3 ms·
Possibly, but he also describes pretty cheap and easy calibration methods. It's possible that most of the cost of the commercial options is the fact that these
by MostlyStable 3y ago
Possibly, but he also describes pretty cheap and easy calibration methods. It's possible that most of the cost of the commercial options is the fact that these are extremely low-volume devices and the overhead of a business with low-volume sales is quite high. You might be paying less for calibration and more for all the things a business needs to do/have that a lone DIYer doesn't.
Not to mention the fact that a lot of researchers are buying thing with grant money, and so can be, in some cases, somewhat price insensitive.
I don't doubt that the commercial one is pre-calibrated and certified. But I would be quite surprised if that certification/calibration _actually_ cost ~$9000.
- progbits 3y agoSure I'm not saying that. If you give away the R&D for free and don't seek profit you can build it much cheaper. But self-calibrating is still something else. Unless I pay some lab with traceable calibration to do it for me I can't use the results to certify other equipment for example. I think it's more like insurance, sure the unit cost is low but you pay extra so in case the lab screws up they pay for the mess.
- MostlyStable 3y agoThat's fair, but I think a lot of people other than "DIY hobbyists" don't have a need for traceable, liability responsible, validation chains.