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The 2nd Fork in the Road

In 1981 I was working at Percom moving along in my career. By then I had already decided to work instead of going to college. The drive to Percom in Garland was 45 min each way from my apartment in Euless. I couldn't rent an apartment in Dallas county because I was not 21 yet. During this time I decided that a normal career was not going to work for me. With $400 savings I started Arrick Computer products on the side. Here's the story about how that went.

Getting Started

My first goal was to develop some simple products quickly to generate revenue so I could move on to some more complicated stuff. It started with a simple passive box that could switch a computer connection between multiple printers. This was the 'Quick-Switch' product line. Some prototypes were built while Cybertech was still going.

The very first Quick-Switches were built with silver and black metal cabinets from Radio Shack. Radio Shack computers were silver and black and they ruled the personal computer market before IBM PC's appeared. It got to where I bought so many boxes at one time they had to order them for me. I kept the cardboard boxes and stacked them up into a big wall just for fun.

For the first year or so I built each Quick-Switch by hand, nibbled out the sheet metal by hand, and even did the front-panels by hand with rub-off lettering. Then I hand-soldered all of the internal wiring and tested it all before packaging it up and taking it to the post office. It was very labor-intensive but I was free.

First Office was a Bedroom

I lived at 1225 Sotogrande Blvd #259 in Euless, TX. It was a nice, big apartment with a fireplace and wall of glass overlooking a green space, but there was only one bedroom and that's where the company went. Here are some pictures.

Random Story

Here's a pitiful story. One of the first orders I placed for inventory was $110 worth of DB25 connectors from JAMECO to make my first switch boxes. Back then it was a long process using mail and checks. About 2 weeks later I came home from work to find the box and styrofoam peanuts scattered all over the sidewalk - the connectors were gone. I'm guessing some kid saw the box while walking home from school and got into it. That event set me back quite a bit because it was more than 25% of my initial startup cash.

Money and Accounting and Taxes

I remember getting paid for an order then I'd run down to the hardware store to buy another shelf unit to put inventory on. I didn't pay myself and used all the profits to buy inventory and supplies.

I borrowed my dad's college accounting book and learned how to do general ledger and track profit. I took physical inventory regularly just to make sure my cost of goods was correct. It was important for me to know I was making the right amount of profit to make it worthwhile.

This strategy was good at making sure my costs were under control and my pricing was right, but it was terrible on me for taxes because my company showed a profit every month of every year and I had to pay tax on that. During this growth phase taxes always took what was left of my retained profit. Social security was brutal at almost 15%.

I remember calling my accountant and telling him what my year-end inventory number was. He said "Roger, are you sure that number is right?". I said "Oh yes, it's perfect, I counted every part myself and I know exactly what the cost of each is." Then he asked the same question again, and again. It wasn't until later that I realized he was trying to tell me I could adjust my inventory to improve my tax situation.

So, I went to various banks and tried to get a loan for $500 or $5000. The answer was always 'No' so I just kept on enduring not paying myself.

Game Box Switch

Video games were very popular and I built some switch boxes for them. I don't remember being able to sell many. I also made some stereo system switches. This is a prototype I saved which switches controllers and the TV.

First Office

After running the business out of my apartment for about a year I rented a single 100sf room at 1101 Royal Park in Euless TX from my neighbor Otto. This was March 1982 while I was still working for Percom. I needed to get the business out of my apartment because I was getting married. Inventory and work benches were packed into one room. Charla was the first employee, then Milton. I think this was a side-gig for both of them while they worked at the airport. We stayed in this office until October 1982. The only thing we built there was cables and switch boxes.

Panic Switch

During this time I meet my future wife and made a Panic Switch paper weight for her desk. I didn't clean it before taking these pictures afraid the lettering would come off.

Another Random Story

One day I heard a Texas congressman talking on the radio about wanting to 'help small businesses'. I was young and naive about politics so I wrote him a letter describing my discovery as a person trying to get a small business going. I explained how all my profits were taken by taxes even though I didn't take any money home for myself. I expected him to be so excited to learn this amazing revelation! Haha, of course I never received a reply. It didn't take long to realize I was the payer in society all along.

Second Office

In October 1982 I moved in a bigger space at 1117 Royal Parkway which was in the same building. The space was about 1200 sq/ft with 2 offices up front, a large air-conditioned area, and an unconditioned area in the very back with a loading dock. It was perfect for manufacturing. I was still working at Percom during the day and working there on nights and weekends. In the back there was room for my red sparkle MIJ drum kit and later my black Yamaha kit.

One of the first days I had this space I got a call from the owner of Leach Printing who were in the neighboring space. I hadn't meet them yet. Mr Leach had an angry voice and said I needed to get there immediately because there was a water leak coming from my space and damaged a bunch of his paper. This was a big problem because I was at work in Garland which was at least 45 minutes away. He finished the phone call with "You'd better have insurance". After getting there I opened up my space and we hunted for the water leak but found nothing. Then I went over to their space and helped them discover an unused bathroom in the back that had a plumbing leak. I don't remember if there was an apology or not but we eventually became friends and I computerized their business with custom software.

In this space we built switch boxes, cables, did upgrades on Basic4 memory boards, and built the first dClock boards for Microsync. We also tried building wooden printer stands.

We were in this space from 1982 until about 1985 when we moved to a bigger space in the next building.

Computer and Software

I wrote custom software on my homebrew CP/M computer to process orders, print invoices and keep track of inventory. It was all written in BASIC. Percom had a sale on iBEX computers and I bought one on a payment plan of $200/mo for 6 months. This system had dual 1.2M 8" drives so I could store more data. I rewrote my accounting software in CBASIC with keyed files and it worked nicely. We used that software for the rest of the life of the company. Here is a picture of the iBEX computer - this one has a 5M or 10M hard disk.

Third Office

Sometime around 1985 a larger space in the building next door at 2107 West Euless Blvd became available and I took it. It was about 2400 sq/ft and was occupied by an eyeglass company. It was very dusty and we cleaned it up, painted, and redid the floor.

In this building we built the new modular switch box designs and I designed some power strips and metal printer stands. We continued to build dClocks for Microsync and do contract manufacturing for several local companies. Randomly I'd do cable installations for extra income. I also did several contract design projects for other companies such as a passive exercise machine and an ultrasonic walking cane for the blind.

In 1987 I sold the company to Tom and continued to work there. The new owner later bought Microsync and merged them together. I worked there until 1989 when I restarted my career with Arrick Robotics at home. In 1991 after Arrick computer shut down I moved back to this space for Arrick Robotics and eventually Synthesizers.com where we stayed until the move to Tyler in 2004.

First Generation Switch Boxes

The switch boxes I made for the first year were made from silver and black metal project boxes from Radio Shack. I did the cutouts with a hand nibbler which was brutal. Then I would letter each box with rub-off letters. This whole process was very labor intensive but I didn't have the funding to get the cabinets made professionally.

Eventually my volumes got high enough that I had Russell Sheet Metal in Rowlett bend the back panel down, punch the connector openings, then bend it back. For a long time I kept all the white cardboard boxes that the project boxes came in and stacked them up in a giant wall. I'm still trying to find a sample of this product for pictures.

Second Generation Switch Boxes

When volumes got large enough I designed my own larger metal enclosure and had it made by Russell Sheet Metal in Rowlett. Clarence Richey owned the place and he did a lot of work for us for several years. The boxes were then painted silver and black just like the Radio Shack project boxes and the popular Tandy TRS80 computer of the time. After the IBM PC was introduced in 1982 the standard color scheme for computer products changed to beige and grey.

This product generation had a circuit board inside. Barney at Percom did the PCB artwork by hand with tape. These were pretty big boards and very expensive but they cut down on the labor of hand-wiring. The right-angle rotary switch was also very expensive.

Third Generation Switch Boxes

Cost was a big problem because competition was brutal as Asia dumped cheap products on the market. The computer industry was becoming mainstream and commoditized. At one time you could buy an Asian-made switch box retail for less than the cost of my sheet-metal alone.

In 1984 this competitive price pressure lead me to design a new series with some tricks. The expensive circuit board was replaced with hand-wiring like the first generation, and the specialized rotary switch was replaced with a commercial rotary switch from Mouser.

The hand wiring was made easier by a Eubanks wire cutting machine I bought at the Noakes auction. It was very finicky but when it worked it cranked out thousands of precisely cut and stripped wires very quickly - but very noisily. Then we used a solder pot to tin the wires instead of manually like before. All of that reduced labor.

The cabinet was modular by allowing one base and top to have different rear panels for different types of connectors. There was a small cabinet for 2 position switches and small connectors, and a large cabinet for 5 position switches and big connectors. The color was also changed to match the IBM PC instead of silver and black. A few of the first ones were made with a tan/brown scheme that I'd seen used on the iBEX and Apple computers.

