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User1
Guest
View BadgesChina has come to lower the costs for reefers as in many areas and products. Pumps, light and dosing are products we now can trust. Hope soon to se aquarium control computers at fair prices. The western brands are for sure over priceing and I would to if I could. Hope this levels out now. The explosion of e-shoping cuts away most of the supply chain costs. Hope to se it happen soon for this hobby to.
You do not need China or any other lower wage world to lower costs. If you want a low cost controller there are several open source products that work equal to the two large brands. There are plenty of DIY Arduino boards out there and if you are not a DIY person then there is the Reef Angel which is pre-built. I used one close to 10 years but only recently took it off line for my Apex. Personally speaking some of the custom libraries the community came up with such as geo location, tides, and storms (I get some say a gimmick) blow GHL and Apex out of the water - the functionality isn't there. Then there are the Pi route which is the smaller raspberry route. Never owned one so cannot comment but would wager it is similar to Arduino.
I get the utopia vibe in the thread about cost and what not but out sourcing or using lower wage countries to buy cheaper products isn't the solution. IP theft is real and it is similar to downloading a song or movie that you didn't pay for. That download is revenue lost to both artist and production company. You want to talk about medical and pharmaceuticals and I'll ask a simple question. How much money does it take to bring a drug to the market in the US?
It takes blood, sweat, and tears to launch a product, new drug, or launch a 2 ton heavy thing into low earth orbit. Just putting it into perspective.