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  Due to the mountain of items we have on hand to be drawn, and re-drawn - - and due to the minuscule amount of interest in our work, we are no longer drawing items for customers, except under one of the following three conditions:

1) UNCOMMON INTEREST: If we have had a lot of requests for an item, even though it is not on our want list, we will draw the item for you free of charge, and pick up the shipping back to you. You will get a clear copy.

2) GIFT TO US: If you really want a print of something, and send the item to us without wanting it back, we will draw it free for charge (as our time permits - - it may take us weeks to get at it). You will get a clear copy.

3) UNDER CONTRACT: If you want something reverse engineered, drawn up, and are willing to pay us to do the job, please read on. You will have to pick up the shipping both ways, and pay us for our time, as shown below, however, you WILL get the dreaded clear copy of the work.

  Our basic rates are $20.00 an hour for the rough-out, clean-up, and final draft work. It has been out experience that it takes roughly the same amount of time for rough-out and draft stages on simple circuits. Clean-up depends entirely on the complexity of the circuitry, and may not even be needed. Should the customer desire only a rough-out of the circuit, only this stage would be charged for.
Should BOMARC believe the circuit is unique, or interesting enough to be put in our catalog for sake, only the rough-out stage would be charged for. Mostly these items would be either on our want list, or items similar to the stuff we already have in our catalogs. Items put into our catalog HAVE to be complete units, not bits and pieces. If the customer insists the item NOT be placed in the catalog, all three stages will be paid for (about double the cost to customer).

  It is difficult to estimate the time involved with reverse engineering a circuit, as many variables enter into the picture. A simple one-sided circuit board with 8-16 pin I.C.s could roughly be figured at 15 minutes per chip. Double sided boards would run twice that (30 min or so). Add time if a lot of analog circuitry is involved. Multi-layer boards, unless the only layers are ground and/or voltage planes, multiply the time grossly! Surface mounted boards, unless all is wanted is the basic interconnections, take much more time, as the chip components have to be removed to read values. (Normally, unless the customer does not want the item back, or doesn't care if it works or not, we do not remove chip capacitors for measurement, as the are almost always broken in doing so. Resistors, we usually DO dismount, if they are soldered in upside down, and the codes can not be read). In-house chips take time to figure out and potted boards or areas also slow down the process.

  It is best to call BLOB at (307)234-3488, and make a thorough description of the unit, to get us a better handle on the time involved, what we want to know is:

HOW MANY CHIPS?

KIND OF CHIPS? (PGA, DIPP, SIPP, GLUE, MEMORY, COMPUTER, etc.)

ARE MAJORITY OF CHIPS REAL-WORLD, OR IN-HOUSE NUMBERED?

APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGE OF ANALOG STUFF?

TYPE OF BOARD? (SINGLE LAYER, DOUBLE SIDED, OR MULTI-LAYER, AND IS IT TRANSLUCENT, OR OPAQUE?)

ARE THE CHIPS SOCKETED, OR SOLDERED TO THE BOARD?

IF SOLDERED, ARE THEY STANDING A BIT ABOVE THE BOARD, OR SMASHED DOWN ON IT PLUMB? (The reason we ask about this is so we know if we can look at a chip pin against the light, and see if a trace takes off and goes back under the chip. If the board is opaque, or the chip is down touching the board, or in a socket, we can not tell this, and that slows us down. If we can SEE a trace under the chip, we can trace it down, but if we don't know it's there, we have to assume there may be one, and hunt laboriously for it!)

ANY POTTED, OR HERMETICALLY SEALED MODULES?

ANY THICK, OR THIN FILM EPOXY COATED COUPLATES?

ANY METAL R.F. MODULES? (These usually have to be removed, opened, and reverse engineered as separate units).

ANY FOUNDLING ITEMS (keypads, displays, sub-boards, etc.) HANGING OFF MAIN BOARD, VIA UNCONNECTABLE MEANS? (hard-wired, soldered ribbon cables, etc.)

  With the above information, as well as experience from a similar past project (if any), we can maybe give you a rough "ball park" figure of how much it will cost to draw the item.

  Shipping to us can be either parcel post, or UPS (a different address applies to each). We prefer to ship back the unit via UPS. It seems to take around 7 days to ship from this area to either coast, so take this into account. If you choose to send us an item via PARCEL POST, use our box number (always use this for correspondence as well) P.O. Box 1113 Casper, Wyoming, 82602. If you choose to use U.P.S. to send us something, use BRYAN-EVANSVILLE ROAD, CASPER, WYOMING 82609. In ALL cases, we will need the BRAND NAME, and MODEL NUMBER of the item you send. Also, if this has to be shipped back to you, what amount of insurance do you want us to use?

  Normally, the only items we will remove from a circuit would be one end of a diode, precision resistor, or tubular capacitor, in the event the number is hidden. In the event of in-house I.C.s, or those with the numbers removed, and if our bag of tricks won't bring these numbers back, we may remove the chip to run tests on it. The chances of our damaging the circuit in these events is very slim, so for a normal board, it is unlikely the device will be any different when it gets back to you, than it was when we received it.
  In the case of potted modules or areas, the chance for damage is very great! While we have had good luck so far in not damaging a circuit beyond repair, we would not recommend drawing any potted circuit unless the customer does not care whether it works after the draw, or not! Another problem area is the computer items using battery backing. We can almost certainly guarantee a memory dump in the process of reverse engineering, so caveat emptor!
  If your board has MOS chips, we use wrist straps while working with it, however we prefer to work on junk, or damaged boards since static damages is always a possibility.
  Any “only rough-out” requested will be sloppy, and definitely not arranged neatly, however they will be readable, have parts values marked, and all wiring will at least be connected. Drafts will be cleaned up, and drawn with tools. Power supply voltages will be shown (if the item is in working condition), and sometimes we show pertinent waveforms. We try not to cover any more than two sheets of paper with a discreet circuit. If more sheets are required, we try to break the circuit up into easily understandable sections.

  All work done has to be done by appointment only. Do NOT send an item to be drawn out of the blue, unless you are prepared to wait until we have the time to dig into it. To describe your circuit, or get any further information about our service, call BLOB at (307)234-3488 Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM till 2:00 PM, or 3:00 PM till 6:00 PM, Saturday from 11:00 AM till 2:00 PM Mountain Time Zone (shown on clock at top of page!) Be prepared to discuss the information we need, listed under TIME.

Our normal sequence is as follows.

1) You send us an item.

2) We tear down and rough-out the item.

2.5) We draft the item (if we go this far)

3) We keep a record of our time in 1/2 hour chunks on the invoice.

4) We make our an invoice and send you a preliminary copy of same with the drawn item.

5) You send us a check, or money order for the invoice amount, drawn on a US bank in US funds.

6) We send the final invoice copy, and one or more clear copy sets of prints to you.

  In the event you are not paying for the draw, we send the clear copy prints to you when we have the item finished, either with, or without the item, depending on whether or not we are required to send it back to you, or not (See ACCEPTANCE section above).

PLEASE NOTE: PRICES AND CONDITIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME.