[noir_lord]

A couple of hundred bucks seems pretty reasonable.

You have to source all the parts, make sure they work together properly and assemble the kit.

I mean $200 isn't a lot of money for something you'd potentially get years and years of use out off.

[Aachen]

Sure, but my question is why it carries this price tag, not whether I'll get years of use out of it.

So if I understand your comment correctly, it's the R&D (making sure all parts work together correctly) that decides the majority of the price here, not one of the actual components?

[dylan604]

Why are you arguing this? Are you really arguing the price of the unit because it's made from $2 worth of plastic, so why the mark up? Why does a car cost so much when there's clearly not $30k worth of parts in it. Why does a house cost $500k when there's only $70k of material. Trolls have to eat too I guess.

From your continued asking of the "why" question, it makes me wonder if you've ever tried to build a DIY anything yourself. Developing something like this involves a lot of the designer's literal blood, sweat, and tears. There are all sorts of levels of DIY from using 2x4s to machine precision accuracy. I will say, that precision is what astro is all about though. A seemingly innocent +/-1 degree accuracy will be okay-ish for something like wide-angle DSLR type shots, but once you start using longer lenses, you will be wasting your time.

[sink]

I don't think this person is trying to argue this. They're asking a sincere question about a non-intuitive aspect of open source company business models, and they just keep getting answers that indirectly answer their questions in a veil of condescension and sarcasm.

This person is trying to have a discussion, you're trying to have an argument.

> Developing something like this involves a lot of the designer's literal blood, sweat, and tears

I retain a lot of water so I can see the sweat part. But I think blood and tears are an OSHA concern.

[dylan604]

If you've ever built a PC from 90s era cases, you'll know it is quite easy to get a slight scratch/cut from some edge in that case. If you've ever done enough electrical wiring, you'll have felt the tickle at some point. If you've ever worked with near a stove or anything hot, you'll have touched something you shouldn't have at some point. There are a lot of oops that happen that are not life threatening OSHA violations.

If you've never shed a tear over something so close but ultimately not working, then you must be a robot or souless. It's human nature. You could just as easily add and/or swap tears for curses. Personally, I lean toward the cursing as it's more satisfying.

Also: argue: intransitive verb: To put forth reasons for or against; debate.

The fact that this word immediately sets forth a hostile emotion for you does not mean I am being hostile.

[sink]

re Argument definition: I don't think this person is trying to debate you. That's sort of the core of my point. You're giving a really forceful reaction to someone I perceive to be asking clarifying questions. But, since you are perceiving their messages with a different tone, and I'm perceiving your messages with a different tone, and we're never going to find any ground truth, who's to say who is correct?

And if people regularly bleed and cry at my workplace then I think it's reasonable to call that a toxic environment.

Since definitions of terms and semantics are now a part of this Internet conversation, I think we're done here. You can reply once more and have the last word, if you like. :)

[yreg]

It seems like there is a lot of human work as well (print the parts, pack it, ship it, customer support…).

I wouldn't do this for random internet people for less.

[amelius]

The entire thing is on GitHub, so if you think you can build it for less then go ahead!