Sorry I didn't specify and sorry to hijack the subject again, but I was thinking about you writing the article for the website as a whole, not just for every project we come up with. This will help you get the projects you need to get a quick start on your website and plenty of potential customers will soon know about your website if you do this. Again, sorry for the confusion.
Whups! Yeah, the dimensions are 4" x 3.05" for a full board and 2" x 3.05" for a half board.
It's the same dimensions as the BOE. But honestly, any project using the BOE is $70 before CPU. Add another $50 for the CPU, and it's clear that BOE projects will not be price competitive.
btw, the perfboard pattern will be 3-hole solder, single sided.
I'm pro-SpinStudio. I'll catch-up with Brian at the expo next week. I plan on offering it in addition to other options. As built, though, it's un-enclosable, which is a problem. Another option would be to add headers to the propeller protoboard and plop on a spinstudio module.
@PI - No problem [noparse]:)[/noparse] Just wasn't sure what you meant. Hell yeah, an article would be great! I'm not persuing media until I have the site up with projects, but yes, I'll work on press relations.
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I can't find any enclosures that are exactly what I'm looking for. I like the clear look of this one, but it's not the right size, the plastic is too thick, the curve makes flush mounts impossible, and the IP67 is unnecessary. I've ordered a few samples from Polycase, but they don't have clear plastic. I think clear plastic would really make for an attractive looking finished project.
I'm still looking around. Any suggestions?
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While I'm working on it - the site will have project categories, so hobbyists can look thru projects based on a Category / Sub category. Here's what I have, anything missing?
ART
-- Display
-- Interactive
HOBBY
-- Music
-- R/C
-- Electronics / Development
The closest I've come so far to an enclosure that might work is the Sparkfun project case. The PCB hole center dimensions are 3.7 x 2.9 ... the short one is just 0.15 too wide, but the vertical mounting bosses have 0.1 clearance so it won't be too hard to make sure the board doesn't rattle with a little padding. The Parallax protoboards are just a hair long for a perfect outline fit (4" vs 3.95"), but I'm thinking the extra plastic in the drawing can be trimmed. The Sparkfun logo is embossed on the case, so one might want to have a go at it with a dremel or just use a label. I've ordered a sample along with some other junk and will let you know how it works.
I've already figured that I'll have to custom order the Mounting holes. The Protoboard has odd dimensions, but the value is unbeatable. Let me know if the sparkfun enclosure has enough clearance above / below the PCB.
Thanks for the categories!!! I think I need to add Sports, Food, and a few others.
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Maybe add a mod kit section incase people want to make a modifications to existing products or something thats already for sale in gangstergadgets. My project might be able to fit in there as well, since it requires modifying an rc car and an airsoft gun.
I think you'll find that they'll evolve naturally as you get projects. No point in putting up a blank page, and if you get something that doesn't fit then you'll have to make your own. Are you sure you want a medical section? Sounds like grounds for trouble...
If someone submits a design then someone else makes an improvement, who gets credit?
How do you determine payments? Would the significance of the improvement be considered?
First come, first served allows some "credibility", but the "market" should provide a means to stimulate improvements.
Consider a "cane" it makes life easier for the user and the inventor gets credit.
Someone says: "if would be great if the cane had 3 legs and a platform" ... the stool is born.
Then someone says: "four legs and a lower platform is more useful" ... the seat is born.
Then someone says: "add a back to that seat" ... the chair is born.
Then someone says: "add rockers to the bottom of the legs" ... the rocking chair is born.
Then someone says: "this would be more comfortable with pillows attached" ... an improved chair is born.
Then someone says: "wow, how about making the whole thing lean back and add a footrest" ... the lazyboy is born.
Then someone says: "the chair with pillows should be double or tripple wide" ... the couch is born.
Do all contributors of "prior art" as the patent system calls it get a royalty piece of the sale with the various "inventions" ? Looks like a huge friggin headache .... I guess part of the reseller's value add is in making appropriate distributions. How will you handle such things Nick ? It could get very contentious and even litigious.
