Why are sensors so expensive?

[pepijndevos]

I suppose they have a good reason, and LEGO isn't cheap in general, but I'm curious.

Push button, capacitors, clock: $20
gyro, color sensor, ir seeker, etc: $50
Solar panel: $100
Camera: $150

A push button and a capacitor, which would cost a few cents without the LEGO sauce, iare almost like the Apple iSock(literally a sock for $20)

I find the solar panel especially hard to swallow, since it's immensely cool, but similar cells can be bought for $30 on eBay, minus the LEGO holes in the back.

[HaWe]

Why are sensors so expensive?

because the companies want to earn lot of money^^

[mattallen37]

I agree that some of them (like the lego touch and light sensors) are a little expensive. However, the HiTechnic, mindsensors, and Dexter Industries sensors are all special purpose. mindsensors and Dexter Industries need to come up with a reasonable sensor/interface, prototype it, debug it, get software written for it, manufacture it for the market, and actually bring it to market. HiTechnic needs to do all that in addition to making sure their sensors meet the highest of lego standards, as well as be certified and put in a nice lego case.

It's the way almost everything works... the parts themselves might only cost $3 - $30, but with development, markup, and everything else, they need to charge far more than the part value. I personally think most of the 3rd party sensors are actually priced fairly reasonably.

[mightor]

Some sensors take months to develop, some even longer. That time equals money and it needs to be recuperated somehow.

Making sensors is not a HUGE money maker, most of the people who are in this business are in it because they are passionate about it.

- Xander

[pepijndevos]

Good points, I must agree that most of the advanced sensors are probably a fair deal. I still can't find a good reason for the solar panels though.

[gloomyandy]

How many solar panels do you think Lego will actually ship? I suspect not very many. A company like Lego will have a lot of overhead associated with adding a new item to the product line, all of that cost will need to be amortised over the units sold, and this is what I would think makes up the difference in price....

[shaoxiaojun]

come on man, think about Chinese fans, in shanghai, which is the biggest city in china, people get average 4 to 5k Rmb per month, half of it need to pay for house rental, but note, 1$ = 6.3Rmb!!! I cannot imagine you guys live in developed country but still complain the price....

[spillerrec]

I just find it ridiculous that a touch sensor costs 33% more than a PF XL motor... A touch sensor is definitively cheaper to develop and produce than a motor... Just the fact that I feel it is overpriced makes me want not to buy it, no matter if I have money to spare or not.

[mightor]

LEGO sells those sensors for that much because they can.

I know a little bit about how sensors are developed in LEGO and it's a fairly long and pain-staking process. The Power Functions stuff is developed by a completely different department than the Mindstorms stuff. Also, I think the number of PF motors sold is a few order of magnitude higher than Touch Sensors.

- Xander

[HaWe]

well - that does not explain why, e.g. this combined LCD-keypad-board

http://www.shop.robotikhardware.de/shop ... ucts_id=83
costs 11 EUR (~ 9 US $)

- while a Mindsensors keypad

http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?mo ... AGE_id=138
costs 35 US $