community.st.com

[harald]

Posted on February 17, 2017 at 11:04

ST politics about VL53l0X

Hy ST,

in a customers project I deal with the VL53l0X quite a bit, we have a nice prototype up and running and are about to decide if we want to start designing a series device.

Ever once in a while I look into this forum and follow the discussion about the device and come to the conclusion, that ST is not very willing to provide further informations about the insides and usage of the device.

The thread

https://community.st.com/0D50X00009XkeHcSAJ

nails it down very nice.

Can anyone of ST maybe give some information about the politics around VL53l0X? Will there be a better support of the device in the future? Is it running in high volume already? Was it designed for one target application and no other user or project is supported? We probably must take the response to these questions into our decision of the series product.

Best regards

Harald

null

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on March 03, 2017 at 20:30

I don't work for ST, but let me sum up complex chip level support in today's economy : If you aren't doing at least $1M in volume you are basically a burden who will absorb more engineering resources than you will pay for. The allocation of resources will scale with volume.

Once you understand this dynamic, the ability to access trade secret and business sensitive information about devices under NDA will become clearer.

Engineering resources are expensive, devices may have a primary driver of volume, they may transition to a newer/better device within 18-month cycles, taking fab resources, focus, and cost carrying with them. Unless you are nimble, and willing to spin designs on similar cycles some parts may be effectively EoL before you deploy or reach escape velocity.

Obtaining technical information is predicated on your business relationship and direct contact with the sales organization, not via social media. People bound by an NDA aren't going to talk to you on public forums.

[harald]

Posted on March 03, 2017 at 21:20

Of course you are right. I am in the business since 20 years and still have the naive idea, that even small customers are worth of support, maybe because of my own experience as FAE and third level support back at my last employment. Now, working in my small 6 persons company, if all goes well buying 10,000 pieces of one IC, I can't expect much support. Still, why makes ST me feel, that they are interested in all customers? The VL53L0x was on st.com main page for over a month, the 'STM32 Fans EW2017 Contest' is obviously not made for large international corporations but for makers or enthusiasts. That made me think that st might be interested in the small creative minds as well. Apparently I was wrong. But what the heck, my device works well, what else would I want?

Thanks for your repsonse anyway

Regards, Harald

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on March 03, 2017 at 22:00

The nature of the business has changed in the last decade or so, and the choice of what to manufacture has become less speculative. The niche products derive scale from large customers (Apple, Electrolux, etc), the STM32 is general purpose and has a much larger user base which also helps it scale. This also why you see the 20-year commitment type thing there, and you're much less likely to see similar things with products that evolve in-step with the phone and tablet vendors generational advances.

The maker stuff is still more of a long term play in my opinion, hearts and minds, rather than immediate product up take. The low cost boards and mash-up methodology has replaced the expensive evaluation board model on the business side.

* Consolidation, bankruptcy, natural disasters, equipment failure, migration of fab capacity to high volume, high margin consumer products, etc. Chips built to order, not warehoused for decades. Engineering support not funded by thin margins, customers expected to bare costs of their own engineering/development, or pay-to-play.