Hardware: none
Packaging: 122
Dave Evans, Bill Lapson, Dean Hovey, Doug Dayton, Bill Dresselhaus
There are no great worries about the mouse at this time. The greatest risk is in the manufacturability of some very intricate parts from hard tool injection molding; however, the current schedule still looks very doable.
The RFT characteristics of the cable cannot be firmly identified prior to specifying materials for the first production run. The unshielded cable is expected to be fine but could be found to cause problems in future testing.
1. Completed assembly and test of 25 prototype units per schedule.
2. Defined and completed the "P3" interim mouse design with soft tooled exterior for February delivery.
3. Completed detailed production review of mouse project with POS Engineering and Production groups, Peripherals, and Hovey-Kelley. 4. Finalized all exterior shape design modifications (including aesthetic confirmation model).
5. Completed confirmation model of production mouse internals (ribcage etc.).
6. Initiated manufacturing engineering review of production mouse design; one improvement in case anchoring already implemented.
7. Formed production team in Peripherals Division for P3 and Production mouse manufacturing.
8. Reviewed P3 design and reduced total parts cost from approximately $100 to $50.
9. Selected molding vendors for exterior and ribcage.
10. Initiated training of Peripherals production team in assembly procedures.
11. Completed initial draft of mouse testing procedure.
12. Began coding of prototype quality assurance test program on Apple II.
13. Developed detailed schedule for development and build schedule.
14. Received commitment from Peripherals to meet or beat Lisa build rate.
15. Completed preliminary discussions regarding shielded cables; predicted unnecessary.
16. Identified new source for clamping connector for cable.
17. Qualified TRW as supplier for emitters and detectors.
It all came together for the mouse in the last two months. A tremendous amount of focus was brought to bear from POS engineering and materials, and the response from Peripherals and Hovey-Kelley has eliminated the large majority of uncertainties.
In order to meet the predicted Lisa build schedule, a production plan had to be put in place and the design had to be solid with all drawings ready for construction. These tasks were all accomplished, and the P3 design occurred as a necessity to provide volume production of "saleable" mice prior to the June/July timeframe. Since the P3 mice will be made from soft tooled parts, a new design checkpoint has been introduced to further confirm the mouse design.
All purchasing and assembly of mice will be done out of the Bubb Rd facility by Apple Peripherals people with initial supervision from Hovey-Kelley. Once assembly is completely debugged, second sources for manufacture will be evaluated. POS will maintain design review and acceptance responsibility.
There was a good deal of discussion regarding the need for a shielded mouse cable for RFT purposes. No test data is currently available since the RFT group is overloaded with Apple II, III issues. The consensus was that by regrouping the traces on the motherboard, the need for shielding could be avoided. The cable for the P3 mice will be unshielded; however, actual test data is needed to confirm this point prior to releasing the production design and Bill of Materials.
The possibilities for a logo on the mouse are also being worked on.
1. Finalization of all production design drawings.
2. Production of 50 acceptable P3 mice.
3. Completion of logo design in the Lisa "logo system".
4. Publish test specification for review.
5. Complete final tests of confirmation model to release drawings to vendors.
6. Design a label for bottom of mouse.
At this stage, virtually all the custom pieces are single sourced by small suppliers who each represent a "critical" resource should they go down for any reason. No such problems are presently foreseen.
All necessary resources are currently in place at Apple to meet the near-term objectives.
(see attached)
P3 Design: $100.00 (includes amortization of soft tooling,
may be lower)
Production Mouse: $37.00
[Note: These two pages were attached to the original memo.]