One of my project guidelines has been: anything that can be reproduced in an open source way is a project candidate. I have more "original" projects than "intentional copy" projects, but as Solomon said "nothing is new under the sun." If a patent owner decides to assert their rights on the protected ideas and ask for back-royalties, what would you do?
yeah. When you submit projects, you have to choose a category. I'm sure things will evolve, but just wanted to provide a seed. Unpopulated categories won't show up. This will be clearer when the site goes live. Medical is probably a bad idea.
@PI -
I thought about a mods section, but most hobbyists aren't looking for mods, per se. They're looking for R/C stuff, gaming, robotics, etc. So, your r/c car mod would go in r/c category.
@jazzed
That question occurred to me a while back as "What if I see jazzed's project is selling really well, why doesn't someone just copy it and post it?"
A few answers;
1 - All projects posted on GG will be posted under a GPL license. You will retain copyright on your supporting materials, however (Howto's, photos, etc).
2 - GG will review each project submission against currently listed projects. We'll post projects that are substantial improvements of existing listings, but not copies.
So, your project on BB gun boebots will not give you a monopoly on boebot projects, nor would it entitle you to share revenue with someone who listed a boebot that flings cats. Hopefully, it will encourage you to design a boebot that flings cats and has a BB gun. But I'm not going to list a project that's the same as something already listed.
Patent is a good question;
I really don't think the patent issue will ever come up. Patent suits are generally limited to 'reasonable royalty damages', which is substantial when you're suing IBM over a patent that appears in every server they've ever sold, but not very worthwhile when you're suing GG for royalties on 250 C64 motion controller baseball bats.
Even then, GG & designers are in a safe position;
1 - GG assumes liability in patent issues. As a designer, as long as you don't search patent filings for ideas, you're fine.
2 - Because GG only publishes methods & sells components, we aren't direct infringers. But GG isn't an indirect infringer because indirect infringement requires 'Actual Notice' (Evidence that we know we're infringing on a specific patent, either by doing a patent search or being sent a notice from the patent holder).
The practical implication is; if GG receives 'Actual Notice' on one of your projects, we'll pull the project & investigate the claim. If the claim has merit, we may try to license the patent, or we would stop selling the project.
This will be better outlined in the site T's & C's, but hopefully this is a useful guide post.
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While I'm on the subject... have you ever seen Ladyada's Digg project? It's a box with button, and every time you push the button the number displayed goes UP! Why did I think this connected to digg or something? Ughh...
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Nick, a suggestion: student discounts. Young people need more motivation to join the engineering profession, and what better way than with hands on? For identification, you could require a note from their school to the effect that they are a student. Plus, these customers become more dedicated to your site, possibly eventually submitting something of their own or using the products after graduation in a professional environment. A student discount is a generous offer to the future of this country and science in particular.
Got the Sparkfun project case today. There are a few easily hacked problems, but otherwise it's fine.
There is plenty of room on the slide-out panel for connecting power-supply brick, various programming adapters (SX-Key and PropPlug), and even a VGA connector or mouse/keyboard. The VGA, mouse, and keyboard accessory pack connector is too tall.
The two attachments show the problems. The PCB is an SX28 protoboard with BoeBot dimensions. In the first pic with the PCB note two red filled circles; these show where material needs to be cut from the PCB for all case screws to be properly secured. In the next pic, two open circles show where tiny pieces of plastic (1/8"x1/16"x1/32") must be removed for the PCB to fit in the case; this need be done only on one half of the case.
BTW: the clear version of this is in stock now. Not as nice as the plexiglass ones·in the other thread though [noparse]:)[/noparse]
1 - I attended OBC's NE conference. Gave a small presentation on how to make money on your hobby, which I put up on my site Gadget Gangster.
2 - The site has a new look, the technology is basically done & moved over to the production server. I'm not happy with category sorting & we're still working on it. I've also put together a howto template, to make putting howto's easier.
3 - I have final designs on the project PCB's. The full board is here. The half board is here. I've ordered samples, which I should get in a few days. I'll look that over and make sure things look good and then order some quantity.
Let me know your thoughts on the project PCB's. The gating item on builders kits is just the project PCB's. I'm thinking I'll have the builders kits ready to ship by September 30.
