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Having spent over a year now working on reproducing boards for System 11 and WPC I can definitely say that it's hugely time consuming to design, source parts and hand populate the boards. Then I have to test them and find out issues with them. For the initial revisions I only order 5 of a board (the minimum) and it's expensive to do it that way. If I order more and have a dud or a board that's crippled (requires trace cutting and re-routing) it's a waste of time/money.

Some points to note:

1) Hand populating boards does NOT scale. It takes me several hours of the course of several days to hand populate a big board (like System 11 CPU or WPC-89 Power Driver). I'll admit I'm OCD about it but when the CAD software says 2,500+ pads that just takes time when hand populating.

2) For displays (specifically relevant to this thread) I was not able to find a retailer that sold the 16-segment alphanumeric LED unit. I had to go to a manufacturer who had a MOQ (minimum order quantity). That means I'm sitting on inventory that is excessive and I may not ever use. For other boards with NLA (no longer available) parts it's scouring eBay or other merchants and taking a chance that the IC works.

3) I plan on offering bare boards for System 11 displays (all types - discrete (High Speed), quad (Swords of Fury), double (Whirlwind)). My system was primarily designed for bench testing but it does work in machines. I have all the boards ready I just don't have an installation guide. I have to write that up too. With the aforementioned 16-segment alphanumeric LED unit issue I will need to supply those because I wouldn't expect a customer to buy in MOQ numbers.

4) I often remember people complaining at my previous job about things. The issue I have with complaining is that often the person complaining has no real idea what is involved in building the thing they are complaining about. I only appreciated this after trying to do it myself. You can complain that something like the Rottendog 9211 board is close to $400 but I can tell you that once you calculate the time invested in developing it, acquiring the parts (and potential risk with 6821 counterfeits) and assembling it that cost is actually close to reasonable. Niche products are never going to be cheap.

5) I have spent at least several thousand just on board fabrication already (does not include parts, etc). I haven't "recovered" any of it in sales. I'm doing this because I really, genuinely want reproduction boards to be available to keep machines running. I always tell people interested in this ... "DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB". Even at retail prices you can't make a living on this stuff.

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