Team:Aachen/PolicyPractices/Economics

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Revision as of 11:50, 16 October 2014 by StefanReinhold (Talk | contribs)

Economical View

The economical considerations regarding our project were carried out according to the motto:

Make the world a better place - Open access for scientific progress

In the center of every economic analysis are the customers and their needs and desires. Every commercial company is interested to satisfy and deal with all customer needs for better sales figures, and in order to maintain regular clientele. Both measures aim for higher financial profits. On the global seller’s market of technical laboratory equipment there is a permanent competition between the existing providers. This competition depends on these financial profits: technical improvement followed by price wars. Besides, good price-performance ratios always catch customers and influence their purchase decision.

Take a look at cost calculations for technical equipment including development, production, transport, warehousing and sale. Usually, you will find low material costs but really high personnel, transport and warehousing costs. At least financial corporate profit is a big cost point. In general, these factors are making technical equipment for labs really expensive.

We follow a strategy to circumvent unnecessary costs for customers by realizing a social vision. In accordance with the principle of open hardware including open source, information where to get the necessary components, quantities, a step-by-step technical construction manual and circuit diagrams could be published online for free. So our profit is not of financial nature but is instead based on recognition and on motivating other iGEM teams and companies to spread the idea of open hardware, too. At least we want to mention that our vision is limited in getting acceptance by companies on the global seller market . These companies, parts of them global players, are profit orientated. Our vision is standing against this as non-profit-idea finding acceptance in other groups of customers.


WatsOn

The measurement device WatsOn for our 2D biosensor, too, has been designed accordingly. So far, no comparable devices could be found on the commercial market. Here, we definitely have a pioneer role. Everybody can follow the given building instructions and create his own WatsOn for 310 $.

number of pieces components costs [$]
1 filter slides (medium yellow 010, sally green 505)5.17
1 arduino UNO R311.65
1 2-channel relay shield3.46
40jumper-wire cable2.99
1 40er male header (10-Piece Pack)2.72
1 40er female header (10-Piece Pack)2.60
1 circuit board2.99
1 HDMI cable1.87
1 7 port USB hub6.71
1USB WiFi stick5.35
1USB mouse and keyboard12.50
1 case acrylic glass XT 6mm~0.5250.65
1spray paint for acrylic glass6.54
1 Raspberry Pi model B board35.00
1Raspberry Pi camera module25.00
17” display50.50
18-segment display3.86
2 digital temperature sensor DHT-227.50
1 aluminum block 100x100x15 mm14.23
1 Peltier heater 12V 60W4.49
1power supply32.89
6 superflux LED 480nm7.50
16LED 450nm7.50
2 Resistor 40 Ohm0.30
4 Resistor 100 Ohm0.60
1cupboard button1.24
-total309.45

Such those low prices with the acceptance of self-building opens a grand new customer market and offer competition to commercial saleable products. However, please always remind yourself of the respective safety aspects when dealing with GMOs and human pathogens.


Aachen Team WatsOn 3.png
Figure 1
WatsOn self-made concept make him available for low budged organisations

OD/F Device

Everyone interested in biological work should be able to use basic equipment such as photometers. In general we have to make a difference between our OD and our F device. The reason for this is the bad comparability to commercial devices. These don't combine the measure of fluorescent and optical density. With our OD/F we offer a solution to combine both detecting methods in one device. With our given instructions also two separate devices one for OD and one for F could be build. In this context we offer a flexibility of choice. Commercially obtainable spectrophotometers like UNICO S-1205, for example, costs 1.249 $ or more, and can measure optical density only. At the same time they are heavy, not portable and therefore not easy to handle. Comparable to our developed device in the points measuring range and portability is the OD-meter CO 8000. This device measures also the optical density at 600 nm but still costs almost 920 $. Our OD/F Device can measure optical density as well as fluorescence for less than 60 $.

Table 2: Needed number of pieces, components and prices for creating your own OD or F device

OD/F device 1€= $1.27 on 14/10/2014
QuantityComponent Costs € Costs $ Final € Final $
1Arduino UNO R3 - € $11.65 9.17 € $11.65
1TSL 235R - € $3.14 2.47 € $3.14
1Display 16x2 - € $3.28 2.58 € $3.28
1LCD Display to I2C - € $1.99 1.57 € $1.99
1Pushbutton - € $3.69 2.90 € $3.69
1filter leaflet - € $2.00 1.57 € $2.00
20jumper wire cables - € $0.11 0.09 € $2.28
1small breadboard - € $2.51 1.98 € $2.51
1power supply - € $2.80 2.20 € $2.80
1cuvette holder (3D print service of your choice) 6.44 € $8.18 6.44 € $8.18
13 mm acrylic glas (black) 7.98 € $10.14 7.98 € $10.14
1Prototype Universal Printed Circuit Board - € $2.88 2.27 € $2.88
1Male Headers - € $2.72 2.14 € $2.72
1LED 600nm 0.99 € $1.11 0.87 € $1.11
Total OD 45.94 € $58.37
1LED 480nm 0.99 € $1.26 0.99 € $1.26
Total F 46.06 € $58.52
1LED 600nm 0.99 € $1.11 0.87 € $1.11
1LED 480nm 0.99 € $1.26 0.99 € $1.26
Total OD/F 47.05 € $59.78

Cost saving lies here round about 850 $. All you need is to invest some time to construct our OD/F Device and this could also be a positive learning effect for schools and universities. Therefore, we present a solution for low budget institutions like schools, universities, community labs and the biohacking scene. Besides commercial plate reader are also availible on the market, too. To compare our device with this comercial devices is really difficult. No portable devices like ours could be found which can also measure at a wave-band of 480 nm. In our cooperation with the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium we get first experience using our OD/F device in our target groups like schools. As result we received the answer of our question if the device is useable in daily practice got a positive feedback.

Team Aachen OD F device.png
Possible application of our OD/F device