Hacking Picobrew appliances

[madscientist451]

From time to time I see old Picobrew appliances for sale cheap. There are online resources about setting up your own server using a rasberryPi device and writing some code, but I'm thinking of going more low rent and just installing electrical switches to turn it into a manually operated appliance.
One website describes the Picobrew as a sous-vide with an internet connection.
Too much hassle? Not worth the time and energy? (this is what I'm thinking)
Or perhaps a worthwhile project?
Maybe I'd be better off just buying a sous-vide appliance on Amazon and going with that?

 

[Whisky River]

I think the issue with the demise of the picobrew was that most of the models were designed to use their disposable recipe packs which are now unobtainable. There was a guy a while back who manufactured a limited run of reusable plastic treys that you could fill with your own ingredients, but I think those are now gone too, so even if you could figure out how to convert the control circuitry to manual operation you would still need to make something to hold the ingredients.
Not impossible, but seems like a lot of work to get it to run right