Thanks Erco for the encourging words. I really appriciate them.....unfortunately the *** USA just ended TPP today which allowed little people like me to buy parts from China SUPER cheap. If I have to buy parts here in US I will never be able to stay in this hobby. I am disabled and cant work so price is very important to me. Our country is going down the tubes quick. I Wish I could move to yours where the quality of people is so much better. (Count your blessings over there!).
Greyling, bless you, you CAN work and you've just proved it. You've designed a product that seems to have an interested market. Go with it. Work doesn't mean laying bricks or building cars. It means dragging the human race, kicking and screaming, from where it is now to where it should perhaps be next.
I build and sell a commercial product based on the Picaxe. Non of it comes from China, or indeed from anywhere overseas, except for the chips themselves. But the Microchip PICS go to England to become Picaxes, and then sold back to me to become incorporated into a product that is sold all over the world (in admittedly very small quantities).
Have faith, carry on, and sell me a board!
EDIT: Greyling, when I first asked myself whether I belived in my own product to the extent that I had to commit to a substantial order (populated boards, electrically tested, packaged and delivered), I was
absolutely shocked at how cheap they were. Once I had approached a local board shop, had a design review, and got a formal quote, it was roughly 15% of what I been spending assembling them myself. I specified all of the parts and provided them the Gerber files. That was it. Their ability to merge parts purchasing across a huge number of customers using the same part saved... a lot of money. I'm an engineer, and a bad businessman. It still awes me that the power of the market can drive product prices as drastically as it does. If you think you have a real product, sink what you can afford into a first production run,(even if it's only 1, or 10) and sell it. Listen to your customers, but don't let them turn your product into a Frankenstein. Stick to your guns, and take Bill Lear to heart:
"Find a need, and fill it".