Another question on those... I'll offer a few tiers on the kits (I'm only going to charge my cost on the builders kits). Would you rather have the lower tier kit, which is the custom PCB and all the 'cheap' parts like caps, resistors, etc. Or a 'deluxe' kit which would also include the expensive sensors like GPS, flex, etc?
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Can you please provide dimensions for your PCBs ? These boards are great for DIPs. Guess break-out boards will be required for SMD parts other than resistors and decoupling caps.
New Inventory is up, here. We've also got designs for the breakout boards, here. A few more breakout board designs are coming up. I'm getting the board prototypes in the mail today - if they look good, I'll put in my order for a few hundred.
For Builders kits, I think we've settled on packs. These are the packs we're thinking of (subject to change);
Basics Pack (all resistors, all caps, project boards)
Breakout Pack (breakout boards + connectors)
Discretes Pack (Diodes, transistors, cheap chips, LED's)
CPU Pack (Crystals, protoboards, expensive chips, Microcontrollers)
Motors Pack (servo, stepper, and hobby motor)
That way you can pick up just a project board if you have everything else, or just the breakout boards if you want to design on a protoboard you already have.
Note that there will be some items we'll have in inventory, but we won't sell as part of a builders pack. We'll leave you to your own devices to procure your own Parallax GPS receiver, for example.
I was a little surprised at the effort of sourcing & finding technical info on 120 components. You'd think it would be easy...
After talking to Adam @ the prop expo, we've added AVR stuff to the inventory. We'll probably need to add a few more things to make AVR's work, though. This means we'll have SX, Prop, Attiny & Atmega. The SX & ATtiny are great choices for simple projects. Prop is a great choice for complicated projects. I put the ATmega in there because it seems there are two main hobbyist camps, Arduino & Parallax, and I didn't want to leave them out.
Let me know what you think & drop an item on the 'something missing?' form if you don't see what you need.
I had a great project idea this weekend; internet connected LED scoreboard of your favorite sports team. Protoboard+propNIC+LED's!
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Our list of parts won't cover all potential projects. With a bit of creativity, though, it will cover quite a few. We will stock generic enclosures, but I don't know if they'd be suitable for your project.
A door access system is possible. Not sure what your design is, but you could point the hobbyist to the source for the door strike and build the controlling circuitry with my inventory. Maybe a halfboard would hold the sensor and an RJ11 cable would run to the fullboard, which would contain the controller.
Remember, too, that the hobbyist isn't expecting a finished kit that would be identical to something commercially available. Maybe you list your access system, see what the response is, and then decide to productize it, do a custom enclosure, & sell it yourself.
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Here are the project boards, final final. Thinking more clearly, I realized what a bad idea it was to put EVERYTHING on breakout boards. While we'll still have breakout boards for various connectors & IC's, we've tried to make it a little more friendly...
1 - The Full board has a few features to make things easier; There's a section for 2-row pin headers (T23-A20). A space for a power connector is now on the board, and there's a section to add either 2xRCA or 1xDE9 connector . We've also added mounting holes to lock on a second board with spacers very securely. The area for 2-row pin headers is perfect for use with the spin studio cards, or for any other 2-row connections.
Both board have traces that end in squares to make bridging easier.
2 - The Half board has had similar changes; The pattern has been rotated 90 degrees to allow a 40 pin dip to fit. 2xRCA connectors and a power connector have been added. The pattern has also been compressed to give more functional room. Here's a good picture of the bottom of the half board. I did a quick project last night on the half board just to make sure it was big enough, looked good to me!
We are getting close to launch. The current timeline is shipping Developers Packs early October. Speaking of Developers Packs, this is what we're thinking: 5 Packs available;
Basics Pack (Our Project Boards + Resistors & Caps)
Breakout Pack (Our Breakout Boards + Connectors)
Discretes Pack (LED's, Transistors, Voltage Regulators, Hardware & some of the cheaper IC's)
CPU Pack (The expensive IC's; Atmel, Propeller, SX, EEPROM's, and xtals)
Motors Pack (Servos, Steppers, and motors)
Some of our inventory won't be offered in packs (like the GPS module), but you can still use those items in your design. We'll try to keep the cost of Designers Packs as low as possible, it's our thought that most designers will only need the Basics Pack. Of course, you don't need to order anything from us to list a project.
