7 ms·

The margins on everything Teenage Engineering sells must be insane. Thinking in particular of their "computer-1" itx case which is a handful of pieces of unbent

by faefox 4y ago

The margins on everything Teenage Engineering sells must be insane. Thinking in particular of their "computer-1" itx case which is a handful of pieces of unbent sheet metal and commodity parts, all for a mere *$195*.

itronitron 4y ago
Yeah, seems like it would be rather straightforward to send a template design to an online fabrication company. CNC seems like it would be overkill but I assume they are willing to cut sheet metal. That could be a fun assignment for a design course. Lots of technical details to consider, such as dimensions of standard components, but a lot of design freedom as well.
- ortusdux 4y ago
  A CNC laser would be the best bet. A good one could cut this in about 5 min. Water jets and CNC plasma cutters could do it, but they would probably both have issues with that many pierces. I agree though - $195 for this is a bit much: https://images.prismic.io/teenageengineering/d379b4fd-3721-4cd4-bec2-f3a7c13e099f_computer-1_store_layout.png?auto=compress,format&w=2048&h=1 https://images.prismic.io/teenageengineering/d379b4fd-3721-4... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGpKAIsUIpI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGpKAIsUIpI
  - janekm 4y ago
    It looks like it has countersunk screw holes, so that would usually be done on a CNC punch: http://www.vandf.co.uk/tooling/what-is-cnc-punching/ http://www.vandf.co.uk/tooling/what-is-cnc-punching/ (amazing machines) It also looks powder-coated... when you consider their likely volumes $195 is not unreasonable once you take into account development costs, setup costs and overheads.
    - digdugdirk 4y ago
      Not discounting the coolness of CNC punching whatsoever, but the reasonableness of $195 is way off, even if they are manufacturing in low volumes domestically. Parts like this should ideally be manufactured via stamping, which would also produce any countersinks needed. Even better would be to have them cut and bent in a progressive die (also a super cool manufacturing process!) and would have all cuts and features done in one go. But if I were them, I'd probably aim for a buck or two for each sheet part, maybe up to five dollars if you wanted to keep it at a local shop with low volumes. But the big win of having just flat pieces is you can make a ton of components at once and they can take up very little space on a shelf. Get a few thousand produced and powdercoated, and then just keep an eye on when supply runs low. Basically, if they aren't making 90% margin on these (all in, shipped to your door) I'd be disappointed.
      - iancmceachern 4y ago
        Totally agree, they're getting these for a few bucks a part,maybe 10 bucks total for the kit. If they're paying any more they should not be.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
JosephRedfern 4y ago
The photo of the record factory on that landing page weighs in at 9.84MB -- the margin probably goes towards AWS bandwidth costs!
- capableweb 4y ago
  Which in turn, the margin AWS has on the bandwidth they sell must be insane! People seem to pay for "premium" bandwidth and not even batting an eye, people just swallow that stuff right up. Just like TE, it must make them a ton of money.
- autoexec 4y ago
  For comparison: War and Peace is only 3.2 MB, or 3.9 MB with the overhead of HTML source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600
  - tomcam 4y ago
    Yeah but the manga version is 6.6GB
    - autoexec 4y ago
      Okay, now I'm curious, link to the manga version?
      - mountainplus 4y ago
        This manga is part of the variety art works series which transcribes (transdraws?) important literary works for younger japanese who might not have the understanding yet to read them in their orig. translation. You can find a list of series here: https://myanimelist.net/people/21441/Variety_Art_Works https://myanimelist.net/people/21441/Variety_Art_Works Edit: This is the same series that includes mein kampf and capital, both which have had many panels screenshotted you can find around the net circulating (f.e. if you'we ever met a mangaised Marx, or some weird collection of nazi's illustrated they are quite common tropes)
xani_ 4y ago
The power of decent product with massive hipster appeal I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like 400%+ on everything but maybe the pocket operators. Even those probably have healthy margin, as it is just PCB + some buttons. custom LCDs in tens of thousands are also insanely cheap (in ballpark of $1 for something like that).

by faefox 4y ago

itronitron 4y ago

Yeah, seems like it would be rather straightforward to send a template design to an online fabrication company. CNC seems like it would be overkill but I assume they are willing to cut sheet metal. That could be a fun assignment for a design course. Lots of technical details to consider, such as dimensions of standard components, but a lot of design freedom as well.

ortusdux 4y ago
A CNC laser would be the best bet. A good one could cut this in about 5 min. Water jets and CNC plasma cutters could do it, but they would probably both have issues with that many pierces. I agree though - $195 for this is a bit much: https://images.prismic.io/teenageengineering/d379b4fd-3721-4cd4-bec2-f3a7c13e099f_computer-1_store_layout.png?auto=compress,format&w=2048&h=1 https://images.prismic.io/teenageengineering/d379b4fd-3721-4... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGpKAIsUIpI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGpKAIsUIpI
- janekm 4y ago
  It looks like it has countersunk screw holes, so that would usually be done on a CNC punch: http://www.vandf.co.uk/tooling/what-is-cnc-punching/ http://www.vandf.co.uk/tooling/what-is-cnc-punching/ (amazing machines) It also looks powder-coated... when you consider their likely volumes $195 is not unreasonable once you take into account development costs, setup costs and overheads.
  - digdugdirk 4y ago
    Not discounting the coolness of CNC punching whatsoever, but the reasonableness of $195 is way off, even if they are manufacturing in low volumes domestically. Parts like this should ideally be manufactured via stamping, which would also produce any countersinks needed. Even better would be to have them cut and bent in a progressive die (also a super cool manufacturing process!) and would have all cuts and features done in one go. But if I were them, I'd probably aim for a buck or two for each sheet part, maybe up to five dollars if you wanted to keep it at a local shop with low volumes. But the big win of having just flat pieces is you can make a ton of components at once and they can take up very little space on a shelf. Get a few thousand produced and powdercoated, and then just keep an eye on when supply runs low. Basically, if they aren't making 90% margin on these (all in, shipped to your door) I'd be disappointed.
    - iancmceachern 4y ago
      Totally agree, they're getting these for a few bucks a part,maybe 10 bucks total for the kit. If they're paying any more they should not be.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]

JosephRedfern 4y ago

The photo of the record factory on that landing page weighs in at 9.84MB -- the margin probably goes towards AWS bandwidth costs!

capableweb 4y ago
Which in turn, the margin AWS has on the bandwidth they sell must be insane! People seem to pay for "premium" bandwidth and not even batting an eye, people just swallow that stuff right up. Just like TE, it must make them a ton of money.
autoexec 4y ago
For comparison: War and Peace is only 3.2 MB, or 3.9 MB with the overhead of HTML source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600
- tomcam 4y ago
  Yeah but the manga version is 6.6GB
  - autoexec 4y ago
    Okay, now I'm curious, link to the manga version?
    - mountainplus 4y ago
      This manga is part of the variety art works series which transcribes (transdraws?) important literary works for younger japanese who might not have the understanding yet to read them in their orig. translation. You can find a list of series here: https://myanimelist.net/people/21441/Variety_Art_Works https://myanimelist.net/people/21441/Variety_Art_Works Edit: This is the same series that includes mein kampf and capital, both which have had many panels screenshotted you can find around the net circulating (f.e. if you'we ever met a mangaised Marx, or some weird collection of nazi's illustrated they are quite common tropes)

xani_ 4y ago

The power of decent product with massive hipster appeal I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like 400%+ on everything but maybe the pocket operators. Even those probably have healthy margin, as it is just PCB + some buttons. custom LCDs in tens of thousands are also insanely cheap (in ballpark of $1 for something like that).