I've been putting Chetan to extra work answering my questions as I tried to
get Paypal to do what I wanted - it doesn't like the cheque account
numbering scheme we used here. All sorted out now by another means.

BUT - if I may take the usually naughty step of discussing in public what
was said in private - it seems that Chetan may have a few cents here and
there "profit" from eg finding out that some postage is about 10 cents
cheaper than he expected etc. In hsi srupulous honesty he is intending to
refund these minor amounts.

I would like to suggest that EVERYONE who bout ICs tell him that if there
are a few cents left over then he should keep them. The effort he has gone
to so far far outweighs the minimal return he may get. I'd say that all
would agree that anything up to say $1 per customer is fair game as long as
it was not arrived at intentionally and more than that would depend on each
customer.

In such deals which involves substantial handling I think it would be wise
to add either a small flat charge per order to cover basic handling costs or
maybe a small percentage. I don't recall envelopes, tyres, petrol, or shoe
leather being mentioned, let alone time. I know such things are largely a
labour of love on behalf of the greater family, but even love has to eat :-)

I suggest offers top keep the spare change be made offlist to avoid the
greatful all adding to the list traffic.

For my part - many thanks Chetan. The great gain for me is having these
processors to "play" with, which made lead to ultra low cost applications I
may not otherwise have considered. For one off applications, cost alone
really isn't relevant - a tiny12 would be far better. But for ultra low cost
uses they are several times cheaper. I applaud Atmel for making something
like this so cheap. Let's hope that others match them with processors of
similar capability. Now, if only it had has hardware PWM ... :-)



    Russell McMahon

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