My Pricing Philosophy
My goal has always been to price things so that anyone can afford reliable, fully automatic signals. I try to keep prices as low as I can. On the other hand, I don’t want to be working in the shop 24/7 working for free!
My price calculations include my direct cost of parts, assembly and testing labor time as well as something to cover my costs on parts shipping, stocking parts and spares, etc., etc.
Note I said nothing about ‘development’ labor. Everything I sell took time to design, develop, field test, etc.
Even something relatively simple like the “Switchpoint Sensor” went through many design iterations to reduce the original design to the fewest possible parts that still achieved the goal (reliable, accurate point sensing). Someone might look at the end result and say “I could make that for way less than that!” – maybe, but, you would not have had to go through the design iterations, you don’t have to stock parts (i.e.: money on the shelf), document it, answer questions about it, support it, make (hopefully) 100’s, ship them, etc.
We are probably all aware of cases where someone has copied (either directly or indirectly) an item on the market because they thought the price was too high. This isn’t fair to the person that designed and developed the part and discourages innovation and suppliers to the hobby. If the person developed the new item independently without relying on documentation, measurements, etc. of the original part to make a better part – that’s fair.
Unfortunately, the ride-on-railroad hobby is too small to benefit from ‘economies of scale’. I can’t order 10,000 processor chips to get my costs down – I would never sell that many. As an example, on my BC020 Cable Interface Card I use a power regulator module available through common sources for under $3. I would have to order 10,000 of the main part on that module (switching regulator chip) to get the price down to $1 each for the chip (about $2 quantity 10) .. and that doesn’t include the printed circuit board, the other parts, shipping, etc. so I buy the modules to save you and me money.
The one item I do charge some for ‘development’ is the BC002 Controller itself. This contains over 30,000 lines of C/C++ code in the firmware and is the result of over 10 years of designing, writing code, testing code, replacing code, field testing, redesign, retest, (repeat) …
Every customer benefits in that they automatically receive (through software updates) any new features that were developed for other customers. Even if I only paid myself $1/hour I could never charge enough to cover the thousands of hours spent designing and developing the software – but, again, I didn’t get into this to get rich. My goal is that you be able to better utilize your railroad and get more enjoyment out of it.
I also offer some items in kit form. These kits consist of all the parts needed. Common tools such as a small-tip soldering iron, solder, etc. are all that is needed for assembly. If a printed circuit card uses SMT (Surface Mount) parts I usually ship the printed circuit board with the SMT parts already mounted. Contact me for kit prices.
Please feel free to contact me if you feel an item is over priced and I will either try to convince you that the cost is justified or adjust the price if I can.
I offer discounts for volume purchases (items shipped at one time) and discounts on any hardware that was developed to address a specific issue you had since you are helping to ‘field test’ it.
Contact me for more information on prices not listed below. Prices not listed are still being determined, please contact me if interested in an un-priced item. People will be notified automatically of price updates and sales if they have ‘Subscribed’ (lower right on the Home Page).
Price List
| Part Number | Unit Price |
| BC002 Controller | $125.00 |
| BC002-2 Base Board | $85.00 |
| BC009 Low Side Driver | $41.00 |
| BC011 Serial Isolator | $18.00 |
| BC015 Opto Driver | $54.50 |
| BC016 Base Board Opto Adapter | $62.51 |
| BC017 Relay Driver | $58.23 |
| BC018 Relay Expander | $52.78 |
| BC020 Cable Interface Card | $57.56 |
| BC022 Dual Port Adapter | |
| BC026 Switchpoint Sensor Interface (Relay version) | $40.43 |
| BC027 Switchpoint Sensor. Supplied with 3′ cable. | $24.60 or $44.28 / pair (add $1 per foot for wire per sensor) |
| BC028 Switchpoint Sensor Interface | $34.45 |
| BC032 Controller | $158.16 |
| BC033 Cable Interface Card (for BC032) | 80.06 |
| BC034 Bus Interface card (for BC033) | $23.37 |
| BC035 Controller Base (for BC032) | $93.11 |
| BC044 Serial Cable Assembly (includes BC011) This cable is used to connect to the controller diagnostic port. | $53.60 |
| A0001 Rail Profile End Insulators | $9 per dozen |
| SH-303 Three Lamp Sub-assembly | $50.00 |
| SH-304 Three Lamp Target | |
| SH-305 Three Lamp Target (small) | |
| SH-001 Fresnel Lenses | $1.50 or $15 per dozen |