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Plasma Affected by Global Component Shortages

Component shortages 2022

It’s amazingly reassuring that MKS-70 and MKS-80 owners are so interested in the stuff that Guy Wilkinson and I have designed and built. Indeed, it's been a busy few days.

Pictured are three of Guy’s P0004 power supplies for the MKS-70, one of my Aurora power supplies for the MKS-80 and one of my Nebula output boards which gives the MKS-70 balanced outputs and upgraded MIDI hardware.

You may notice that there are a few components missing! Except for the nebula, the power supplies are currently unfinished!

It seems that it’s not just the likes of Mercedes Benz and Jaguar that are victims of the global component shortage. A few months ago, it was reported that Jaguar delivery times have increased by three or four months, due to issues precuring processors. Well, it seems that even passive components can be difficult to get hold of, at the moment.

The Y2 safety capacitors that I use on the power supplies have become really quite thin on the ground. When looking for alternatives to those originally specified, it’s not just the electrical characteristics that must match. The physical dimensions are also crucial as anything that’s a different size, would require a change of the board lay-out. Well, I’m pleased to tell people that they are finally on order, in stock and I’m expecting them any day. 😊

The keen-eyed will also notice a lack of one specific AC / DC converter. Well spotted! These are also on order and I’m hopeful that they’ll also be here shortly.

I still have a load of stuff to build for a MKS-70 that's just arrived from California and I'm in the middle of building and installing Fred Vecoven's PWM kit into another MKS-70.

I'm also arranging to meet a customer from Holland who's bringing over this slightly ill MKS-80.