Kind of too bad, because I guess it was mildly successful at least because they discontinued the "open" part of, see here: https://www.chaibio.com/openpcr
Their newer product that they've replaced this with is:
1) Way more expensive
2) Not open hardware
3) Remove GPLv3 license (that requires you keep things open) and replaced it with ALv2 (which allows you to take it proprietary)
All good things end up failing because of greed. We'd all be so much better off if we cared about bigger goals than just short term profit.
That's a qPCR machine, which is an entirely different beast in terms of capability and cost than your usual thermocycler. $5000 is an amazing deal on a qPCR machine. A piece of new qPCR kit is gonna run you 30-50 thousand dollars minimum, and I've had trouble finding good functional ones from the big players for less than 20k used.
It is way more expensive because it is way more functional. A PCR machine simply changes the temperature of an aluminum block quickly (and programmably). Their qPCR machine includes a spectrofluorimeter with digital output for measuring the amounts of material present at each PCR cycle. Commercial qPCR instruments cost 5 - 10X (or more) a PCR instrument.
Their newer product that they've replaced this with is:
1) Way more expensive 2) Not open hardware 3) Remove GPLv3 license (that requires you keep things open) and replaced it with ALv2 (which allows you to take it proprietary)
All good things end up failing because of greed. We'd all be so much better off if we cared about bigger goals than just short term profit.