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He said explicitly he's excluding it (and a few other things).

A cheaper, safer replacement for the EG&G air-gap flash is exactly the final goal of my project, but it will take a few months. Expect a Kickstarter. The BOM doesn't include the laser. I'm using the laser sight on the air pistol, and I tested it with a cheap eBay laser pointer.

I'm sure I've bought laser pointers at Dollarama before (for $1 CAD) and those included batteries: Even if the total BOM is $3, it's still pretty cheap.

I picked up a 1 mW pointer for £1.98 on eBay. That's about $3.38 USD.

> I’m only including the cost of components, and not things like cables, breadboards or the laser pointer (or flash).

I like that! I'm going to start giving estimates like that

"I'll do this for free, not including my hourly or the cost of materials"