I am the opposite, i would not pay extra for a nice box, especially
when that AVR Dragon can be customised very easily. Even Atmel
suggests some modifications like the zif connector or the parallel
pins. Also you need to use patch cables to get out the most of it.
With a boxed version these would not be possible. A field programmer
is another thing, and pickit2 i believe is half way like that. So a
moulded box is perfect for that. And see how many product use the same
box, like the white serial analyser for example. I can't check that
right now as i'm on mobile only, but there was a blue box as well
which i don't remember what that was, and the red pickit3 of course.
-Tam=E1s

On 2/24/10, Isaac Marino Bavaresco <isaacbavaresco@yahoo.com.br> wrote:
> Em 23/2/2010 14:18, Olin Lathrop escreveu:
>> Isaac Marino Bavaresco wrote:
>>
>>> It appears that Atmel thinks the same, I bought an AVR Dragon for
>>> $50.00
>>> and it is comprised of just the bare board. Atmel is a large company
>>> and
>>> they surely can afford the cost of a custom mold.
>>>
>> This sounds more like the issue of case versus no case.  I don't know wh=
at
>> a
>> AVR dragon is, but most likely they think it's something a engineer will
>> be
>> using on his desk for testing or development, and that the end user is
>> price
>> sensitive.
>>
>
>
> The AVR Dragon is an ICD2/ICD3 (sort of) equivalent for AVRs. It costs
> around $50.00 while the alternative (AVR One) is around $600.00.
>
>
>> A case costs money, not only to build into the product incrementally, but
>> also the design, tooling, setup charges, etc.  One way or another, the
>> customer is going to pay for all this.
>>
>> I don't think its a big/little company issue about the mold.  It's just
>> math.  Designing and making a mold is expensive.  The advantage is you g=
et
>> exactly what you want and the eventual incremental cost per unit is low.
>> Unless you forsee high volumes it doesn't make sense economically, wheth=
er
>> you are a big company or a small one.
>>
>> Let's be very generous and say that it would have taken only $50K to
>> design
>> a custom case, get the mold made, get samples, approve them, design the
>> custom graphics, have Xiaofan approve the look, etc.  If that eventually
>> saved $8 per unit, then I'd have to sell over 6000 USBProg2 before that
>> became cheaper than getting a modified off the shelf box.  This math wor=
ks
>> the same for a big company.
>>
>
> I would happily pay $10 more for a  Dragon with a case, so I don't need
> to worry about its circuits touching some exposed wires/parts of my
> boards, dropping things on it, etc.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Isaac
>
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Sent from my mobile device

int main() { char *a,*s,*q; printf(s=3D"int main() { char *a,*s,*q;
printf(s=3D%s%s%s, q=3D%s%s%s%s,s,q,q,a=3D%s%s%s%s,q,q,q,a,a,q); }",
q=3D"\"",s,q,q,a=3D"\\",q,q,q,a,a,q); }

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