🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <39tlg7$e40@oldklatu.interserv.net>
           mburton@mortimer.keytronic.com "Michael Burton" writes:

> It's a little hard to pare .5 oz of cheese off of a piece that weighs .3 oz.
> In U.S. terms, if the diodes cost .02 cents a piece, then that's 2.04 added
> to our costs. Since our margin (profit) on most keyboards is less than 2
> dollars, we sould be selling the things at a loss.  Maybe we could make up
> the difference in volume, eh?<G>

Umm ... I wasn't saying it didn't make commercial sense to do this paring
(though I hate to think just how mickey-mouse machines are going to get if
it gets carried to its logical conclusion). Your arithmetic is wrong, though
- I said 0.2 pence, or about $0.003. Multiplied by 102 gives 30.6 cents. I
was guessing at a price, based on the fact that even in quantities of a few
thousand, diodes are less than 0.5p even to people like me. Using surface
mount multiple-diode packs should reduce it even lower than 0.3c.

You have to think of it as a proportion of the cost of the switch, which is
a fairly rugged device rated for enormous numbers of operations. It's
mass-produced in amazing quantities, but then so is a diode.

In the end, it's the customer's option. Personally, I'd pay a few more
pounds/dollars for NKRO. Those who wouldn't pay this have to accept the odd
missed character if they work at touch-type speeds.

--
Tim                                       [                                 ]