What you've asked me is, with the best interest of the United States in
mind, try to formulate a plan that lets us own or control the ingredients
needed to make each one of these sub-assemblies.  It's a pretty
straightforward request and I gave you my plan -- figure out how to build
what's in the market now, then augment and maybe lose features in exchange
for using design elements that are more controlled or inside the United
States.

Some of those boards, the chips they use are not made in the United
States.  For example, the Microhard modem is made in Canada.  What
interested me the most about that one is they spent a lot of money figuring
out how to avoid it from being jammed, but then they put it in a socket and
brought all the little wires out -- that whole board still needs to be
wrapped in metal!

Then there's the Qualcomm chips some of these modules use.  They're made
exclusively in Taiwan and South Korea.

If you want, buy some of the modules you're curious about and send them to
me, I'll take them apart and see what's under the hood.

As to the 4-in-1 ESC, yes I'll try to tackle that too.  There are 3 parts
on that board that are tough to source either domestically or from an ally:

   - FET
   - FET driver
   - Microprocessor

I believe I've found manufacturers that aren't Chinese.  They might be in
the Philippines, Indonesia, and some of them might be in the US.

What you're asking me about is what you'd be paying me for on the 2nd or
3rd stage -- it has nothing to do with the first stage, where we're
figuring out how to crawl so that we can figure out how to walk.

The fact that I can answer this question means I've already been working on
it for a while.

I didn't see anything on that website that we can't do, it's just time and
money and making sure we're comparing apples to apples -- they use some
slippery words.

I've been making stuff like this for the past 30 years.  Either someone
hands over their IP for me to lay out, or they come to me asking me to put
my IP in.  I've worked on things far more complicated that I can't even
talk about, I've worked on proof-of-concept things where money didn't
matter so long as it worked.  I've been in space, in planes, in submarines,
in missiles, nuclear power plants, spy balloons, refrigerators, elevators,
furnaces, cash registers -- I could keep going.

Trying to figure out how to help you without spinning my wheels.  I thought
I laid out a detailed plan.  You said you wanted to build a facility to
assemble stuff, I told you I could have stuff for the facility to
assemble.  I'm familiar with the entire process of how to fabricate a
circuit board, put components on, and everything in between.  I'm familiar
with manufacturing floors and every aspect of software and documentation
you'll need in order to build a product -- which unfortunately includes ISO
and AS9100 and MRP systems.

I hope this answers all your questions.  If you have any specific board you
want me to look at, buy it and send it to me.


I'm a little lost as to what you guys want -- I thought you wanted to be
able to build the electronics and have a drone that is US-based, or at
least have a plan to get the ingredients, and I seem to be all over the
place at this point.

I've been working on this with you for months.  A few weeks back you said
we'd be moving in a few weeks.  I stopped pulling in work and finished what
was on my docket so I wouldn't be double-booked.  Here we are, almost a
month later, and I don't know what we're doing.

Regards,
Thomas Pownall

CADX Services, Inc.

Tel: 585-624-1491 X101
Fax: 585-582-1101
E-Mail: tpownall@cadxservices.com
Web: http://www.cadxservices.com

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