I finally had a chance to chat with Nathan Levine. Nathan is the founder of Current Labs and lead developer of Fishbit. Most of you have heard of Fishbit, the device that promises to be a sleek and simple way to monitor and control your aquarium. Aquarists have been asking a lot of questions about Fishbit; is it just like the Neptune System’s Apex? Will it monitor nitrate? Will it have probes that need calibrated? How can an aquarium controller be made fool proof and simple? After chatting with Nathan, I’ve learned more about how Fishbit functions, and the developer’s goal behind this new product. While Fishbit is reminiscent of products currently on the market, the simple and aesthetic approach Current Labs is taking makes it something surprisingly different. Fishbit’s creation myth:
It’s not a myth really, but to understand the design philosophy behind Fishbit, it’s valuable to know what led Nathan Levine to consider such a device. His Dad and he started keeping marine aquariums, but eventually Nathan moved off to college. He knew that technology existed that could monitor their tanks while he was away, but it was far beyond his father’s tech comfort zone. Without Nathan at home to take care of the tanks, his hobby sort of fell apart and needed placed on hold. Years later when Nathan re-entered the hobby, a lot had changed. Controller technology had grown, but was still too complicated for someone like his father or mother to implement. That’s when he set out to design Fishbit. The expressed goal of Fishbit is to be an aquarium controller so simple to use, that every aquarist can implement one and reap the benefits of a fully connected aquarium. Nathan’s personal goal is to ship a product that his father or mother could set-up and use, which would remove a lot of the confusion that surrounds keeping a perfectly stable marine aquarium. What Fishbit isn’t:
Fisbit isn’t a Neptune System’s Apex. I think a Mac vs. PC comparison works well here. Macs are very good systems for someone who wants an easy to use system with a simple graphic operating system. PCs can be simple to use, but they also allow technical users to pop the hood easily and pull all kinds of open source tricks. In this comparison the PC is the Apex, something that really is targeted to both technical users and those who want a basic level of control.… More:
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