WANTED: Cheap Famiclone keyboard unit

[DHrox]

Hey all,

I was referred to this forum because I'm trying to find a working keyboard Famiclone. Does anyone have one that they'd be willing to part with? I'm trying to get one to use in the Playpower project. Thanks!

[UglyJoe]

MakerShed sells one for $30, but it seems to be out of stock at the moment:

http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKPP1

[MS-DOS4]

I need to buy one of these, too.

From the reviews, it looks like that particular unit has bad keyboard problems.

[DHrox]

MakerShed sells one for $30, but it seems to be out of stock at the moment:

http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKPP1

Yeah, that was why I came here. They are *officially* sold out. Evidently, they still have some in them warehouse, but when I asked how to buy it, I never got a response. I heard there is someone around here that can get these systems though? Am I wrong about that?

[Trenton_net]

The problem with stocking edutainment famiclones is the shipping costs. Because of their size, unless you ship a full container of them, it will be really expensive.

How soon/desperate are you in terms of getting a unit?

I don't recommend it, but if your really out of options I could probably get a Subor unit from China for you. It would probably be expensive, no real way to guarantee all the keys work (No way to accept returns), nor any guarantee that it runs on NTSC, and it would take weeks to arrive but it is an option.

[MS-DOS4]

I personally would be interested in that... But... How expensive are we talking about?

[Trenton_net]

Pretty expensive. Because it wouldn't be in bulk, probably like $69 per unit without factoring in shipping which would be equally bad. Unless you have no alternatives, I wouldn't recommend it.

It might be cheaper if you want a keyboard without the software (this one comes fully loaded), and more expensive if you want a 16-bit version keyboard. But it really depends on availability as I'd have to hunt for a supplier.

[DHrox]

I'm trying to hunt around from some contacts to see how much shipping is for different systems. I know shipping is going to absolutely kill me here, but I don't have much of an option. And thanks for the offer Trent, and i agree that that would be an absolute last-ditch effort. (It'd probably cost me as much as my pre-order of the Starcraft 2 LE pack.)

[Trenton_net]

Ya. It's kind of a rip. It might be cheaper, I'm just ball parking the figures because I don't know how much it would cost after finding a supplier in China, shipping, and paying off all the people who want their cut of the pie. And that's not counting the shipping to the actual person who wanted the unit in the first place (--_--)>

[DHrox]

I heard from Derek Lomas of Playpower that minimum order for these things is like 1-2,000. Either that, or a ridiculously high order, but this is for custom units (he's trying to get the 72-pin slot installed to make programming for the system easier). Does anyone know what the minimum order from the manufacturers is?

[Trenton_net]

Hrm... If your buying stock units, unless they are "samples", expect to buy around 1000pcs before they'll even work with you. If you get lucky, you might get away with 500pcs, but thats pushing it.

How many people aside from the two that I know of are interested in getting a keyboard? I made some hard inquiries and provided enough people want one (to make it cost feasible), I might be able to snag them at around $49 per unit for people.

However that wouldn't include shipping, which would be steep because they wont' ship directly to people. I'd have to receive them and then ship them out again to each person (>_<)! I think it has something to do with trust because they don't want to get busted for selling pirated software/hardware or something.

[DHrox]

Maybe there should be some kind of separate thread for a request or something.

[MS-DOS4]

This is a request thread....

[DHrox]

This is a request thread....

I meant a mass request thread, not just for one or two people.

[UglyJoe]

I don't think a mass request thread is going to stir up enough interest to order 500 units.