I have a board sitting in my garage and all I need is to order a MIGE motor so I can assemble it.
The MIGE motor is $300+ shipped to the US with the shielded cables and Biss-C encoder.
The issue is, you'd also need a motor mount and 22mm shaft clamp and by the time you source those components, you're looking at nearly $800-900 for a Simucube 1.
The VRS DirectForce Pro is pretty much the same thing, except it still has support and new drivers, a warranty and a much more sleek control box.
So you could spend $750-900 to get "the best DD of 2017/2018" or spend the same price and get the 2nd or 3rd best DD of 2023.
I made a video about building an OSW in 2020 and I talked about how it was still good and provided a good value but that was based on a few factors at the time: the VRS was on a long wait and still very early development wise, the Simucube 2 was out of stock, Alpha Mini and Alpha weren't out yet. Now that there's a mountain of new DD's under $1200, the SC2 is in stock almost everywhere and the VRS has been developing while the SC1's development has more or less been sunset, I don't think there's a valid investment reason to build an SC1/OSW in 2023.
Again, I say this as someone who has all the hardware inside my garage right now waiting to be built for the second time (again... it's complicated, I have two homes, one in Japan and one in California).
