Getting Started
The pages in the User Area describe the process of getting Chi.Bio up and running in your laboratory. There are two approaches to doing this:
Option 1 – Buy: Our Industrial partner Labmaker is building and selling complete Chi.Bio units, which can be set up and running in under half an hour. This is by far the easiest way to get Chi.Bio, and (in a quantity of 5 or more) costs less than $600 per device. For more information see the Buy page. Note that we (the inventors) have no financial interest in sales made by Labmaker.
Option 2 – Build: Chi.Bio’s complete schematics are available online (see the Hardware page), meaning it can be built and assembled by anyone. This process requires PCB manufacturing (easily outsourced), soldering, and mechanical assembly. This process is time-consuming and fiddly (expend to spend at least five hours soldering each device), but allows each device to be built for roughly $300. Manual assembly should not be undertaken lightly – there are over a hundred electronic components per device, and faults in soldering can be tricky to debug.
Where to from here:
For more information about each of these approaches, as well as a list of the laboratory consumables that are used with Chi.Bio, see Hardware.
For a guide to setting up the platform’s operating system, or to contribute new features on Github, see Software.
For an operational manual that outlines how to set up, start, and run an experiment see Operation.
To ask questions, or learn more, see the Forum or FAQ sections.