Re: Commodore 64 Ultimate Cartridge project

From: Michał Pleban <lists_at_michau.name>
Date: Wed, 09 May 2012 11:34:37 +0200
Message-ID: <4FAA3A2D.6040801@michau.name>
Hello!

skoe@directbox.com wrote:

> So you can save the cost and time for hardware development and soldering
> and just take a 1541U/1541U-II/Chameleon and write your own firmware.
> AFAIK all documentation needed to do this is open, at least for Chameleon.

Hmm, the Chameleon looks almost exactly what I am trying to do :-) But 
it is really expensive. I wonder how many people would pay EUR 200 for 
such cartridge?

> When you calculate the cost for just a cart, don't be too optimistic.
> e.g. the parts for the EF3 are really cheap, but even though the sellers
> tried to optimize the cost as much as possible (e.g. by "high"
> production volume) it's sold for a lot more because there are many
> additional costs (PCB, work, warranty).

The cost of the parts I calculated was about $40, half of which is the 
FPGA. I added extra $10 for PCB and the like. It might go higher 
definitely, it was just a wild guess.

I thought of two business models: selling the board for high price (like 
$99) and allowing downloading the images for free, or selling the board 
at minimum price and charging for individual core downloads (like $5 for 
download). The second model would allow other enthusiasts to profit from 
creating images for the board, and thus would attract larger number of 
cores in the future.

Regards,
Michau.


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Received on 2012-05-09 10:00:40

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