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When is DIY more expensive than store-bought?

Posted by james on

I love making things myself. I always get a feeling of accomplishment when I make something from scratch, and it's fun to solve problems this way.

I needed a USB button for my computer. Just anything where I can capture the output. I used this before:


Which worked well enough, and was cheap. But it's nearly impossible to find on sale at a reputable place anymore, and it looks goofy.

So I thought about making my own USB button, DIY style. There's a few ways to do this, from expensive & time consuming to cheap & hacked.

1) I could use an Arduino board to handle USB communications, and then use a lit arcade button to handle the actual button pressing. I'd also need a project case and USB cable. Figure rough cost (Arduino $25, arcade button $10, project box $9, USB cable $5) about $49.00 including shipping.

2) I could hack a USB keypad/keyboard and essentially turn it into a one-button USB keyboard. Fun idea, and easier to program... just look for the "0" key, or whatever key I mapped the button to. The keypad replaces the arduino, but I'd still need the other parts . Rough cost is now (usb keypad $8, arcade button $10, project box $9, USB cable $5) about $32.00. That's a little better.

So I could totally make one for myself, and have an ok (but not great) looking box that does what I need. It would spit out a single character when it's hit, and I could use it just like a keyboard. This will work for some applications, but for others it'll be like some random person hitting a key on your keyboard - not ideal.

So option 3) buy the Griffin Powermate. It's basically the first thing that comes up when you search for "USB button". It's very slick looking, all metal. It has both a button and a rotary encoder, so it's more flexible for later. And it has custom software, so it wont just spit out random keypresses. It's about $36 at amazon with free shipping right now.

So that's $36 for a professional button that looks awesome and works better, vs $32 for a hacked one that works, but not great.

Now factor in time - if I want to produce a few of these (say a couple dozen), and they take about 2-4 hours each (might be longer, who knows), then I'm saving $4 for each button, spending an average of 3 hours on each one, which means I'm making / saving $1.33 for each hour I work. Wow.

DIY doesn't always have to be cheaper. Sometimes it's worth doing because 1) you can do things just the way you like, or 2) what you want isn't sold, or 3) just because you can. But often DIY is a cost savings measure. So for the case of the USB button, it just doesn't add up to DIY.

But the silver lining? I've really wanted one of these shiny PowerMate buttons since I saw them, but couldn't justify the cost. Now I have one on the way from Amazon. Thank goodness for rationalization, or I'd never get new toys :)