Michael J. Mahon wrote:
Just out of curiosity, how much would it cost to "get your money back"? (I'm glad to hear it's OK not to get your time back.)
Well, that's going to depend on the product of course.There's two big killers - getting the PCBs made in prototype quantities (anything more than a few layers) - and getting 'major' components in quantities smaller than 50, or in some cases, 1000. Sometimes you simply *can't* get them (eg. video encoders) - others you pay a hefty premium.
Then there's the assembly - if you have parts with large pinouts you really don't want to do them by hand, for time and quality reasons. BGA etc you *can't* do by hand. So that adds big $$$ as well.
An example, a colleague & I designed a PCB with FPGA to emulate cartridges for classic Nintendo consoles (still WIP). We got 6 PCBs made, and bought only 2 FPGAs. Most other parts we scrounged for free, but still paid over AUD$1K. And that's only 2! Not to mention many hours of development.
There's absolutely no way such a niche, hobbyist market is going to allow you to get your time back. Which is why you have to do it for the love of it.
Regards, Mark