Although the Inventory is still in flux, we've created an inventory checklist that will go in each Designers Pack It also has big images of the project boards; I've found it really easy just to draw the placement of components on the image & go off and build it. The inventory checklist is here.
I'm pretty excited, I hope you guys are too! If you want an email when the Designers Packs are available for order, just go here and we'll let you know. It will also help me to put together enough Packs for everyone who wants one.
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Post Edited (Nick McClick) : 9/10/2008 9:01:34 PM GMT
Nick McClick said...
1 - All projects posted on GG will be posted under a GPL license. You will retain copyright on your supporting materials, however (Howto's, photos, etc).
Actually, even if they license it under GPL, they still own the copyright to the project. GPLing a peice of software doesn't stop the original creator from dual licensing, or from making a proprietary derivative. Derivatives from the original project are are copyright the people who create the derivatives, but the only license derivatives can be released under is the GPL without the consent (a new license) from all the authors up the tree.
Apache and MySQL are dual licensed by the original authors. Let's assume Apache's free version is GPL (I think it is, but it's been a while since I checked). If you create a derivative of Apache, with feature X using the free version's code, then you must release it as free software, not release it or work out a different licensing agreement with Apache. This agreement might be kickbacks from Apache for them including feature X in the trunk of their non-free version or you pay Apache to sell a closed source version of Apache with feature X. If you derive your code from another source besides the original code base, and it includes other derivatives, then you must contact each copyright holder and get their permission to release your version under anything other than the GPL.
Note any reference to "free software" is meant as free speech not as in free beer, and in this case refers specifically to the GPL. Even changing from one free license to another without all authors consent is a violation of the contract, and that is what will keep Linux (the kernal not the OS GNU/Linux) under GPL v2 and not allow it to move to GPL v3; Linus won't license the material he holds the copyright to under version 3.
jazzed said...
Do all contributors of "prior art" as the patent system ...
If the versions are released under the GPL for posing on GG, then they can't be encumbered by a patent or they violate the terms of the GLP and then there is no license for it to posted and built under. I know this isn't quite what you were asking but since patents were mentioned, I thought I'd chime in.
Comments
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The Pi Guy
It's the same dimensions as the BOE. But honestly, any project using the BOE is $70 before CPU. Add another $50 for the CPU, and it's clear that BOE projects will not be price competitive.
btw, the perfboard pattern will be 3-hole solder, single sided.
I'm pro-SpinStudio. I'll catch-up with Brian at the expo next week. I plan on offering it in addition to other options. As built, though, it's un-enclosable, which is a problem. Another option would be to add headers to the propeller protoboard and plop on a spinstudio module.
@PI - No problem [noparse]:)[/noparse] Just wasn't sure what you meant. Hell yeah, an article would be great! I'm not persuing media until I have the site up with projects, but yes, I'll work on press relations.
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I'm still looking around. Any suggestions?
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ART
-- Display
-- Interactive
HOBBY
-- Music
-- R/C
-- Electronics / Development
HOME
-- Lighting
-- Automation
-- Pets
-- Monitoring
-- Automobile
-- Gaming
-- Audio
INDUSTRIAL / COMMERCIAL
-- Manufacturing
-- Handling
-- Front Office
-- Test & Measurement
-- Medical
ROBOTICS
-- Hobby
-- Manufacturing
-- Home
INTERNET
-- Communication
-- Social Networking
OTHER
-- Nerdy Stuff
-- Hacks
-- Other
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Concentrate on understanding the problem, not applying the tool
The closest I've come so far to an enclosure that might work is the Sparkfun project case. The PCB hole center dimensions are 3.7 x 2.9 ... the short one is just 0.15 too wide, but the vertical mounting bosses have 0.1 clearance so it won't be too hard to make sure the board doesn't rattle with a little padding. The Parallax protoboards are just a hair long for a perfect outline fit (4" vs 3.95"), but I'm thinking the extra plastic in the drawing can be trimmed. The Sparkfun logo is embossed on the case, so one might want to have a go at it with a dremel or just use a label. I've ordered a sample along with some other junk and will let you know how it works.
