i think you all forget something here:
1. the FI instruments are stepper driven. A cheap gauge like the one you linked to is voltage driven. Technology is much cheaper. The real gauge is 100 year old prooven technology. the gauge you linked too is not MILLspec thus cheap. The sim gauge had to be reinvented, developments costs...etc.
BTW. I am watching a real RMI on my desk now. price when you order it now: 13.000 dollars.....i dont think you pay that for a sim directional gyro. 150 is closer to it.
2. wideness of market. The real gauge is being sold tens of thousands of times. the FS gauge is sold a few hundred times. Larger sales---> lower price
3. beacause of the high production volume the real gauges they are produced machinally. The FI insturments are produced manualy. The low volume does not justify automated production.
4. development costs have to be earned back in a low volume. If you put 3 engineers on designing an instrument for 3 months thats an investment of 9.000 a month x3 = 27.000. if you sell 10000 units thats 2,7 euro per unit. If you sell 500 thats 54 euro per unit. And trust me...they really dont sell that much.
5. sure...you can make a radio yourself....but are you really that cheaper then ? I used IOcards for my pedestal (2xnav, 2x comm, adf1, adf2, txpdr). That cost me 440 euros in IOcards and small parts (mastercard, 3x displaycard, 3x encoder card, 2x terminals, displays, 6x dual concentric rotaries) + around 400 euros for the panels + another 100 for mdf and small parts. Total 940 euro's.
Took me over a month work in total.
CPflight plug and play radios would have cost me 1000 euros. So not that much of a difference.
6. a real radio is closer to 3000 euro. EACH ! Not 800 like someone suggested in another thread.
7. Some referred to Hispapanels, Opencockpits, etc. Great initiatives. I love opencockpits, but these are NON PROFIT projects. Open source. Companies like engravity, fds, cpflight, marcus, etc have to make a living out of it ! They have people they employ at thousands a month each ! They cant produce without a profit. They need to eat too ! Companies like FDS and Engravity Invest 100s of thousands of dollars. A good cnc machine can cost anything from 20K to over 100.000 euros. They dont get those for free. same for injection molding machines, laser cutters, laser engravers. A metal injection mold can cost over 2000 euros. etc etc etc etc .
8. nobody forces you to buy the stuff...if you can make it cheaper yourself, by all means do...just like i did with my pedestal.
9. Finally a big hurray to people like Jorg from simparts who make small parts at an affordable price ! but yet. his lightplates for radios cost 45 euros too. Some might call it expensive. i call it a bargain !! I'm sure he does not make alot of profit on them. Bravo Jorg ! Thanks!
a long story...but i just had to write it.....
This is an expensive hobby. You cant build a full flightdeck for 1000 euros. its ok to complain about prices...but please dont forget the manufacturers have to feed mouths too.
if people want it in german i will try it
will take me an hour though
Stef
www.boeing737ng.com