RE: Re: [Project] Project funding

[Keith Doxey <ukha@xxxxxxx>]

Having been down this route single handed.....

Development costs....

Equipment/Software such as Programmers, Erasers, IDE and CAD packages,
tools
etc. Often very expensive to purchase but a "must have" item for
the person
doing the development.

Components. For prototypes you are dealing in small quantities and some may
cost well over ?5 at one off prices. For production runs in 100+ quantities
the cost can be less than 50%.

As has been pointed out, there end up being all sorts of prototypes that
lay
in the corner as a pile of junk or something Ruff'n'Ready that it wouldnt
pass the WAF test. Some savings can be made by using sockets for IC's so
these can be reused. Resistors and Capacitors are so cheap you just scrap
them.

Microcontrollers such as PIC 16F84 are flash programmable so can be
reprogrammed many times and are quite good for development but are
expensive
for production runs. PIC 12C509 is OTP (One Time Programmable) but at about
70p is ideal for production. You cant use it for development because the
70p's soon add up to a lot. You need the UV eraseable 12C509JW at about 12
quid and you need several of them so you dont have to stop work whilst you
wait for the eraser to do its stuff.

Development time.....

The most difficult to quantify. We all know how much we get paid per
hour/day/week/year. We also know how much more our employers charge for our
work. That gives an indication of what your time is worth. To add that cost
into the equation would make it a totally uneconomic proposition.

Speaking for myself....

I do this stuff because it is what I LOVE doing. IF I make money at it then
it is a bonus. I dont know exactly what KAT5 hardware development cost me
because it was bits bought here and there over a long period of time, and I
hate to think how many hours of my time were/are invested in it. I guess
the
total cost of development would be at least ?5K if all my time were taken
into account but that is just written off as my hobby.

Now that the first KAT5 Units are in production, I know EXACTLY what they
cost in both parts and labour. I am making money on them but not that much.
This will however fund further development work. One of the major stumbling
blocks during development was lack of funds. Several times I needed
something to continue work but had to wait until I could afford it.

I think any sort of "Formal" funding arrangement could well be a
major
stumbling block, however knowing that there are some people on the list who
may not be able to participate in the actual development work but would be
willing to "chip in" in return for some finished goods for their
investment
would be a possible solution to avoiding halts in development due to lack
of
cash. Such arrangements should be by mutual agreement between the parties
involved.

Keith


-----Original Message-----
From: Mick Furlong [mailto:dorsai@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 30 May 2001 11:45
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Re: [Project] Project funding


Stuart Grimshaw <stuart@xxxxxxx> said:

> On Wednesday 30 May 2001 11:18 am, you wrote:
> > I was just concerned at people shelling out for components out of
their
own
> > pockets when the projects are for the good of the group...
>
> But the components they buy for will be for their own units anyway, 
any
> units made for others will be payed for by that 3rd party, if the
builder
has
> any sense :-)
>

This is difficult and I don't have an answer..there are a lot of things to
take into account such as the cost of non-component items like pic
programmers
/SDKs/PCB etching...they will be used to develop things but then the
purchaser
will still have use of them..how do you calculate the marginal cost? Also
peoples time which no doubt has very varied costs across the group (but
most
pretty expensive I guess ;)

I think if we start to look for funding etc at this stage then we will run
into problems, from my viewpoint I am happy to invest in some items I
personally want to have a go at and if anyone else needs to avail of those
facilities I will do it at cost or for free.

I would hate to see this breakdown because we try to commercialise it!

Mick






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