A Guide to Think Radio’s Pricing
There are 2 common ways of pricing, day rate and fixed-price, or occasionally a mixture of the two.
Day rate tends to be the choice where extra manpower is needed on an existing project, alongside existing engineers, particularly where specialist expertise (such as radio communications) is needed. For a new project, or a proof-of-concept or demonstration system, then fixed-price, with a very well defined set of requirements, can be a more reassuring choice.
Enquiries & Small Jobs
Everyone wants to know what it costs, sometimes even before actually knowing what they want! Obviously initial enquiries are free, but for smaller jobs that can be sent to Think Radio and completed in less than 1 hour,
then £50 would be typical (including all specialist tools, lab equipment, consumables and minor parts).
Day Rate
Day-rate is negotiable, based on £375 per day, depending on urgency, longer-distance travel requirements etc.
There are no extra charges for use of specialist equipment and facilities, unless equipment is hired in (Think Radio has a network of contacts if this is required).
Fixed Price
How much is it going to cost me to develop an electronic product?
Developing an electronic product isn’t just about a Printed Circuit Board, and the code that runs on it (although that’s a big part). A first step in any such project, after defining its use and purpose, is selecting the development hardware and the software development tools.
Think Radio is able to offer exceptional value by specialising in Nordic Semiconductor based solutions.
The costs of developing a prototype are difficult to assess, but key factors are:
- Selecting a microprocessor/microcontroller capable of meeting both current and likely future requirements.
- The target price for the overall product.
- The price and availability of a suitable development system.
- Manufacturer’s support for the system.
- EVERYONE’S FAMILIARITY WITH THE SELECTED TECHNOLOGY.
Number 5 can have a very big impact on overall costs. For that reason Think Radio concentrates on Nordic Semiconductor’s series of ARM based Bluetooth chips. This system includes free usage of sector leading software development and debugging tools (Segger Embedded Studio & Segger Real-Time Tracing RTT).
By choosing Think Radio for your product development, you choose the sector-leading microcontroller with huge future potential AND minimise your product development costs. As part of this process, Think Radio will provide precise how-to instructions, create a duplicate set-up for you of all the software tools, set up a cloud repository, in fact everything needed to continue development yourself or outsource to other engineers. With Think Radio there is no heavy investment in software tools, or ‘lock-in’ to those expensive software tools, or to having to rely on Think Radio if you would prefer to continue your project independently.