Re: 8051-class "learner" board - is it worth making one?

["pogo" <pogo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<zwsdotcom@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1147390270.615692.96980@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> This is a crosspost from comp.arch.embedded, with some
enhancement.
>
> The story:
> I semi-accidentally acquired a fairly large quantity of surplus
ROMless
> 8051-class parts in DIP-40 packages. These include Intel and
Signetics
> 8031, 8032, and lots of Dallas DS80C310 and DS80C320. Along with
them
> came a bunch of 6264 and 62256 SRAMs.
>
> Somewhere in my archives I have a layout for a board that takes a
> DIP-40 8031 and has 32K of program flash and either 2K, 8K or 32K
of
> RAM. It also has a level-shifted serial port, and some
miscellaneous
> headers for GPIOs and such.
>
> In this day and age, is it worth my while to do a production run
of
> these boards and offer them for sale to get rid of the surplus
chips? I
> would write a small bootloader and preload that into flash so you
> wouldn't need additional hardware to load code onto the board.
>
> I figure I could [afford to] sell an assembled board for ~USD35.
>
> When I posted the above in c.a.e I got some suggestions,
including to
> ask the question again here.
>
> Is that old design of mine even useful as it is, or would I have
to
> build something more exotic to make it interesting?

Personally, I would offer the chips for sale on eBay or something
like that to see what you could unload. You could add a note at the
bottom of the auction ad asking people to email you with any
interest in the production run board.

On the other hand, if you just want to create a product that you
think is useful and better than others, I say go for it! Kind of a
personal decision ...

JCD