# Try before you buy?
**URL:** https://forum.electra.one/t/try-before-you-buy/3600
**Category:** General discussion
**Created:** [March 12, 2025, 10:18am UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/try-before-you-buy/3600 "2025-03-12T10:18:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@the\_surf\_doc](https://forum.electra.one/u/the_surf_doc)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2025, 10:18am UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/try-before-you-buy/3600/1 "2025-03-12T10:18:40Z")
Hi all,
I’m interested in the Electra One but am not sure yet whether I can justify it as a purchase until I know its capabilities and also my own personal use cases. The platform appeals as I am a software engineer by trade and like to create my own custom solutions.
What I would like to know is whether it’s possible to get a feel for the Electra One without actually having the hardware? In other words, can you use the scripting framework in an application-only mode, similar say to Bome software.
Thanks in advance to any of you who take the time out to reply.
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### Author:  [@Mint-Gecko](https://forum.electra.one/u/Mint-Gecko)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/try-before-you-buy/3600/2 "2025-03-18T16:47:55Z")
I just bought the E1 and set a calendar event to so I remembered to evaluate if I want to keep the device or return it.
The problem is that the device seems to be out of stock until May 2025. Maybe it helps to take a look at the Lua API to get an idea of what is possible: [Preset Lua extension | Electra One Documentation](https://docs.electra.one/developers/luaext.html#a-brief-overview)
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### Author:  [@the\_surf\_doc](https://forum.electra.one/u/the_surf_doc)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://forum.electra.one/t/try-before-you-buy/3600/3 "2025-03-18T19:59:24Z")
Thanks for the reply, Mint-Gecko.
It did occur to me to buy one and then return it if it did not meet my needs but I was hoping that I could experiment in other ways as I don’t have much free time currently and I think the return window would run out long before I had completed the learning needed to operate the device and attempted to create the scripts for connecting up my devices.
In a perfect world, there would be a browser version of the hardware and the preset framework, allowing a person access to the functionality without the hardware connected. This could also be helpful for testing. I guess if there aren’t any new units available until May then the company are doing something right. Alas I don’t think I will join the chosen few.