Anybody want to bid a circuit design?

I'm working on a project for myself. I need a circuit that will output several 5 volt pulses on one output then stop the pulses and output 5 volts on another output constantly as long as a switch is on. The number of pulses needs to be adjustable with a pot. The range of pulses will be from two to perhaps twenty. If the project works out then I will hopefully sell several hundred units. So I need to be able to send the circuit to a circuit board house, maybe even have them populated and soldered into a readymade part for me. Keep that in mind when bidding on the job. Thanks, Eric Snow, E T Precision Machine

Reply to
etpm
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Do you expect bids on the info that you provided? Leave contact info.

Tom

Reply to
Tom Biasi

I apologize, I'm just used to emails being invalid. Tom

Reply to
Tom Biasi

My email shows at the top. Eric

Reply to
etpm

The circuit is called an Arduino, the rest is software ;-)

Reply to
Daniel Pitts

I have an Arduino and have played with it. But it is too expensive and does way too much. I'm thinking the circuit will need a microcontroller, voltage regulator, relay, pot, and maybe a couple passive devices. Eric

Reply to
etpm

Ah, so you have price constraints. That is important to include in your requirements.

What is your target cost-per-unit?

Reply to
Daniel Pitts

And pulse rate and pulse width, and their accuracies. Maybe do it with a 555 >:-} ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

If an Arduino is too expensive then you may find that the cost to do the design, divided by your expected production, is too expensive, too.

But yes, an Arduino has a lot of extras and lacks the pot, so you're kind of bound to do some custom work anyway.

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My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook. 
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

Less than 5 US dollars per unit for 100 units if I do the assembly and soldering.

Reply to
etpm

Without meaning to be negative in any way, if I wandered into your shop with a shaft made of mystery metal in my hand and asked you if you could turn the end to "exactly one inch diameter with a really good finish", would you bid a firm fixed price?

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Reply to
Tim Wescott

I haven't even been able to find a place that will fab the circuit board for that price at that volume.

Reply to
Daniel Pitts

I wasn't clear enough. I was putting out the request for a bid on the assumption that anyone who wanted to work up a bid would ask through email for more info. I should have stated that. Eric

Reply to
etpm

He's doing the assembly and soldering for nothing. He didn't say he wanted a PCB. ;-)

Reply to
krw

Eric:

I hope that was your price for a bare board. Even so, it's still ambitious. If this can be brought in for less than $15.00/board (BOM cost for finished board) in 100-board lots you'll be doing well.

It's kind of astonishing just how much you lose by not building a bazillion things at a time. It'd be nice if there were some sort of "price halves for every XXX times more thingies you make", but in truth the price probably drops asymptotically, and differently, for each part.

You're not getting close to minimum for each board, though, until you're up to 100K lots, and then you'll be making quite a bit of your savings by putting in more engineering time: spending day of engineering time to save a dime on each of 100 boards is dead stupid; yet do the same thing when it's 100K ea and you're a hero, and a freaking genius if the quantity is 1M.

(A friend of mine used to work for Intel; he has an award plaque for spending something like a man-month to reduce the number of floppies needed for an install from a dozen down to ten. Think about the volumes that they need to make it so worthwhile to take out the cost of two measly floppy disks that the guy gets an _award_ for doing it)

Daniel:

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$2.50 per square inch + $10.00 service charge for the order, order as many boards as you want.

So if the board is kept down to two square inches and ordered in large quantity, the price will be almost that low -- but that's still just for the bare board. I don't know if there's any quantity discount at the volumes that Eric is looking at -- they have a note about that on their web site, which could be pursued, though.

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My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook. 
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

Plus he already mentioned the fact that there is a potentiometer or else a (quadrature?) rotary switch of some kind involved to set the number of pulses, plus a micro, a voltage regulator, a relay (hmm? what for?), and passive devices. And a probable knob on the potentiometer/rotary switch, if accessibility by an operator is desired. Nuts, screws, stand-offs, .... Might even be an on/off switch, since he mentioned "output 5 volts on another output constantly as long as a switch is on." What about connectors?

Mechanical interfaces to humans in small quantities are expensive (compared to a $5 limit, anyway.)

Set up a 501(c)3 and offer charitable deductions to companies that may have over-stock in some warehouse, maybe?

Or, and this is cheap, but not THAT cheap... repurpose the Texas Instruments LaunchPad (at $4.30 delivered, I think.) Still would need to add stuff and the outputs would be 3.6V anyway, which isn't right. And I've no idea what TI would do with an order for 100. They only allow 3 at a time, so far as I'm aware. And I've never tried to order 100.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Kirwan

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Though not explicitly stated, the presumption is that once a switch is 
thrown, a number of pulses will exit one of the device's ports. 
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Reply to
John Fields

By golly! Looks like a 555 to me >:-} ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Making a small PCB for about $1/each is not a problem. I had some (1"x2") made by

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that were panelized in a 5x10 matrix with scored

lines to break apart.

I have a little demo board module from Microchip with a PIC10F322 which costs less than $1 and has enough IO for what you want. The demo board has a switch, a pot, and two LEDs with PWM dimming. Otherwise a PIC12F676 or similar is an 8 pin device that's about $1.20. The only items with significant cost will be your relay and pot, depending on what you actually want and need. You might be able to use an optoisolator instead of the relay.

The boards are still available for about $12:

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See AC103011 - PIC10F32x Development Board (at the bottom of the page)

My email is valid, so you are welcome to contact me there.

Paul

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Reply to
P E Schoen

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Hi Eric, If you want to put a decent pot and toggle switch in the gizmo, then expect more than $5. We do similar sorts of low volume (~100 units) things. We were guesstimating the cost of a little circuit in a box the other day.

power supply ~$10 box ~$15 art work ~$10 pot or switch (with knob) ~$10 each connectors ~$5 pcb +electronincs ~$10

It's a sad fact that you can almost disregard the cost of the chips in this calculation. We figured ~$70 - $100 to make it so we might sell it for $200-300. $200 for a box that at it's heart is a few dollar IC.

For your gizmo, the difference in cost whether it's made with a PIC, adrino or 555 may not be that large. So pick what is easier for you.

Now if you wanted to share more of the spec. details, then you might get the design done on SEB 'for free'*.

George H.

*minus whatever you charge yourself for your time...:^)
Reply to
George Herold

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