. Lead times from NI was long due to silicon shortages, but my company had already committed to several customer projects that required NI hardware. Our orders were in the NI queue, but the delivery date kept getting pushed back. From a business standpoint, if we can't deliver the solution to the customer, we don't get paid! Of course, there was still company overhead and salaries to be paid.
We negotiated with our customers to see if they could give us extensions ... some could, but others had a hard deadline. Customers understood that it really wasn't our fault that the lead-times were long, but they still needed at least the prototype system to be validated. So we picked up the phone, and called everyone locally we knew, and asked "hey do you have a cRIO-90XX? Do you have a PXI-88XX?" As you can imagine, what are the chances of people having a spare cRIO or PXI at their company? And exactly the model you're looking for? Yeah, slim to none.
We turned to ebay and even Taobao to try our luck. We did buy a few pieces of hardware from ebay, some worked, but some didn't unfortunately. Another peculiar thing we noticed, some ebay listings from multiple sellers in China even had the exact same product pictures? Hmm we couldn't be sure if they were legit? Fake accounts?
Well, as we exhausted our local contacts in Taiwan (Taiwan is a relatively small country with a relatively small LabVIEW user base), I decided to try my luck by reaching out to people in the global LabVIEW community for NI hardware. I really did get lucky one time, a fellow in Brazil had a module that I needed, I asked him if he was willing to sell to me and offered a price, he said OK, and that was that!
So anyways, long story short, it is with this motivation that I joined Kurt Friday (one of our other moderators, we met on linkedin as well) to create this forum. Who knows? Somebody somewhere out there in world might have exactly what you need. On the flip side, you may also have unused NI hardware laying around from previous projects, canceled projects, etc. One man's surplus is another man's treasure! Hence, the NI Trading Post offers you:
• An alternative to regular NI sales channels (which may have ridiculous lead-times due to silicon shortage)
• An alternative to Ebay and Taobao (where sellers have no idea about the condition of the NI part or where it’s been used)
• A place to locate hard-to-find and obsolete NI parts
• A place where you can find a new home for your beloved NI hardware, as the next person will appreciate it just as much as you!
Who knows? Maybe one day there won't be any more shortages, and ... this forum will become dry. Well, that would be good in some respect. As long as everyone can find and get their hands on what they need, I would be happy. But my guess is that even in times with plentiful stock, having secondary sources would still give you an extra level of flexibility.
For members who join, we would love to hear your feedback!
This is John Wu, one of the forum moderators. You've probably found this forum via google, linkedin, facebook, etc, and I'll bet you're probably wondering, why did we start this forum? Here's my anecdotal story:
So I do system integration using LabVIEW to make a living, for the most part. I've known and used LabVIEW for a long time, have a CLA certification, full disclosure I even worked at NI for a long time, so it's natural for me to use lots of NI hardware. Typically I might need to purchase NI hardware for a customer project, or I might buy some just to play around with, or I might stock some for a rainy day, any or all of the above.
Anyways, COVID hit in 2020 and everything went sideways. Lead times from NI was long due to silicon shortages, but my company had already committed to several customer projects that required NI hardware. Our orders were in the NI queue, but the delivery date kept getting pushed back. From a business standpoint, if we can't deliver the solution to the customer, we don't get paid! Of course, there was still company overhead and salaries to be paid.
We negotiated with our customers to see if they could give us extensions ... some could, but others had a hard deadline. Customers understood that it really wasn't our fault that the lead-times were long, but they still needed at least the prototype system to be validated. So we picked up the phone, and called everyone locally we knew, and asked "hey do you have a cRIO-90XX? Do you have a PXI-88XX?" As you can imagine, what are the chances of people having a spare cRIO or PXI at their company? And exactly the model you're looking for? Yeah, slim to none.
We turned to ebay and even Taobao to try our luck. We did buy a few pieces of hardware from ebay, some worked, but some didn't unfortunately. Another peculiar thing we noticed, some ebay listings from multiple sellers in China even had the exact same product pictures? Hmm we couldn't be sure if they were legit? Fake accounts?
Well, as we exhausted our local contacts in Taiwan (Taiwan is a relatively small country with a relatively small LabVIEW user base), I decided to try my luck by reaching out to people in the global LabVIEW community for NI hardware. I really did get lucky one time, a fellow in Brazil had a module that I needed, I asked him if he was willing to sell to me and offered a price, he said OK, and that was that!
So anyways, long story short, it is with this motivation that I joined Kurt Friday (one of our other moderators, we met on linkedin as well) to create this forum. Who knows? Somebody somewhere out there in world might have exactly what you need. On the flip side, you may also have unused NI hardware laying around from previous projects, canceled projects, etc. One man's surplus is another man's treasure! Hence, the NI Trading Post offers you:
• An alternative to regular NI sales channels (which may have ridiculous lead-times due to silicon shortage)
• An alternative to Ebay and Taobao (where sellers have no idea about the condition of the NI part or where it’s been used)
• A place to locate hard-to-find and obsolete NI parts
• A place where you can find a new home for your beloved NI hardware, as the next person will appreciate it just as much as you!
Who knows? Maybe one day there won't be any more shortages, and ... this forum will become dry. Well, that would be good in some respect. As long as everyone can find and get their hands on what they need, I would be happy. But my guess is that even in times with plentiful stock, having secondary sources would still give you an extra level of flexibility.
For members who join, we would love to hear your feedback!