If I was the owner, what would I do?

[lutach]

Originally Posted by gixxer

I think azjc answered it very well. I really like the idea of hv but I totally understand its not for everyone do mostly to the price.

Also good, but one can learn from the Euro giants. They will use one PCB, but with different components for a higher voltage controller. Wan to see a good example: http://www.schulze-elektronik-gmbh.de/fut-val-e.htm. Scroll down and you will see the last 2 pictures. One is with the BEC (More components) and the other is Opto (Less components). The Opto will use higher voltage MOSFETs and they do cost more if you buy from catalogue distributors, but for me it doesn't make a difference, I get them cheap. One example is the NXP MOSFET I got for my controller, it was being sold at DigiKey for $1.50 each and I bought them for $0.45 each and I could've gotten them cheaper, but I only found one Reel. I know companies have big overheads, but lets leave that to the side for a little bit as it contributes to the price of a product much more than the components used.

[Pdelcast]

Originally Posted by lutach

Also good, but one can learn from the Euro giants. They will use one PCB, but with different components for a higher voltage controller. Wan to see a good example: http://www.schulze-elektronik-gmbh.de/fut-val-e.htm. Scroll down and you will see the last 2 pictures. One is with the BEC (More components) and the other is Opto (Less components). The Opto will use higher voltage MOSFETs and they do cost more if you buy from catalogue distributors, but for me it doesn't make a difference, I get them cheap. One example is the NXP MOSFET I got for my controller, it was being sold at DigiKey for $1.50 each and I bought them for $0.45 each and I could've gotten them cheaper, but I only found one Reel. I know companies have big overheads, but lets leave that to the side for a little bit as it contributes to the price of a product much more than the components used.

You do know that Castle is bigger than Schultze and Kontronic combined right?

Patrick

[lutach]

Originally Posted by Pdelcast

You do know that Castle is bigger than Schultze and Kontronic combined right?

Patrick

Yes, $7 million in sales for 2007 is not bad. I'm sure that number might be off, but it was just a quick search I did. I just can't stop scratching my head and seeing the Europeans having some HV fun with their cars. I know the airplane and boat market are big, but I see many more vehicles being sold a LHS than I do planes. My LHS for example (Xtreme RC Addicts) mainly deals with cars. They have a nice indoor track and it would be great for Castle to have a little gathering there.

Originally Posted by lutach

Also good, but one can learn from the Euro giants. They will use one PCB, but with different components for a higher voltage controller. Wan to see a good example: http://www.schulze-elektronik-gmbh.de/fut-val-e.htm. Scroll down and you will see the last 2 pictures. One is with the BEC (More components) and the other is Opto (Less components). The Opto will use higher voltage MOSFETs and they do cost more if you buy from catalogue distributors, but for me it doesn't make a difference, I get them cheap. One example is the NXP MOSFET I got for my controller, it was being sold at DigiKey for $1.50 each and I bought them for $0.45 each and I could've gotten them cheaper, but I only found one Reel. I know companies have big overheads, but lets leave that to the side for a little bit as it contributes to the price of a product much more than the components used.

Graphics card companies (ATI and Nvidia) tend to do the same thing. There's only I think three different boards/basic designs for the 8 series Nvidia cards, but there's the 8400, 8500, 8600, 8700, and the 8800, and then all of their variants (GS, GT, GTS, GTX, Ultra, etc.). So you're looking at at least 10 different cards from three basic platforms. All they do is either lock some pipelines, change the GPU, the Vram varies from card to card, and maybe a few other tweaks like bios. Other than that, you can unlock something like say even a 7200 up to a 7400 spec (sometimes...).

It's a good business practice, and it helps tremendously in cutting down on cost for different product lines. The only down side is that for graphics cards, sometimes people figure out how to get a new bios on the card, unlock some pipelines, or whatever, and so they essentially have a card that sells for at least 50 bucks more for free. ESCs are probably harder to do that with though...