Here's a link: www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8601
Added: These are my current list·categories:·
Communications (5 TBD, 1 WIP)
Computer (1 TBD)
Entertainment (3 TBD)
·
Food (1 TBD)
Home (6 TBD, 1 WIP)
Maintenance (2 TBD)
·
Sensors and Interface (3 TBD)
·
Sports/Training (2 TBD)
·
Test Equipment (6 TBD)
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Post Edited (jazzed) : 8/17/2008 8:02:31 PM GMT
Thanks for the categories!!! I think I need to add Sports, Food, and a few others.
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The Pi Guy
If someone submits a design then someone else makes an improvement, who gets credit?
How do you determine payments? Would the significance of the improvement be considered?
First come, first served allows some "credibility", but the "market" should provide a means to stimulate improvements.
Consider a "cane" it makes life easier for the user and the inventor gets credit.
Someone says: "if would be great if the cane had 3 legs and a platform" ... the stool is born.
Then someone says: "four legs and a lower platform is more useful" ... the seat is born.
Then someone says: "add a back to that seat" ... the chair is born.
Then someone says: "add rockers to the bottom of the legs" ... the rocking chair is born.
Then someone says: "this would be more comfortable with pillows attached" ... an improved chair is born.
Then someone says: "wow, how about making the whole thing lean back and add a footrest" ... the lazyboy is born.
Then someone says: "the chair with pillows should be double or tripple wide" ... the couch is born.
Do all contributors of "prior art" as the patent system calls it get a royalty piece of the sale with the various "inventions" ? Looks like a huge friggin headache .... I guess part of the reseller's value add is in making appropriate distributions. How will you handle such things Nick ? It could get very contentious and even litigious.
One of my project guidelines has been: anything that can be reproduced in an open source way is a project candidate. I have more "original" projects than "intentional copy" projects, but as Solomon said "nothing is new under the sun." If a patent owner decides to assert their rights on the protected ideas and ask for back-royalties, what would you do?
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yeah. When you submit projects, you have to choose a category. I'm sure things will evolve, but just wanted to provide a seed. Unpopulated categories won't show up. This will be clearer when the site goes live. Medical is probably a bad idea.
@PI -
I thought about a mods section, but most hobbyists aren't looking for mods, per se. They're looking for R/C stuff, gaming, robotics, etc. So, your r/c car mod would go in r/c category.
@jazzed
That question occurred to me a while back as "What if I see jazzed's project is selling really well, why doesn't someone just copy it and post it?"
A few answers;
1 - All projects posted on GG will be posted under a GPL license. You will retain copyright on your supporting materials, however (Howto's, photos, etc).
2 - GG will review each project submission against currently listed projects. We'll post projects that are substantial improvements of existing listings, but not copies.
So, your project on BB gun boebots will not give you a monopoly on boebot projects, nor would it entitle you to share revenue with someone who listed a boebot that flings cats. Hopefully, it will encourage you to design a boebot that flings cats and has a BB gun. But I'm not going to list a project that's the same as something already listed.
Patent is a good question;
I really don't think the patent issue will ever come up. Patent suits are generally limited to 'reasonable royalty damages', which is substantial when you're suing IBM over a patent that appears in every server they've ever sold, but not very worthwhile when you're suing GG for royalties on 250 C64 motion controller baseball bats.
Even then, GG & designers are in a safe position;
1 - GG assumes liability in patent issues. As a designer, as long as you don't search patent filings for ideas, you're fine.
2 - Because GG only publishes methods & sells components, we aren't direct infringers. But GG isn't an indirect infringer because indirect infringement requires 'Actual Notice' (Evidence that we know we're infringing on a specific patent, either by doing a patent search or being sent a notice from the patent holder).
The practical implication is; if GG receives 'Actual Notice' on one of your projects, we'll pull the project & investigate the claim. If the claim has merit, we may try to license the patent, or we would stop selling the project.
