On 1/27/10, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
On Jan 27, 2010, at 5:09 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
The odd thing there is that I've seen knobs
and switches and such
'tactile' devices at the high end of the market - so it sounds
almost as though buttons and displays has become cheaper than the
"old fashioned" way of doing things on the low-end stuff.
Well, the reasoning for this is simple.
Toggle switches are very expensive, and so are knobs: variable
resistors, rotary switches, and shaft encoders, typically in order of
increasing expense. Pushbutton switches are a bit cheaper but still
pretty pricey.
Holes are expensive, too. Years ago, I worked for a company that made
a telephone line simulator that fit into a standard gray PacTec box.
The front and back panels were machined and silkscreened, and the next
most expensive part of the entire product after the 4-layer PCB.
These days, laser cutting is cheaper than machining, but even with
that, there's still RF leakage (FCC approval) and manual assembly that
make knobs more expensive than the alternative.
That said, I still enjoy UIs with lights, knobs, and switches, but
have come to expect them less and less on consumer items.
-ethan