Custom project pricing?

Hi all,
Anyone ever build any custom equipment for a client? I've been asked to build a wireless environmental monitoring system for a agricultural wholesaler. It's my first project as an individual designer, programmer, assembly, test, etc. I'm in the final stages of the project. The circuit is operating in the breadboard as it should. It runs a PIC16F886 with 27 of the 28 pins populated, LCD (2X16), NiMh powered with monitored solar charging, 5 button interface, 416 MHz transceiver, environmental sensors, etc.
The device is actually for a family member so I'm not going to charge much. I'd like get an idea what something like this would cost to have built by an EE that does this sort of custom work? I'm guessing $10,000 - $30,000 would not be unreasonable. Am I in the ball park?
Thanks
C

hi chuck,

definitely i can not say the figure you qouted are rather okay or too high. its not my main line however to just give you an idea, i make costum hi-end audio power amps/preamps and i charge $12.00 per watt. here in my country my qouted price is already high. however i have based my pricing on the selling price of known hi-end audio power amps and its a bit lower than known brands.

i believe some of our colleagues who does this sort of things can also give their advice.

Thanks for the reply Floy. I know it's nearly impossible to provide a number due to all the variables. Everything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it at the moment... It's worth what the market will bare.

An experienced EE I work with usually bills for $50 / hr + materials. I bill for about $35 / hr + materials (I've only got 2 years exp).

Of course, that system is for cases where the client approaches us with an idea (it's their IP). If this project is your IP, you should charge a little more than just hourly + materials.

In your case:

It seems like a fairly complicated project. I'd quote it out at about 80 hours of work for hardware, software, ordering, fabrication, and debugging.

If it's the first on your own, I'd say $35/hr is reasonable.

$2800 + materials would be a ballpark number if they approached you with the original idea.

If you have a patent on the device, or even if the idea was just originally yours, you might charge the client a little more for the IP. Tough to say what's fair there, you'd have to negotiate.

Well, in this case they just came to me saying I need a wireless solution to do X, Y, Z, they are technically challenged so the design and implementation was up to me. Of course being family it comes with life time tech support, training, and installation (wireless is pretty easy ). Thanks for the insight though. I didn't know where to start.