Most of the posts, so far, have dealt with the K2/K3 cost differential on a basis of fun to build and production manufacturing economics. In the SMT vs PTH/discreet component examples cited there was limited mention of the vastly expanded capabilities and somewhat improved performance - not to mention the many new options and programming features of the K3. Needless to say (and I believe Brian noted) the fact that the change to SMT was largely driven by the extreme addition of parts count to duplicate the process using PTH/discreet. Packaging such a system would be nightmarish and much more expensive.
Considering the many anticipated advantages of the K3 over a K2, even a modest added cost would more than justify the purchase for an individual not strongly driven by the addictive scent of vaporized pine resin. It is also quite possible that the assembly of the K3 is within the capabilities of the prospective buyer, giving them the possibility of doing something more than opening a box and not quite as challenging as a K2. It may be suggested that VLSI/LSI designs could also reduce the parts count and simplify assembly. No doubt, but the economics of the design of the device and finding a manufacturer who would tool up and run the devices at an affordable level is highly unlikely at the quantities involved. That sort of setup usually requires 10s of thousands to even consider. BTDT. An example from industry involved a unit that is part of a military weapons system that ran into the 20,000 plus range of deliveries. Cost was substantial and the device ran on a single VLSI programmable device. After producing 10,000 units, it was decided to regress to a device that was two LSI OTS devices and some added discreets. The redesign of the PWB and changes in production tooling etc was far offset by the lower cost of the custom VLSI and reduced the price of the system to the customer (taxpayer) by 10% 73 Al WA6VNN ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
