Parts and costs

Looking towards the future!

Here is a brief overview of the parts we might consider if we were to make an actual functioning device that does everything:

Particle Electron: https://store.particle.io/collections/electron - $69.00

Display: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1770 - $29.95

 Or

(https://www.adafruit.com/product/2090) -($39.95)

GPS: https://www.adafruit.com/products/746 - $39.95

Power: https://www.adafruit.com/products/258 - $9.95

Charger: https://www.adafruit.com/products/259 - $12.50

Charger cable: https://www.adafruit.com/products/260 - $4.50

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Roughly: $165.50

(or $175.50)

All told, the price is… a lot more than we would like to spend on this product let alone in this class. Also, probably a lot more than any customer would be willing to spend on this device. What to do? This list also does not include a value for time spent assembling the darn things or the cost of material to make real housing for the devices (still not sure what that might look like) as well as a host of other small things (like the cost of solder used) that might pop up in manufacturing and retailing. Buying in bulk and replacing parts with base components to solder ourselves would cut the cost per device down by close to $40 or more but still not leave the final price at a level that I am confident would sell. There is also the possibility that, as this is a device created for the public benefit, it might be subsidized in some way by emergency services. Nearly every phone bill does include a service charge to fund emergency services. Perhaps some of these funds might be directed to help provide crucial first aid information to the general population as well as better location for emergency services and call centers. While all this might not bring the cost below $60 or even $70, I find these prices more acceptable. In the end this project requires a great deal of more research and development to produce a final product that fulfils all our requirements. The final device will not be cobbled together from parts bought somewhat haphazardly from different websites and hopefully the final cost for the consumer would be between $40 to $50, close to the cost of a fire extinguisher and other life saving devices.

Apart from all that, just a brief update on the actual physical device that we are building. We have added a five way switch and multiple menus to the display that allows for the user to actually interact with  the device and not have to use a phone. We have also begun to add first aid information under related titles, making it easy for a user to find the information they seek. Still quite a few problems… The photon will crash occasionally (bringing the entire computer with it once) and random characters will be displayed on the screen along with the relevant information. It is also becoming abundantly clear that the screen we are using is just too small to get all the information across.