Originally Posted by
znomit
Are electronic gizmos inherently more expensive than mechanical counterparts. Or are you just paying for the improved features?
with enough volume to spread out the development and tooling costs electronic things are generally cheaper than a capable mechanical equivalent. not sure if bike stuff reaches that scale.
it would definitely cost less to make one difference engine than one simple electronic computer. but if you had to make 10,000,000....
the same things goes for electric cars. 100 times less moving parts in the engine.