What makes power sensors so expensive?

ronsimpson said:

There are people in China that take a data sheet and copy the example circuit out of it. They make a circuit without really knowing what it does. They don't even know how to test it. But they can advertise it on Alie for $4.98.

I designed part of a Signal Generator. I want one but the cost is high. I now have a clone of it. No manual. Works OK but not as good. They did not invest the big money into new ideas. They did not make the PC --- Signal Generator software work. Cannot be controlled over the internet. Does not talk to a scope. Some RFI noise. But for 1/10 the price it works for what I want it to do.

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Its a devil of their own demise. These non-cutting edge products are simply overpriced for their utility and technology, but instead of letting prices come down, they have allowed XinaXunk, inc to come in and take their market share.

It will not be long before these companies are widely in labs, and then you will have another controlled corporation feeding the world tech.

They are challenging to develop and build. Here are some reasons why they are so expensive. You need to figure out how to get a small strain gauge into whatever location you have. You need to figure out how to calibrate them easily. Strain gauges require high-precision electronics to work well. Everything needs to run on very low power, everything needs to be small and finally, everything needs to be waterproof.

mechengi said:

They are challenging to develop and build. Here are some reasons why they are so expensive. You need to figure out how to get a small strain gauge into whatever location you have. You need to figure out how to calibrate them easily. Strain gauges require high-precision electronics to work well. Everything needs to run on very low power, everything needs to be small and finally, everything needs to be waterproof.

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We're retreading here. None of these things are dissimilar to a piece of test of equipment with a case form factor. There are all kinds of things that had to be developed there as well.

Once that development is done, costs should go down. The fact that the XinaJunk has already started to swallow market share on all kinds of cased meters tells me they are headed here next.

Funny aside, I was modifying one of my rack mount network switches, I had the power supply open and my wife commented at how ugly and badly put together it was. Mind you, she is used to seeing the insides of beautifully designed boards I'm fixing, she actually asked me if I was fixing someone's really bad job at fixing the switch. I had opened the power supply about 20 minutes earlier, previously never opened. The work inside was so shoddy (and normal) that posting a picture would break everyone's monitor.

Point is, we had well priced gear in our reach if these reputable companies wanted to... but they didn't so all our circuit boards will look this HP switch that when the XinaJunk express controls all and can then REALLLY stop caring about quality.

mechengi said:

They are challenging to develop and build. Here are some reasons why they are so expensive. You need to figure out how to get a small strain gauge into whatever location you have. You need to figure out how to calibrate them easily. Strain gauges require high-precision electronics to work well. Everything needs to run on very low power, everything needs to be small and finally, everything needs to be waterproof.

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While I somewhat agree as to strain gauges as I worked quite a bit with them I have never seen a strain gauge used in a commercial power measurement head. Generally power measuring devices use a thermistor or general temperature measurement plane design. If you have any references to using a strain gauge for power measurement I would much appreciate the read.

Ron