M. Adam Davis wrote:
> But if you have more time than money, it can still be lucrative,
> especially if you work up a system where you can make your own
> assembly line of sorts.  The majority if your time will be spent
> finding the right component.  You can spread this out by building up
> 20-40 boards at once so that you only have to find the component and
> all the places it goes in each board once, insert it into all the
> boards, then go through with the soldering iron and clippers very
> quickly before moving on to the next component.
>
> But there are many variables that depend on the design, BOM, and other
> factors, so the advice to build up a sample for a nominal fee (1-2
> hours at an hourly rate) and then provide a quote is reasonable.

This reminds me of the time we used to build our devices in-house. My 
U-shaped computer table became the assembly line, with one person stuffing 
the boards and another soldering. It took us about six months to realize 
that buying PCBs from 4PCB.com is cheaper than etching and drilling them 
in-house, and another six month that hand assembling boards is not a very 
good use of our time when board houses can do a better job for less. :)

But I digress..  one way to come up with a reasonable price is to find out 
what others are charging for assembly. Once in a crunch we paid aapcb.com 
$50 per board to assemble 10 prototypes of a small (~1.5x3") mostly SMT 
board. Perhaps Vic should request quotes from a few local and overseas 
assembly houses?

I agree with other posters that the biggest danger is to quote too low. It's 
much better to quote too high and lose the order (unless you're starving).

Vitaliy 

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist