Treggers, I really liked Doug McKean's comments, but thought of a couple of items regarding the "value added" point of the CE mark and compliance testing in general.
1. EMC compliance is little more than paranoia. If you pass, you won't interfere with neighboring equipment and the FCC (or equiv.) won't hunt you down for a pound of flesh. 2. Safety testing lets you know you aren't going to be sued because someone died poking their fingers around where they probably had no business poking. Think of this cost as an insurance premium against product liability law suits. I guess this could be considered paranoia as well, especially if you own a chunk of the company. 3. The immunity portion of the CE gives you a measure of confidence in your products ability to withstand life. It doesn't mean your MTBF is going to be any less, but it will insure the real failure rate will start to approach the calculated MTBF. The paranoia here, of course, is being able to continue selling products. The only company still in business that sells unreliable products that I know of is GM. <g> In the end, when all is said and done, paranoia usually equates to good long term business practice. It may also help you sleep at night. One the other hand, a lot of money can be made very quickly by cutting every corner. Sleep? That must be why they make scotch. Dave Spencer
