[Elecraft] Re: Make PIC code open source

[Juerg Tschirren]

Wayne,=20

I understand your concerns regarding intellectual property and technical=20
integrity. Offering an accessory box is a very good idea, and this is=20
probably the best way to go.

  One thing -- I am almost afraid to mention this here, and please do not=
 take=20
it the wrong way, but: what would happen if something bad happend to Elec=
raft=20
(in clear-text, if Elecraft went out of business)? Let's hope that this w=
ill=20
not happen for a long time to come, but what if? In this case, would the=20
source be opened so people can continue to work on their K*? Might it eve=
n be=20
necessary to pre-arrange that in some way so it is "waterprof" from the l=
egal=20
point of view.

  Again, no flaming now please. I am completely happy with the current=20
situation (Elecraft alive, source closed, accessory box in near future), =
and=20
I hope to build my K9 in 40 years from now!

Juerg

On Sunday 15 December 2002 14:35, Wayne Burdick wrote:
> Hi Juerg (and others):
>
> I appreciate your sentiments regarding open source code. It's possible =
that
> portions of it could be published in the future.
>
> Needless to say, a huge amount of time went into the development of the
> firmware. Like other companies, we consider it an important part of our
> intellectual property. Many of the algorithms we developed are novel an=
d
> very efficient, and are directly responsible for the success of the pro=
duct
> line. (The K2's main microcontroller uses only 16 k of ROM, runs at 4 M=
Hz,
> draws only a few mA, and requires no shielding. Controllers in competin=
g
> products generally use many times the ROM, run at much higher clock spe=
eds,
> draw a lot more current, and must be extensively shielded. Our design
> choices in this area lead to the K2's viability as an easy-to-build kit=
 and
> as a portable transceiver.)
>
> There's another reason, too: we don't have time to monitor and support
> third-party product development efforts. In particular, the auxBus (use=
d to
> control the K2's internal options) is not designed to accommodate a lar=
ge
> number of additional external devices. We could end up in a situation w=
here
> we have to fix a problem we didn't create. We just don't have the
> engineering or customer-support resources to handle this.
>
> In lieu of making the source code available, we're working on an access=
ory
> box that will decode certain auxBus commands and provide a number of
> general-purpose buffered outputs. There will be a discrete output for e=
ach
> band, a set of binary encoded band-select outputs, three transverter ba=
nd
> outputs, and three user-defined lines controlled by the secondary menu'=
s
> ACC entry.
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>
> Juerg Tschirren wrote:
> > Making the PIC code open source would be a very good idea in my opini=
on.
> > I hope the KPA100 / FCC  issue mentioned by Dan is not a real problem=
,
> > and if it is then it may be possible to just keep the KPA100 - relate=
d
> > parts closed-source, and open everything else.
> >
> >   It would be great to hear an official Elecraft statement about the
> > open-sourcing idea.
>
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--=20
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