This will be better outlined in the site T's & C's, but hopefully this is a useful guide post.
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Concentrate on understanding the problem, not applying the tool
http://parallax.com/tabid/252/Default.aspx
Disclaimer: I'm a student. So there...
There is plenty of room on the slide-out panel for connecting power-supply brick, various programming adapters (SX-Key and PropPlug), and even a VGA connector or mouse/keyboard. The VGA, mouse, and keyboard accessory pack connector is too tall.
The two attachments show the problems. The PCB is an SX28 protoboard with BoeBot dimensions. In the first pic with the PCB note two red filled circles; these show where material needs to be cut from the PCB for all case screws to be properly secured. In the next pic, two open circles show where tiny pieces of plastic (1/8"x1/16"x1/32") must be removed for the PCB to fit in the case; this need be done only on one half of the case.
BTW: the clear version of this is in stock now. Not as nice as the plexiglass ones·in the other thread though [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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--Steve
1 - I attended OBC's NE conference. Gave a small presentation on how to make money on your hobby, which I put up on my site Gadget Gangster.
2 - The site has a new look, the technology is basically done & moved over to the production server. I'm not happy with category sorting & we're still working on it. I've also put together a howto template, to make putting howto's easier.
3 - I have final designs on the project PCB's. The full board is here. The half board is here. I've ordered samples, which I should get in a few days. I'll look that over and make sure things look good and then order some quantity.
Let me know your thoughts on the project PCB's. The gating item on builders kits is just the project PCB's. I'm thinking I'll have the builders kits ready to ship by September 30.
Another question on those... I'll offer a few tiers on the kits (I'm only going to charge my cost on the builders kits). Would you rather have the lower tier kit, which is the custom PCB and all the 'cheap' parts like caps, resistors, etc. Or a 'deluxe' kit which would also include the expensive sensors like GPS, flex, etc?
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OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Getting started with a Propeller Protoboard?
Check out: Introduction to the Proboard & Propeller Cookbook 1.4
Updates to the Cookbook are now posted to: Propeller.warrantyvoid.us
Got an SD card connected? - PropDOS
Of course, you don't have to order any kit to post a project, & you can get a basic kit from me and the sensors / other stuff from other vendors.
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--Steve
Full board is 3.05 x 4 (24 rows x 36 columns) mounting holes spaced 2.75" x 3.7 (just like the protoboard, which will be in inventory)
Half board is 3.05 x 2 (24 rows x 15 columns)
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Concentrate on understanding the problem, not applying the tool
For Builders kits, I think we've settled on packs. These are the packs we're thinking of (subject to change);
Basics Pack (all resistors, all caps, project boards)
Breakout Pack (breakout boards + connectors)
Discretes Pack (Diodes, transistors, cheap chips, LED's)
CPU Pack (Crystals, protoboards, expensive chips, Microcontrollers)
Motors Pack (servo, stepper, and hobby motor)
That way you can pick up just a project board if you have everything else, or just the breakout boards if you want to design on a protoboard you already have.
Note that there will be some items we'll have in inventory, but we won't sell as part of a builders pack. We'll leave you to your own devices to procure your own Parallax GPS receiver, for example.
I was a little surprised at the effort of sourcing & finding technical info on 120 components. You'd think it would be easy...
After talking to Adam @ the prop expo, we've added AVR stuff to the inventory. We'll probably need to add a few more things to make AVR's work, though. This means we'll have SX, Prop, Attiny & Atmega. The SX & ATtiny are great choices for simple projects. Prop is a great choice for complicated projects. I put the ATmega in there because it seems there are two main hobbyist camps, Arduino & Parallax, and I didn't want to leave them out.
Let me know what you think & drop an item on the 'something missing?' form if you don't see what you need.
I had a great project idea this weekend; internet connected LED scoreboard of your favorite sports team. Protoboard+propNIC+LED's!
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Concentrate on understanding the problem, not applying the tool
For example, if I want to design a door access system, but you don't stock a suitable enclosure. Then how?
