SparkFun Forums

[lyndon]

Thats a great breakdown, I never really knew thats what it took. So for something so simple, it can end up costing 2-4k for development of it. That doesnt even cover overhead costs... Cool.

I take back my "price gauging" statement.

That's OK. Many things that seem trivial on the surface are complex to get right. The part that I mentioned takes about 2 hours (coding and testing) is all most engineers think about at first glance, and this leads to a lot of underestimation of what it will take to build something.
Also, there is a lot of wisdom in your statement:

$50/hr sounds good, but as Im busy with other projects, I'd have to decline

You're busy, so $50 an hour isn't enough to get you interested. How much would get you to stop working on your own stuff and work on something else? $100/hour? $1,000/hour? Would you ever do it for $5/hour?

That's what this charging for work stuff really boils down to: how much is my time worth right now? I've done projects for people I met online for the cost of parts + shipping because it was a fun little afternoon project and I was bored. I've charged very low fees (e.g., $300 for what was really a $2,000 job) because I could tell someone was excited to do something, but couldn't afford normal engineering rates and was willing to let me fit it in whenever I had free time. But if it has to be done "right," at a predictable completion time, and with your own specification, that means full price.

I love doing this stuff, but I gotta eat!

[UNTEngineer]

Yeah, I totally get you. I havent had the time to work on my personal projects...so I probably wouldnt have the time to work on something for someone else...work projects always take priority, but thats not to say Im not enjoying them - which I am...I was simply stating that so I get to put some input in here without raising my hand as a potential candidate