Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

For many years I did not have to worry about whether or not a new MOTM
module would sell. The reason: Curtis IC sales.

All of the module R&D budget was 100% paid for by me selling the CEM ICs
that Doug Curtis had in his garage. This was true up until the '480.

So really, the only 'out-of-pocket' funded MOTM module was the '730.

When I say "funded", I mean:

a) cost of all the prototype pc boards and parts
b) FPE panels to verify the panel layout
c) parts and production costs for the first 50 modules

In many cases, there were parts used in every module (pots/jacks/knobs/etc)
so there might be a few unique parts + the pc board but it was not that much
overall (say $4500).

The SMT model is much more, because there is the tooling cost (now about
$850) and the fact you need parts on reels which is either full reels or
partials and you part a LOT more for those. And, you have to pay to run ALL
the board sets at once and the hard part: PAY for all the boards at once.
The pc boards are now run 4-up on a panel so you have to break them apart.
There is a lot more 'handling' of 'stuff' in SMT up front (as opposed to me
& Paul H. putting 1.7 million parts into 128,000 little plastic bags).

Paul S.