Prototype circuit seized by USPS

I noticed from the tracking that the package arrived right on time. Onto the plane from my house the same night, off the plane, out for delivery.

If you work on a time-and-materials basis, it's the client's loss, not yours. Wiring up another one should take less than a day, right?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

More than a day, less than a week. It's a blob-board of something I'm likely going to get PCBs made for...he may just say he wants to wait for the finished product.

Sorry, brain damage.

Hopefully, it was sorted and inspected before it gets into the system. If not, that leaves UPS and DHL.

No indication that it was inspected or seized on the tracking info? I've never had that problem so I don't know if the tracking info includes such things.

I doubt it. You can order a jillion different bare electronic circuits on eBay, from China even.

Once upon a time a large number of Playboy magazines were damaged and lost in the US mail.

Have you looked at his photo? Please read what's printed on the inside of the container

(snip)

Damn! I'll bet you wish you had them back.

Seriously, what's that got to do with the OP's problem?

I never subscribed. I always preferred real women to pictures of women. I did know one Playmate, and she was sort of fake like the foldouts.

Can't you imagine?

LOL!

Still happens with car mags.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Only difference I can see is that those look "pro", and because this was constructed on perfboard and not a manufactured PCB, it looks "homemade."

Maybe some TV-watching postal worker thought they were going to be a hero.

Rare, but the threat of a visit from the postal inspectors may straighten it out (or not).

The exact note format would be telling in that case. Plastic bag is what I've gottent when things have gone pear shaped in the postal machinery. Also, don't put things in regular envelopes like screws etc.- they seem to run them between rollers and whatever it is gets e-squeezed out of a new hole at the edge.

--sp

Stuff happens. They had problems at a local sorting plant with birthday cards going missing (along with $100 bills from granny). Why you'd risk a cushy job like that for petty theft I'd not know.

--sp

Although there is much talk of photos, by OP, I see no link to same,in this thread. Perhaps you could include this link in any subsequent comment.

RL

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The bomb-parts thing is really more of a bugaboo- it's really about the l imitations of the automation in the USPS.

Never, no wait NEVER EVER use envelopes for any kind of hardware- the env elopes *will* be bent and squeezed by the letter-handling machinery which r oughly speaking comprises guide rails that hold envelopes vertically and sp aced powered rollers to move the envelopes.

Anything that doesn't feed easily *will* jam in the bends or rollers and is very likely to be damaged, minimally or catastrophically, not to mention damage other mail that gets jammed with it, and has to be handled literall y by hand. The contents can and do end up on the floor which may be anywher e from two to thirty feet below the machinery. That's why I mentioned floor

-sweepings; you'd be amazed how much stuff the USPS has to trash because th e envelopes that contained it are long gone by the time the floor gets swep t. And no, they do not have enough hands to track things as they clatter an d ping their way through the machinery and its supports to the floor.

Also, keep in mind that USPS-supplied boxes aren't really intended for th e uses we techy types put them to; they're designed for sending Grandma fra med graduation pics of the kids, stuff like that.

You want hardware to arrive in one piece via USPS, you get a box at least three times "too large" and brace the hell out of it with pieces of styrof oam and (*and*, not or) peanuts or use expanding foam. Make damn sure the c argo can't shift *at all* and while you're at it, do your level best to get the center-of-mass of the cargo centered in the box. If you don't the box will flip around like a Mexican jumping bean on the conveyors and the diver ters (also known as kick-outs- they move boxes from one belt to another acc ording to the box's label) can toss it right off the belt into the works or onto the dreaded floor.

I don't want to sound harsh, but just stuffing a wrench into an envelope, or wrapping a handmade ckt board in bubble wrap and sticking it in a USPS flat is a recipe for failure-to-deliver. Also, I don't want to be seen as s lamming the USPS but IME their workers aren't the sharpest knives in the dr awer (they're dumb enough to put your envelope-wrapped wrench into the lett er handler after all) *and* they're overworked at that. Seriously, they don 't have enough eyes and hands to deal with non-standard, poorly wrapped pac kages. Their systems are minimally designed to handle a minimal number of s izes of object, and anything that doesn't fit those parameters has a good c hance of not arriving.

Mark L. Fergerson

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limitations of the automation in the USPS.

nvelopes *will* be bent and squeezed by the letter-handling machinery which roughly speaking comprises guide rails that hold envelopes vertically and spaced powered rollers to move the envelopes.

nvelopes *will* be bent and squeezed by the letter-handling machinery which roughly speaking comprises guide rails that hold envelopes vertically and spaced powered rollers to move the envelopes.

I have sent hardware in an envelope with success. But it takes some extr a work. I make a label with the to and from addesses and tape that to the hardware. Do not know if that makes a difference, but the idea is if the h ardware and package get separated, the post office will still know where th e hardware goes. Label the envelope " Do Not Bend ". I think I have adde d " Will not Bend. Will break sorting machine." And give it to the nice lady at the Yorklyn Postoffice. There is only a nice lady at the postoffic e. The post office closes for lunch.

I will not guarantee that will work everytimee, but it has worked.

Dan