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I think RPi in this thing says it all. It screams it was built by somebody that does not know how to develop a physical product for mass market. There are only
by twawaaay 4y ago
I think RPi in this thing says it all. It screams it was built by somebody that does not know how to develop a physical product for mass market.
There are only three parts in this product that should have any significant cost to them:
* the display itself,
* the wooden enclosure,
* the packaging the product comes in,
If there are switches, potentiometers or encoders I am really partial to well working ones and these are not so cheap. It is nice to have but at least they make the product feel more expensive so it is not a total waste.
Everything else can be done dirt cheap. I don't think chinese are the best way to learn product design but they are pretty darn good at saving every last penny (or yuan in their case). I found it illuminating to study some of the devices of chinese origin (as opposed to ones that are only manufactured in China).
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- not_the_fda 4y agoYou would be surprised at how often people with no experience try to build a physical mass market product that nothing more than an RPi in a box. And they often go under because the BOM is too high and the software is garbage.
- twawaaay 4y agoThat's why when I started with design I decided to go for niche products for businesses. Kind of thing that when they have to buy it they will not be looking at the price too much. Low volume (I was doing all soldering myself!), high sticker price, not especially profitable for me. But makes it so much easier to design when you don't have to compromise so much and you don't have to be very inventive trying to save on BOM. And it is fun to be able to just do whatever you fancy. I think starting mass market production for price conscious clients with no experience is just asking for problems.
- samwillis 4y agoEven the wooden enclosure could be done for significantly less. It's effectively a picture frame. There are plenty of standard box frame profiles they are very similar to what they have built. If it was me, I would have explored working with a picture frame company for final assembly, many are used to "assembling" products with extra components (think of stuff on Etsy). The frames are simply cut with a framing guillotine and stapled together. My estimate would be frame (including custom cut back panel), and final assembly would be in the region of $10-$15 at a US/UK framers. (Excluding electrical BOM)
- dom96 4y agoPicture frames are indeed perfect for this. I built something similar and the frame cost me around £37.50. My full BOM was around £130 (and that's without any economies of scale).
- napolux 4y agoUsed to work on an iptv set top box user interface (html+js on opera embedded) back in the days. BOM for the board designed in my country... 150$. Chinese manufacturer proposed a redesign 100% compatible with the same features... BOM at 15$ IIRC