The rotary switch deserves a special explanation. The fancy rotary switches were too expensive and commercial switches were only offered in a limited number of poles. Parallel printer port switches needed 12 or 16 poles and all I could get was 6 or 8 in a standard commercial-grade switch. So, I designed a custom bracket to stack switches together to increase the pole count. We had a special tool made to cut a slot in the shaft so it would fit into another one. These tricks allowed the product to be competitive for a few more years.

The last two pictures show the rotary switch modified with a slotted shaft and a switch box with a 3-position 24-pole switch made from 3 stacked switches using my custom bracket.

Cables

Over the years I collected pinouts for various computers and peripherals in order to make custom cables. We made thousands. And most switch box orders got cables too. The last picture is Margo at the apartment helping to finish a giant cable order for TI in 1982 right after we were married.

Power Centers

In 1985 I designed a series of power centers with MOVs inside for surge protection. As I remember they didn't sell well. It was very difficult in the US to make them price-competitive with foreign products being dumped on the market. I used one for my own computer and it survives today.

Printer Stands

I tried as many low tech products I could think of to generate some revenue and printer stands were one of them. We tried making wooden ones and metal ones.

Various Other Products

I tinkered with various product ideas, mostly in the electronics and computer testing area, but there wasn't enough resources to put them into production. Here's an example prototype of an RS-232 tester. The cables have been cannibalized long ago. This one has the 'Arrick Products' logo which I used for a short while before adding 'Computer'.

The Flood of '86

On Oct 22, 1986 we came back from lunch and looked through the door to see water pouring down from the ceiling. The neighbors had noticed and had the water turned off. We searched and searched but found no pipes behind the ceiling panels. Eventually we discovered that a water pipe had broken in the floor of the R&D room and created a fountain that shot up into the ceiling and across the offices.

The amount of damage was $13k. I submitted it to insurance and they refused to pay. I submitted it to the landlord and they refused to pay. After months of battle I finally contacted the state insurance board. This was a very difficult time because of the damage and cash flow was terrible. On top of that I learned we made a decent profit and my income tax was going to be 13k due to be paid on April 15th. I didn't have the cash to pay that nor did I have a source to borrow from.

Then within a few days from taxes due I got a phone call from the insurance company. They apologized and said they should have paid my claim back in October and were cutting me a check for $13k. The amount was within $200 of what I needed to pay taxes. It was a miracle because if I had gotten paid back in October I would have replaced my equipment. So, I survived taxes paid but endured the equipment loss.

Write-Guard

In the late 80's computer viruses started getting circulated on bulletin board systems and by sharing floppy disks. One thing that viruses typically did is write to the hard disk during boot-up which is something the operating system (DOS) didn't usually do. So in 1988 I designed a product that connected to a standard MFM disk drive to monitor the write line and sound an alarm.

Write-Guard manual.

We advertised 'Write-Guard' in some of the PC magazines and immediately got a letter that we were violating a patent. It took a lot of work but we had a patent lawyer in Fort Worth invalidate their patent by finding prior art. I believe it was related to a write-protect switch on a hard disk drive that DEC had patented decades before.

I was contacted by a TV news crew for an interview because computer viruses were all the rage. I was all setup for a demonstration but they called and canceled at the last minute because of a major news story, possibly the airplane crash in Scotland.

Contract Assembly

We did small contract assembly jobs - building circuit boards, cables, etc. This helped with the ups and downs of product sales. The product we made the most of was Microsync dClocks which was a circuit board that entered the date and time automatically on IBM PCs. We probably made more than 100,000 of them and I personally soldered every one in a solder pot. Here is a picture of Karl stuffing a rack of 100 dClocks and the second picture is me soldering them.

Random Scary Story

Once we were building a big batch of dClocks and for some reason Charla dumped hundreds of coin batteries in a ziplock bag. I discovered it before they caught fire.

Dealers

We sold products directly and also through dealers such as computer stores. Here's an ad in 80 Microcomputing Magazine March 1982 from one of our dealers - Access Unlimited.

Sale 1987

The computer products market was tough because of cheap imports and I could see things were not advancing. I had ideas for product but I had no funding sources and didn't want to go into any more debt beyond my small credit line at the bank.

