Useful cheap small tester...

[Yorkie]

Regarding the display - don't get too hung up on that - they are easy to change - the normal standard is for an interface known as H44780 - most generic LCDs offer this interface and I deeply suspect this one is no different - there is one other interface, but its not common. If you want to change your green-no-back-light display to a blue one, then its VERY cheap to do so , e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400458908216

Thanks Nick,

£0.99 + £0.55 postage - how on earth do they do it !!

John

Obviously they benefit from economies of scale, but whist they're into manufacturing in a very big way, they seem to not have embraced the concept of marketing or they'd charge more - especially for one-off sales. The price at which something is sold does not need to be based on what it cost to make, but on what the market will stand. I'd suggest that the market would stand at least four or five times that being charged for this display, and at 55p post, it's only 5p more than a UK second class postage stamp.

So it's not just a question of 'how' do they do it, but 'why' do they do it? On e-bay they're selling to a world market - mainly I guess the West - UK, USA, Europe etc where few would expect to pay only the price of a newspaper for such a display, but as with all such stuff from the orient, it's to our good fortune that they're so cheap.