What would you buy?

[RobG 1,892]

Bare board, fully assembled board, or partially populated one (for example only SMD and hard to get parts?)

Some people like to assemble, some are afraid of SMD.

What's your preference?

[cubeberg 540]

I like the Partially Populated idea, assuming that the partially populated cost would fall somewhere in between fully assembled and bare board. You save money/time not having to find and solder tiny parts, but can still solder the PTH parts yourself.

[bluehash 1,581]

I think many would prefer the smd populated, but you run into the problem of having loose connections on the soldered parts which cannot be checked.

[GeekDoc 226]

I'd like partially populated if the SMDs are tiny.

 

If they're the larger type (805, is it?), how about a "kit" with all the parts loose? I'm not afraid to solder small parts, but I don't have them on-hand, either.

[SugarAddict 227]

For me it's a no brainer. Bare PCB when possible, otherwise fully populated.

[OppaErich 25]

Partially populated please, kit at best. I'm lazy but do need that smell.

[jsolarski 94]

I would buy smd populated board. I just dont have a decent soldering iron to do smd at this time.

[timotet 44]

bare board !

[cde 334]

Bare Bones is good for people who already have the parts or plans on modding it.

 

Kit is good for most DIYs because of the convenience.

 

Semi-Assembled for the difficult parts (mainly smd ICs, and anything smaller than 0805. 1206 I prefer, but 0805 isn't too unweildy compared to it)

 

Fully assembled is for the arduino/beginner crowd because they rather get going right off the bat instead of hassling with the hazards of assembling (Bad solder joints, parts reversed, over heated, static discharge, bridged traces, etc). You don't have to worry about is a part bad, or is my technique bad.

 

Personally, I'm cheap, so I'd go with the bare board because I could hopefully scavenge everything else.

 

Business wise, I think Kit, Semi and Full are the same when calculating bare costs, and just order a couple more for those who like bare boards (The same margin of boards you expect to damage during assembly if you do it yourself).

 

I wonder what ModernDevice or Adafruit thinks of it. I know Adafruit is very competition friendly and offers advice on kit-businesses. I'm sure Limor wouldn't mind talking shop of when to offer different types of boards, pricing, and how much of each.