5 ms·
Clarification, about mid-page. "... At least for an initial period, we want to prevent counterfeiters from blindly downloading a file and manufacturing it with
by squarefoot 5y ago
Clarification, about mid-page.
"... At least for an initial period, we want to prevent counterfeiters from blindly downloading a file and manufacturing it without any R&D effort or contribution to the community, because the result of that will be tens or hundreds of low-quality clones which do not have nearly the quality of ours, and no benefit for the community. ..."
"... This is why for them we chose the same approach as Raspberry Pi: we publish schematics so that anyone can learn from them, and we keep the entire software stack completely open source. But at least for now, Altium files are available only upon request so that we can check whether someone can actually manufacture them with the required quality. ..."
"Alessandro Ranellucci
Head of Maker Business, Open Source & Community
ARDUINO.CC"
Aside the unfortunate comparison with the Raspberry PI approach (the RPi uses binary blobs, therefore is not open), it seems the case is closed: at least initially, hackers will have all necessary information minus what is often being used only by clone builders, namely CAD files. Schematics are open and software is open; building clones is still possible for users but less convenient for companies.
- duskwuff 5y agoMeanwhile, ST publishes full schematics and CAD files for all of their development boards, e.g. https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/stm32h747i-disco.html#cad-resources https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/stm32h747i-disco.html... They aren't freely licensed, to be fair, but at least they're published! And, in practice, ST won't mind if you refer to their reference boards while designing your own hardware; that's what they're for, after all.
- MayeulC 5y agoIt's different as ST is a chip manufacturer. If you make clones, chances are they'll only work with their chips, so you end up ordering from them anyway. Win-win. Boards could have an open license though.
- admax88q 5y ago> building clones is still possible for users but less convenient for companies. That's a pretty charitable way to phrase it. I would think companies looking to make clones have the expertise and can afford to take the effort to recreate the PCB layouts from the schematics, but normal users are denied the opportunity to learn from it. It's a small roadblock to commercial clones, but a complex gate to the average user looking to learn.
- hulitu 5y agoAs I said, schematics is all you need. And making your own layout makes you learn. Just copying blindly does not help. And there are a lot of scammers who will take your design and compete with you so let them do some work.
- admax88q 5y agoOh come now, you can't just "learn by doing" when it comes to circuit layout, when you have no idea what will and won't work. Especially with modern high frequency circuits that have a lot more challenges due to cross signaling and propagation delays. Sure copying blindly doesn't help, but neither does shooting int he dark. Having reference layouts that actually work however can be a useful learning resource and starting point to work from if you want to do something similar but slightly different.
- pjmlp 5y agoWhen I was in school doing electronics late 80's, that was the way to go. So 80's high school students were able to do it, but average users are not?
- soco 5y agoThen you surely remember how important layout is for cross signaling, high frequency and and and. All this will be missing from the schematic.