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Message: [QUOTE="JohnRoberts, post: 1013342, member: 4409"] We need a proper definition of what the product (SKU) being sold is, and then what does the customer think they are getting for his/her money? In my judgement customer expectations for the kit business have changed over the several decades I have been involved/paying attention. Back in the 70s when I started selling kits the consumers were trying to save money by providing their own cheap labor to acquire some functional product at a significant discount below retail. This business model got upset by factory automation dramatically reducing the labor content. By the 80s there were commercial SKUs being sold for less than my parts cost. :unsure: For education the vast majority of my customers were not in it for the education but I marketed most kits via construction articles in Popular Electronics that involved a lucid description of operational theory and in some cases design equations. This accidentally created an opportunity for college students who were tasked with changing an existing design for course credit. After I figured this out I included more design equations and sold more kits to college pukes trying to get course credit easily. Now I am less sure about what kit buyers are motivated by. I remain unsure about some thirst for education. If you want to learn how to design stuff, figure out how products work by repairing them. For extra credit repair them without schematics. Then design some simple stuff yourself. Nowadays with most functions integrated into ICs circuit design involves reading the manufacturer's app notes and copying it correctly. Amusing to me was one popular kit author (now RIP) who screwed up even that, but at this point it doesn't matter. If clones are of questionable merit, what does that say about clone kit's? JR [/QUOTE]

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