Impact of global semiconductor shortage

As many already have noticed, there is a global semiconductor shortage. Many common integrated circuits such as the ATMEGA328P-AU processor featured on most of my SDI-12 USB adapters are simply out of stock for the foreseeable future or until later 2022.

As you can see, this is going to be a problem for many businesses big and small, including my line of SDI-12 USB adapters. Luckily I grabbed enough parts last year so I still have over 200 of them that will last for a short while before I run out.

Processors (200), USB chips (200), and 100 blank boards (boards can be reordered quickly) are photographed here. Hope this lasts for a while. If you are doing your own projects, unfortunately you won’t be able to purchase ATMEGA328P-AU or ATMEGA32U4-MU etc. until they are back in stock. Try the DIP version of 328P. They are still in stock.

As a response, I will temporarily focus on only producing the basic SDI-12 USB adapter and stop producing the SDI-12 USB + Analog adapter (red) that requires a processor. You CAN still get the hi-res analog features with a basic SDI-12 USB adapter and an analog input extension board. The combined cost is the same as the red adapter.

I can still produce the SDI-12 USB + GPS adapter although it is on low demand. If “worse comes to worse” and I run out before I can get restocked, I have over 100 ATMEGA1284P-AU processors that can be used to produce the SDI-12 USB + GPS adapter, just that I won’t attach any GPS and will sell those as basic SDI-12 adapters without extension ports. Or maybe I will redesign it to have an extension port.