It's not perfect yet. Please see my signature for more details....
Art is subjective.....just make this so someone with a sub <100G tank can afford to justify the price tag and you'll have my business
It's not perfect yet. Please see my signature for more details....
Art is subjective.....just make this so someone with a sub <100G tank can afford to justify the price tag and you'll have my business
Well there is nothing more subjective than cost :wave:
I will give you some insight into what we are building and the general way we approach product development though.
It all starts with a problem and coming up with a elegant solution to solve that problem. We usually setup design goals for ourselves and they almost always follow this pattern:
1. Does it solve the problem?
2. Is it reliable?
3. Is it easy to use?
4. Does it look good?
5. How much is it going to cost?
6. Is there a market for it?
7. How much investment does it require to bring to market?
The feeder we have been working on for quite a number of years actually. We have developed several working versions of the concept but they have all been scrapped for one reason or another simply because it didn't meet all or most of the design goals. Notice how far down on the list cost is for us? We feel pretty strongly about never cheapening a product to lower the cost. If we can lower the cost through other means we always try to do this but we are not going to put our name and reputation behind a cheaply made product just to move a few more units.
So lets look at the feeder and some of the components that make up the "system". It is a freezer. It is a precision dosing unit. It is a mixer. It has either a stand alone controller or an interface to connect to a variety of reef controllers already on the market. All of these things are fairly expensive on their own so that will give you a basic idea of the "cost" here.
Will there be a market for something that has the above cost associated with it? We don't really know but, the target audience is going to be an enthusiast with a tank filled with expensive and finicky fish. Are there enough of them to justify us tooling up and starting a new production line? No idea.
The last item on the list is investment capital and it is going to be a lot. We are actually in the middle of construction of our new facility right now and we have pretty much everything tied up there. Someone on another forum mentioned crowd-funding this project and it is something we will give serious consideration to over the next few months. It could be a great solution for items #6 and #7 on the list.
Right now we are on #3 though so we have a bit of time.
mix
dose cycle (controls multiple things)
clean cycle (controls multiple things)
monitor temp
freeze on
freeze off
fan on
fan off
status alerts
Those are just the basic functions of the top of my head so if there is no integrated controller you have a minimum of 5 cords to plug in to your controller outlet strip. Sounds messy and it is actually pretty expensive to dedicate that many control outlets on a strip. Our unit will absolutely have an integrated controller to handle all of these functions and more because in the long run it is actually the most cost effective way to go. What we are looking for with regards to external controllers is simply an interface to monitor and override some of the functions, possibly make the "alerts" more robust by handing off to a email client etc, not as a means for complete control. It will be an option, not a separate product. The size of the unit is along the lines of a 2l bottle of soda, not a dorm fridge, some will have room and some will not.
Awesome idea, if crowd funded I'd throw a bit your way.
Still no news or anything on this? Is it a product that is even getting any more attention or consideration?
Sorry, no real news. But it is in active testing and development. The food metering system is one of the significant challenges and I think we now have a good solution.