How get a nice looking hardware (sorry if OT)?

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

Wow, I'm learning a lot here, thank you.

Are you typically targeting electronic wholesalers or manufacturing companies that could potentially have use for your component, or both?

Regards,

Mattias

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

So the manufacturer shipped directly to the seller?

How is it done with microcontrollers that needs to be flashed, I know PCB assemblers can do it, but how can you protect your code against theft?

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

Re: what/how to charge for an STM32 based product:

Guys in finance - with big brains - taught us ''general rules'' when we were going public. Key financial rules/ratios exist - operating above these generates higher profit - but will effect growth - possibly survival. Much depends on what you're doing: manufacturing has higher profit demands than distribution. There are books detailing these key ratios - which have held true over the past 50 years.

Hard to provide specifics - much depends on ''uniqueness'' of the situation. In my case we provided ''just enough'' expertise to ''marry'' a high-volume Asian manufacturer to a large volume U.S. seller. (turning ''my'' hair grey rather than seller's)

You are asking the right questions - imho too many engineers/programmers ''avoid'' the business end of our field - this will become even more important in these (worldwide) challenging times.

The STM32 is the answer to many of our prayers. If the price stays low - and certain ''strangeness'' is corrected (see forum ''wish-list'') this forum may rise to - maybe exceed - the purchase-level of ST's ''lead'' clients...

FYI - my firm will shortly be announcing ''STM32 ready'' Display-Centric products - low-cost, flexible, full-featured - which facilitate bringing your skills/interests to the attention of large (and small) users...

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

@jj.sprague:

Again, thanks for very interesting reading, not often you get the chance to talk to a person who has btdt. One thing I've been wondering over is how to charge for such a component. This is side project to my daytime job so I'm not re

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

@jj.sprage: I tend to agree with your disagreement :p I'm very young in this business, and have to agree that focus is everything.

@Sarling: Hum... code protection? MCU Board? Is your product a ... finished product? Or a dev board? Without ''givin

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

Not quite - although under some circumstances you can make money by ''introducing producer to buyer - AND someway/somehow ADDING your value'' to the process.

More apt to this forum - our coming ''STM32 Display-Centric'' products combine high volume, high quality Displays - with STM32 & select, custom hw. This enables great cost savings, flexibility (a whole range of ''constant, STM32 interface Displays,'' and eased/reduced development time/cost/effort - even in small quantities.

Should your project succeed we can simplify & manage production via our long-term, reliable, low-cost sources. You or we can program the STM32.

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

I use a 5 to 1 ratio for selling price/parts cost when no other info is available (consumer products)

I have used emachineshop.com to make small, very customized prototype enclosures

[ This message was edited by: obtronix on 05-03-2009 00:05 ]

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

Quote:

@relaxe Hum... code protection? MCU Board? Is your product a ... finished product? Or a dev board? Without ''giving the big idea'', could you provide us any clue on what kind of market you are aiming at?

Well, measurement/data acquisition. jj.sprague gave me the idea to sell as a component. The STM32 would be exposed, I have wondering about this for years. Ideas on the web ranges from epoxy filled cases to frying the reset-pin (of course not acceptable).

@all

Is it a good and viable idea to conceal the chip labels, to not give away which parts are used? The buyer would get this information (or?), if needed, but hide it from the end user. In my case the components says pretty much about the theory of operation.

I need to contact the testing and certification company and see what can be sold as a component to avoid expensive compliance testing.

Really nice talking with you.

/Mattias

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

We can do it. www.vector-hk.com.hk

Kind regards,

Mattias

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 13:04

Quote:

On 05-03-2009 at 00:05, Anonymous wrote:

I use a 5 to 1 ratio for selling price/parts cost when no other info is available (consumer products)

I have used emachineshop.com to make small, very customized prototype enclosures

[ This message was edited by: obtronix on 05-03-2009 00:05 ]

That differs alot from my estimation, I had an idea that a defendable selling price/parts costs ratio would be around 1.6:1. But I am not the economically inclined. But there are several important factors. How much you charge for work and how man units you sell. What is your selling volume? I guess the more specialized a product is, the more you can charge without having too much impact on requests.

/Mattias