John Nall wrote:
> For that matter, you might consider
> adding an "accessory board" to your product line, for people who want to
> use the EasyProg with a dsPIC (and presumably also for the 24F line),

I have considered doing a board with a RJ-12 socket and PIC sockets for
various pinouts.  Every time I thought about it though, the numbers didn't
work out.  To do it right with ZIF sockets would make it too expensive, and
I suspect volumes would be very low to begin with.

> It wouldn't  take much -- just a
> circuit board, a 28-pin ZIF socket, an RJ12 socket, a diode, couple of
> capacitors and perhaps a couple of bells and whistles (some option
> jumpers and a couple of LED's).  You could probably sell it for $9.95
> and still make a good profit.  :-)

A ZIF socket alone costs about that.  Even without any sockets (so someone
could add their own whatever flavor they liked), it would probably take at
least $5 to produce in quantity of 100 to 200 at a time.  With the handling
for each one and getting the design time paid for would make it more than
most people are willing to pay for it.  That's one of the problems selling
to hobbyists.  They're cheap.  Because of that many potential products don't
exist because there's no room to make money.

> The dsPICDEMO board is $79.

I am somewhat seriously considering a QuickProto for the 28 pin dsPICs which
would sell for considerably less than $79.  However volumes for the existing
QuickProto-01 are lower than what I expected, so this isn't a high priority
for me now.

I am working on a different new product though.


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