One day a business broker came in and asked if I'd be interested in selling, I said yes. After a few months he brought a buyer and I accepted. The buyer was Tom from Fort Worth who had experience in the adhesives industry. The deal was that he would pay off my bank credit line and take over payables. Basically, I broke even. I was put on a modest salary that had a bonus for sales, all with a 1-year employment contract. I kept my big office up front.

Crew

This is part of the crew after the sale. From left-to-right: Tom, Roger, Judy, Charla, Karl.

Charla was basically general manager. She could build all the products, process the orders, and do the shipping. She also trained the new-hires how to solder.

Comdex

The big computer product show was called Comdex in Las Vegas every year and we went to a couple. We didn't have a booth, we just walked around and studied stuff. This was a magical time in the computer industry.

Microsync Merger

We were building thousands of dClocks for Microsync as a contractor and somehow the owner Larry decided to sell to Tom and merge the two companies together. Larry had other ideas for products and maybe he needed funding, I don't remember the details. Larry took the small middle office and his wife was there too. I don't remember exactly what the circumstances were that lead to Larry leaving but he did and I took over the engineering. Larry went on to be an engineer at TIEX in Dallas, and later to HP in Colorado.

See the history of Microsync...

Big Deals

After the sale in 1987 and the merger with Microsync later there were a couple of times we seemed close to big deals but they never happened for reasons I never understood. I remember a meeting near the top floor of the Tandy tower in 1989 where they were interested in putting the Boomerang product in every Radio Shack store - about 5000. Boomerang was Larry's internal uninterruptable power supply for the PC/AT with automatic save/restore software. We also visited Dell headquarters in Austin - I think that was for Boomerang also.

Career Reset

After the sale in 1987 I worked for the new owner 2 more years which was 1 year beyond my employment contract. At that time I was trying to finish up the Boomerang product, specifically the mounting bracket. There was a small squabble and that was so frustrating and depressing that I just couldn't go any further. My finances were unworkable and I was close to losing my house. My salary was based on sales and all the big deals had been stopped for reasons I didn't understand.

I remember vividly going home at lunch and telling the wife I was quitting. She knew there was no answer to the question "What are we going to do?" except to try and make it. It was all very scary. We had no savings, only a small start with some robotics products I was building for extra income. There were no employment options for an uneducated guy like me to get a real job, I'd already tried. This was a big step but I was at the end of my rope. The cut was clean, I just went back to work, loaded up my books and left, never looked back. It was a surprise to everyone but I had been beyond done for a while.

I remember the following day working at home on my robotics sideline and the feeling I had was a combination of freedom and fear. I was restarting my career from scratch with almost nothing. We didn't even have a dependable car - that was my fault because I loved classics.

I don't exactly know what happened to Arrick Computer Products after that. They were out of the building in a year or two. I wish the whole thing could have worked out better, I tried my darnedest but didn't have what it took to make it big time.

I focused on getting the robotics products going and we did some contract manufacturing. At one time there were 6 cars parked at our house. I have no idea why the neighbors didn't complain. After 2 years we had caught up financially and got a reliable car. We worked ourselves to death but we got a new start. For the rest of the story see the history of Arrick Robotics.

Lessons Learned

The main lesson is I shouldn't try to make something work beyond its lifespan. I should have moved on to another industry away from computers a few years earlier.

Another lesson was that I should have found a source of funding and been willing to go out on a limb more. This is a lesson I still haven't implemented even after several startups.

I should realized the power of incentivizing those around me for my own success.

I should have optimized my business better for taxes. Instead I focused completely on making a profit every month, every year. This worked but the tax burden was brutal and it always took away whatever extra cash I had. This advice was given to me by several people along the way but I stuck with my plan of making a profit.

I should have been willing to ask for more help but I was independent and wanted to make it on my own. It worked but it was a difficult path and could have easily failed catastrophically.

I should have networked with people more instead of focusing on products. I remember one customer telling me that my company was "essentially invisible". I'm a thing person not a people person but now I enjoy people more and realize that's where a lot of success comes from, even if it's just fluff.

I have to remind myself I was very young at the time and did the best I could with what I had.

Catalogs

I did several catalogs over the years. Took the pictures myself, did the drawings, laid them out. Super low budget.

Business Cards

Here are my cards in order starting with one showing the second shop at 1117 then the last two were at 2107. The very last one was after MicroSync was merged in. There might have been a business card before these showing only my PO box but I didn't save one.

The End

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