[StrLght]

I feel like the article ignores the elephant in the room — production costs.

Producing PCBs (say, 5 or 10 units) is pretty expensive, and components are also costly on such a small scale. Combining these two requires additional money or time. Beyond that, you need to consider that you probably won't get it right the first time, and every attempt multiplies the cost.

It'll be a deal-breaker for many people — the risk is just too high.

[engineer_22]

Pcbs are basically rolling off a laser jet printer in shenzhen and they’ll do pnp for a few dollars more. Pcb cheap.

Have engineer sit there to design pcb is expensive

[StrLght]

Last time I tried JLCPCB, it was way too expensive on a smaller scale. Simple PCB with a cheap Nordic nRF, a few other basic components, 10cm x 5cm: ~17 euros/unit (including shipping) at 5 units which was the minimum amount to order.

Do you have a different experience?

[pardon_me]

Yes, raw PCBs that size are usually closer to 1EUR/unit. DHL shipping on these slightly larger than average boards would be 3EUR/unit.

Are you talking about fully assembled (pcb + components + solder mask + pnp + soldering + test) at 17EUR/unit? If so, that's incredible cheap for a finished product delivered to your door. If not, you're doing something wrong.