4 ms·

The version in the photo seems to use an ATMega32U4, which is used in the Arduino Leonardo, so there is a good chance it will be compatible (or if it isn't out

The version in the photo seems to use an ATMega32U4, which is used in the Arduino Leonardo, so there is a good chance it will be compatible (or if it isn't out of the box it could easily have the bootloader added). This will be a lot cheaper though. Looking at the photo, the BOM cost would mostly be the micro, which is available at around $3.5 at 10,000 volume. Probably quite a bit less at 1,000,000. It has on-board USB, so there's no need for a pricy FTDI chip. It doesn't look like they're using an external crystal so that's another saving over the Arduino. Beyond that it's mostly LEDs and passives, plus the two tactile switches. This should be very cheap to make. Should be under $5 or less.

pbhjpbhj 12y ago
I don't think the Leonardo has BLE [1] nor does wireless firmware flashing? Don't really know the costs for that. You don't appear to have factored in project costs to your <$5. They mention only one person working on it but they already started promoting it so are definitely using more resources than that - assuming a 2 year project for 6 at a guesstimate "BBC tech guy" rate of £40k [2 x 6 x 40 = 480k + 50% for costs of employment (a very low estimate)] you're looking at ~75p ($1.10) per item. Buying in a board then the personnel costs are in the price; doing it in house and you need to add them on (along with overheads and accommodation and ...). Heck, the DG spent a day on it for the launch then that's an extra £2k on the costs. Most UK secondary schools probably have a teacher who's used RPi or Arduino for something. That's a massive factor to take in to account if you want to actually use the device for a serious educational effort too. The whole package seems good but it just smacks a bit too much of wanting to promote the BBC/ARM/Google/Samsung/... project a bit more than perhaps doing the right thing educationally? Better this than nothing. --- [1] http://community.arm.com/groups/internet-of-things/blog/2015/03/12/arm-and-the-bbc-collaborate-on-a-new-initiative http://community.arm.com/groups/internet-of-things/blog/2015...
- ittybitty 12y ago
  75p is massively over-estimating BBC project dev costs. Closer to 2 pence, if that. (you massively over-estimate dev team size, timeline) Also, promotion has nothing to do with it, the aim is to do the right thing educationally.

pbhjpbhj 12y ago

I don't think the Leonardo has BLE [1] nor does wireless firmware flashing? Don't really know the costs for that. You don't appear to have factored in project costs to your <$5. They mention only one person working on it but they already started promoting it so are definitely using more resources than that - assuming a 2 year project for 6 at a guesstimate "BBC tech guy" rate of £40k [2 x 6 x 40 = 480k + 50% for costs of employment (a very low estimate)] you're looking at ~75p ($1.10) per item. Buying in a board then the personnel costs are in the price; doing it in house and you need to add them on (along with overheads and accommodation and ...). Heck, the DG spent a day on it for the launch then that's an extra £2k on the costs. Most UK secondary schools probably have a teacher who's used RPi or Arduino for something. That's a massive factor to take in to account if you want to actually use the device for a serious educational effort too. The whole package seems good but it just smacks a bit too much of wanting to promote the BBC/ARM/Google/Samsung/... project a bit more than perhaps doing the right thing educationally? Better this than nothing. --- [1] http://community.arm.com/groups/internet-of-things/blog/2015/03/12/arm-and-the-bbc-collaborate-on-a-new-initiative http://community.arm.com/groups/internet-of-things/blog/2015...

ittybitty 12y ago
75p is massively over-estimating BBC project dev costs. Closer to 2 pence, if that. (you massively over-estimate dev team size, timeline) Also, promotion has nothing to do with it, the aim is to do the right thing educationally.