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www.fd.com.my
www.mercedes.com.my
Our list of parts won't cover all potential projects. With a bit of creativity, though, it will cover quite a few. We will stock generic enclosures, but I don't know if they'd be suitable for your project.
A door access system is possible. Not sure what your design is, but you could point the hobbyist to the source for the door strike and build the controlling circuitry with my inventory. Maybe a halfboard would hold the sensor and an RJ11 cable would run to the fullboard, which would contain the controller.
Remember, too, that the hobbyist isn't expecting a finished kit that would be identical to something commercially available. Maybe you list your access system, see what the response is, and then decide to productize it, do a custom enclosure, & sell it yourself.
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Concentrate on understanding the problem, not applying the tool
1 - The Full board has a few features to make things easier; There's a section for 2-row pin headers (T23-A20). A space for a power connector is now on the board, and there's a section to add either 2xRCA or 1xDE9 connector . We've also added mounting holes to lock on a second board with spacers very securely. The area for 2-row pin headers is perfect for use with the spin studio cards, or for any other 2-row connections.
Both board have traces that end in squares to make bridging easier.
2 - The Half board has had similar changes; The pattern has been rotated 90 degrees to allow a 40 pin dip to fit. 2xRCA connectors and a power connector have been added. The pattern has also been compressed to give more functional room. Here's a good picture of the bottom of the half board. I did a quick project last night on the half board just to make sure it was big enough, looked good to me!
We are getting close to launch. The current timeline is shipping Developers Packs early October. Speaking of Developers Packs, this is what we're thinking: 5 Packs available;
Basics Pack (Our Project Boards + Resistors & Caps)
Breakout Pack (Our Breakout Boards + Connectors)
Discretes Pack (LED's, Transistors, Voltage Regulators, Hardware & some of the cheaper IC's)
CPU Pack (The expensive IC's; Atmel, Propeller, SX, EEPROM's, and xtals)
Motors Pack (Servos, Steppers, and motors)
Some of our inventory won't be offered in packs (like the GPS module), but you can still use those items in your design. We'll try to keep the cost of Designers Packs as low as possible, it's our thought that most designers will only need the Basics Pack. Of course, you don't need to order anything from us to list a project.
Although the Inventory is still in flux, we've created an inventory checklist that will go in each Designers Pack It also has big images of the project boards; I've found it really easy just to draw the placement of components on the image & go off and build it. The inventory checklist is here.
I'm pretty excited, I hope you guys are too! If you want an email when the Designers Packs are available for order, just go here and we'll let you know. It will also help me to put together enough Packs for everyone who wants one.
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Concentrate on understanding the problem, not applying the tool
Post Edited (Nick McClick) : 9/10/2008 9:01:34 PM GMT
Actually, even if they license it under GPL, they still own the copyright to the project. GPLing a peice of software doesn't stop the original creator from dual licensing, or from making a proprietary derivative. Derivatives from the original project are are copyright the people who create the derivatives, but the only license derivatives can be released under is the GPL without the consent (a new license) from all the authors up the tree.
Apache and MySQL are dual licensed by the original authors. Let's assume Apache's free version is GPL (I think it is, but it's been a while since I checked). If you create a derivative of Apache, with feature X using the free version's code, then you must release it as free software, not release it or work out a different licensing agreement with Apache. This agreement might be kickbacks from Apache for them including feature X in the trunk of their non-free version or you pay Apache to sell a closed source version of Apache with feature X. If you derive your code from another source besides the original code base, and it includes other derivatives, then you must contact each copyright holder and get their permission to release your version under anything other than the GPL.
Note any reference to "free software" is meant as free speech not as in free beer, and in this case refers specifically to the GPL. Even changing from one free license to another without all authors consent is a violation of the contract, and that is what will keep Linux (the kernal not the OS GNU/Linux) under GPL v2 and not allow it to move to GPL v3; Linus won't license the material he holds the copyright to under version 3.
If the versions are released under the GPL for posing on GG, then they can't be encumbered by a patent or they violate the terms of the GLP and then there is no license for it to posted and built under. I know this isn't quite what you were asking but since patents were mentioned, I thought I'd chime in.