Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [cost]

74 questions
59
votes
6 answers

Why are digital oscilloscopes still so expensive?

I'm a beginner in hobby electronics and I am wondering why digital oscilloscopes are still so expensive? In times of cheap GHz CPUs, USB 3, ADSL modems, DVB-S receivers, blu-ray players which all of them have remarkable clock frequencies/sampling…
MRalwasser
  • 739
  • 1
  • 6
  • 10
47
votes
11 answers

Cheapest FPGAs?

How cheap do FPGAs get? I know they're more expensive than microprocessors of comparable capability, but I wonder if there exist FPGAs that could contain a Microblaze soft core running Linux, while leaving gates available for implementing DSP…
pingswept
  • 12,581
  • 4
  • 46
  • 64
22
votes
3 answers

Is 0603 vs 0402 assembly mass production cost optimization still relevant?

Historically, choosing a design avoiding 0402 and finer pitch components was advantageous for mass production cost savings. The yields were improved and accuracy requirements for pick and place machines were reduced. This allowed vendors to choose…
lm317
  • 1,000
  • 7
  • 18
20
votes
5 answers

Why are MAX-, AD-, LT- parts (among others) so expensive?

I'm curious why some IC manufacturers like Maxim, Analog Devices, and Linear Tech's parts are so expensive? I know they are much higher quality (better electrical characteristics, etc), but for some parts it still doesn't make sense. For example: SD…
Shubham
  • 6,054
  • 12
  • 41
  • 55
16
votes
7 answers

How do you find high-quantity prices for ICs?

I know of findchips.com, oemstrade.com, octopart.com, and the like. But even the lowest prices on these sites are still higher than the prices on BOMs I get from China. How do you realistically estimate the cost of an IC purchased at high…
endolith
  • 28,494
  • 23
  • 117
  • 181
14
votes
3 answers

IC on Digikey is 5x more expensive than board containing same IC on Alibaba: How?

I built a prototype using an NFC board I bought from Alibaba for 1$ (https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/rfid-rc522.html). It claims to use the NXP MFRC522 IC, and if I look on the board the chip has that part number and even the little NXP logo. It…
MapleTronix
  • 486
  • 3
  • 12
12
votes
2 answers

Pros and cons of using resistor networks over individual resistors?

I've been looking over some board designs and have been trying to identify the reasons behind using resistor networks over individual resistors. Some guesses I can think of are a reduced part-count and complexity. Does it also follow that a design…
Crunchy
  • 451
  • 1
  • 5
  • 11
11
votes
3 answers

low noise, low distortion analog multiplexing

I'm trying to design a low noise, low distortion, low cost op-amp circuit for multiplexing analog (audio) signals. Experience, research and some experimenting already led me to the following components in combination with a proper low-noise power…
gommer
  • 1,023
  • 6
  • 17
10
votes
1 answer

Which is better - components on both sides or components on one side of the PCB?

I am working on a PCB design. 50k PCBs will be produced. SMD components: 100 Through-hole components: 25 I need to minimize PCB size. There are no high-speed signals or sensitive signals in the design. I have two options: Components on single-side…
komto909
  • 332
  • 2
  • 16
10
votes
5 answers

Why do DC motors cost more than AC motors of the same power?

For high-power motors around 1000 kW, the price of a DC motor is much higher than that of an AC motor of the same power. I know there is a commutator and brushes, but I don't think that is the only reason behind the higher cost. What else accounts…
Ashay Deshmukh
  • 101
  • 1
  • 4
9
votes
6 answers

What is the place of 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers? Why hasn't 32-bit taken over?

What is the real cutoff point in terms of the trade-off between cost and performance for selecting 32-bit microcontrollers? In other words, with the rise and domination of ARM architectures, why are we still using 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers?…
Bruno Morais
  • 333
  • 1
  • 9
8
votes
3 answers

Pull Switches - why so expensive

I would like to use a pull switch as a trigger for an alarm that I'm building. When the switch is triggered it will turn on a siren and potentially a strobe light. I've found plenty of options out there, but the prices are a bit staggering. Take…
Matt Ruwe
  • 1,957
  • 7
  • 23
  • 35
8
votes
2 answers

Single- vs double-sided PCB assembly costs

I'm working on a new design (still laying out the components) and I have a chance here to reduce the size of the PCB by roughly 40%-50% if I use the other side for a QFP-100 IC (so it's heavy and will probably need gluing) and a few passives. The…
mux
  • 1,866
  • 5
  • 23
  • 27
7
votes
3 answers

PCB vias impact in cost

Often times I read comments/recommendations about placing lots of vias for GND in 4-layer designs, as well as a line-up of vias surrounding the board to protect from EMI, etc. I was always under the impression that vias (either tented or not) have a…
Guillermo Prandi
  • 897
  • 1
  • 10
  • 24
7
votes
5 answers

Reverse engineer a chip or go with a new one and start from scratch?

I'm working on an existing toy product and the chip has been discontinued. We still want to produce more of this product. You press a combination of buttons and it talks to you. What would be a more cost effective approach? Reverse engineer a chip…
milesmeow
  • 1,163
  • 1
  • 13
  • 27
1
2 3 4 5