Quote from: ryepdx on July 23, 2013, 04:23:59 PM

Things are starting to look better today. Yesterday I managed to get in contact with a vendor on Alibaba who said they can supply the chips within 7 to 10 days, and then later Steamboat messaged me to offer some of his chips. I think we're covered. If both of those fall through, then any K16s beyond the first 90 will be most likely stuck in the queue until August 21st, when the PICs from Microchip should finally come in.

I'll be putting my own order at the back of the line until we've got all the PICs we need. I think it's a business's duty to do whatever is in its power to make sure its customers are not left with the short end of the stick, and that's exactly what I intend to do here.

This is very good to hear. I wish I had the confidence in ragingazn628 that I do in this group.

In my opinion: certainly pursue the Alibaba option (since it's probably cheaper) - but don't take their commit dates for granted.

If Steamboat has chips in hand, I would trust his offer much more than I'd trust something on Alibaba. Better to snap it up if he's made a reasonable offer - it'd be quite unfortunate to be stuck without PICs because somebody in China didn't ship on time.

If Microchip didn't come through, then Alibaba seems risky. That's probably where Microchip gets THEIR chips...