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Originally Posted by tsaksa
If we could cut some things out to sell it at a lower price, what would you be willing to do yourself? Obviously installing and soldering the components yourself would save a lot of work for us.
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What about machining the case?
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Soldering components wouldn't be a problem here, but if the board is all surface mount components, maybe that doesn't make sense to offer as an option, as I would suspect most teams/people don't want to be bothered with hand soldering or setting up to reflow a single board. If you're using mostly through hole components, then offering a board w/ bags of parts makes sense to me.
Offering it without a case or battery pack wouldn't be a problem either. I don't know much about the interior of your box, but I could see mounting everything in a
project box from radioshack, or just on a board, with a piece of lexan on standoffs above it. Battery power (if pack isn't provided) can be wired to a
battery holder from RS. If the buttons are mounted directly to the board normally, they could be mounted to the lexan sheet, and wired up w/ jumpers. Alternatively access holes could be drilled in the lexan to allow access to a board mounted component.
Long story short, I think a "some-assembly-required" option would be a workable option, even if it meant some re-design work for the purchaser.
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I will pass you request on to our team, but be aware that our coach right now only wants one price and configuration. We have had a working prototype for some time and are really struggling with the logistics of manufacturing and distribution.
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Understood, carrying and supporting multiple configurations is certainly more work on your end. Just throwing my $0.02 into the mix since you asked. Whatever would bring the cost down would make it more attractive to us. I can't really speak for other teams, but we have the tools and knowledge in-house to assemble something like this from piece parts. We don't need a polished product, as long as it's still functional and operates reliably.