Comment Re:Its sad (Score 1) 64
Using stuff that's cheap because it's left over doesn't meet the goals.
It certainly could. This problem seems easily solved the same way we do in the engineering competition I participate in... use whatever you can get your hands on, but it needs to be available for purchase from somewhere, and you have to apply the full retail price against your budget limit. Then you still create a product that is reproducible within the design constraints, but you didn't have to spend 100% on your prototype.