I wasn't trying to suggest breaking out the sputtering chamber, but anyone with a decent background in physics and basic algebra could learn and build something

I wasn't trying to suggest breaking out the sputtering chamber, but anyone with a decent background in physics and basic algebra could learn and build something similar. My only argument for doing so is that everything is now extendable, whereas a "thingsquare' locks you into some particular engineer's design decisions that made sense then, but won't make sense for every use case now. Arduino sits right in the sweet spot of "easy to get off the ground" and extendable enough to use for all kinds of things", and that's largely why it is successful as a platform. This product sits so far off into "easy to get off the ground" territory that it misses too many use cases. A board like this could be spun up for $25, shipping, parts, software, all in. I would be amazed (and very interested) if you could get an aluminum smelter up and running for $20.