Rick:

The $50K number I mentioned was just the raw cost for payroll for Dan and I
since we've started working on this. I neglected to add in Joel's efforts,
as well as material expenses, and I didn't have any profit on that number.

Joel's got 82 hours of his own on this so far on various pieces of
software.  Parts and boards, I think I've spent around $3500 so far.

As such, it would be $60K to reimburse our raw costs thus far.

We had originally quoted $71K per month for the first 9 months.  Ideally
we'd prefer to be a month ahead instead of a month behind, and have some
profit in there somewhere.  That would mean $71K (back effort) plus $71K
(month going forward).

Looking at what we've been doing for the dollars, we've currently got over
6100 files and 560 subdirectories in this project.



Additionally, I would like to launch (in the next couple of weeks) at least
2 more boards, if not 3.  Out of those 3, I think I can hand-assemble 1 for
prototypes, the other 2 boards use parts that will not allow hand assembly.

If I do local assembly, you're probably talking 2 months and a little under
$20K to get prototypes of each of those 2 boards built up.

What I'd like to suggest is just a couple of the IMU modules for
show-and-tell and possible sales, and at least 10 of the FCCs.  We only
need 1 or 2 of the debug / demo boards for the OSD.

All of that is approaching quickly, I want to be able to give Joel more
realistic hardware to target his software efforts to.  He's been doing
primitive overlay with a video screen, thank goodness he hit a self-induced
snag, it bought me some time!

At that point you should have at least 3 (if not 4) unique prototypes.
They might even be suitable for cost analysis and show-and tells.



Do you have a MRP system picked out?  I'm at the point where I should start
making a database for parts and a pile of component specification sheets.

If you don't have one, we might be able to help.  I have one called PEDYN,
you type in what you want to build, it looks at your inventory and then
creates all the POs needed to buy the individual pieces you don't have in
stock.  It also helps you to plan and cost out jobs.

It's not a good program to maintain because Microsoft has been trying to
crush it for the past decade -- but it's still out there, still being
supported.  It's based off Microsoft Access, and of course Access gets you
in bed with Microsoft, which means to me it's not a good place to start.

The good news is, there are some nice Linux-based flavors that look
interesting.

Regards,
Thomas Pownall

CADX Services, Inc.

Tel: 585-624-1491 X101
Fax: 585-582-1101
E-Mail: tpownall@cadxservices.com
Web: http://www.cadxservices.com

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