OK underwurlde, now that supper is gone and Eastenders is spellbinding the nation, I have some minutes to go through your post.
You seem to have missed the point that I challenged your original assertion (of board costing <= £10 to make) because you (a) were so arrogant about your qualifications and experience, (b) were so disparaging of an RGI who, in all likelihood, is trying to make an honest living, and (c) practically dared someone to disagree.
I've never claimed, nor pretended, to know as much as you
probably do about electronics or PCB design and production. However, you'll never find out how much I know because I don't blow the smoke of my own qualifications or experience in anyone's face. I find people who trumpet about themselves to be quite insecure and a more than a little pathetic. That's just my view.
To pick up on one point, and to illustrate some of the constipated logic that you deploy, the example of the £17.44 Tesco DVD player was supposed to be ironic. I still can hardly believe you failed to spot it, and that you prefer to think that I'm so stupid as to have furnished with you a ready-made example that would prove your point. The fact is that it doesn't prove anything. If you still think it does, then consider this:
Tesco also sell other crappo DVD players; they sell the next one up the price chain for about £27, or thereabouts. If your reasoning is so faultless, then the production costs for this are identical, give or take £0.01, to those for the £17.44 unit, and the only logical conclusion from your reasoning is that there's an extra £10 of profit in the more expensive one. This exposes your reasoning as being flawed,
without having to go into the minutiae of transistor costs, because you've paid no heed to the quality of the finished product, and the cost of dealing with returns. Given this last point, there's no way for Tesco to make any money out of selling the £17.44 unit, because one made out of mashed potatoes would be about as reliable. Why do they sell it? Clearly to get people into the shop. It's called a loss-leader. But you'll know all about that.
Your calculations of the cost producing a boiler PCB are, on the one hand, reasonable, but you're surprisingly blinkered for someone who calls himself an engineer. Maybe they cost £10, or maybe £20, or £30 - I don't really care, because the cost is a tiny proportion of the RRP, which is all you had to say at the beginning, and everyone would have agreed with you.
So, on to answering some of the questions you aimed at me, purely in order to prevent any accusation of hypocrisy...
Why should I even be listening to your arguments if you are unwilling to back your arguments up with any qualifications or experience in the matter?
Well, when I listen to people, or read what they write, I don't judge what they say according to the qualifications they say they have. To do so would be naive, for one thing, and stifling of free thought for another.
Why should I believe your statements? What are your statements based on? IMO, I don't think you know what you're talking about. Do you?
When I explain to a client why I recommend the things that I do, I give the reasoning, not a list of qualifications. I treat people as if they are capable of understanding, not as inferior because they have, or might have, passed fewer exams, or haven't worked as long in a given field of expertise. It's precisely
because you rely on your qualifications as proof of your arguments that I have no faith in your conclusions. If you want respect, and you clearly do, then you have to show some.
I'll bet you don't have any experience of design & manufacture, do you?
In fact, I do.
I've been wasting my time talking to the average know-it-all mouthy idiot from down the b****y pub!
You've certainly been wasting your time, but that's hardly anyone else's fault.
Because boiler PCBs incorporate important safety features
It just gets better & better. Please tell me, what are these 'important safety features' and why would it make a 'PCB' that would otherwise cost a tenner to make suddenly cost £120.
By all means - profit, insurance, warranty, and customer support. For example, the recent Suprima PCB debacle has resulted in Potterton spending more money on warranty then they were expecting to. Clearly that doesn't come out of the £10, and only a fool would think that they were getting a replacement board for nothing.
There - that was so easy I expect you're kicking yourself for not thinking of it yourself.
Is that the best you can come up with? Pulling some obvious issues out of the air?
No - it isn't the best. But you weren't worth me putting more effort into it than that.
You have not even given any of your points some real values for comparison. And why would simply stating that that PCB costs less than a tenner to make be showing off?
You're the only person on the forum who appears to think that you weren't showing off. If it's so important to you to think that, then please go ahead. Have a ball. Knock yourself out. Give yourself an honorary doctorate, or a gold star, or something.
So let me get this right.... You are saying that 'PCB's in DVD players CAN be made for less than a tenner.
I'm not. You are. Please see above.
---
Now concentrating on the 'PCB' inside the boiler: It is actually manufactured by a company called Pektron...
.
.
.
Quite a sleek outfit, obviously completely geared up for cost effective production of 'PCB's.
But whichever company produced the assembly that you've just butchered was not one that anyone could describe as "sleek". Does this mean that they produced that assembly for more cost, or less? You don't have to answer this - it's just food for thought. Don't bolt it though - chew it slowly and let the flavour flood out.
huge rant without any questions
That's nice.