[Discuss-gnuradio] Re: A Humble Request....for allowing to copy Circuit into PCB

[Patrick Strasser]

schrieb Moeller am 2011-01-11 07:59:
> On 11.01.2011 04:24, Marten Christophe wrote:
>> matured that time.  USRP has been sold in $450 ,  how one can claim
>> proprietorship on a product which was  develop as open sourced
>> hardware  project. many of people have contributed to it on Mr. Ettus

> The copyright is at Ettus.

The schematics are freely available, you can produce the PCBs for an
USRP yourself.

> It's not much for the tax-payer or commercial clients. 

Why should that be?

> But it's a lot for a hobbyist.
> Why can't there be a open-source community version of a Gnuradio-Hardware,
> about $200 for the material, do-it-yourself assembling, some performance
> tradeoffs (no expensive MIMO connector, cheap FPGA variant) etc. ?

If you want the same performance like the USRP (64MSPS, 14bit, FPGA,
USB, connector/daugterboard system, TRX), you will have to pay the
price. If you can live with less there are options. If you want to start
something new, send your proposal, you'll be gladly supported by lots of
people.

Please keep in mind:
Engineers motto: cheap, good, fast - choose any two ;-)
In other words: A DIY kit is not just the BOM/BOM costs. Its development
time and failed attempts, production costs for a PCB, risk margin for
unsold kits, extra costs for parts in batch amounts (you want just 3, we
only sell it by 25...), shipping costs, packaging, tax/custom. If you
find someone who does all that for free, what are you willing to give back?

> This is a RX-only SDR with all relevant design files
> (Schematics, PCB, Gerber), BOM about $200 :
> http://sdrtrack.drupalcafe.com/?q=node/2

That's the Charleston SDR.
http://www.amrad.org/projects/charleston_sdr/
The creator is a nice person, if you ask for permission you have chances
to build your own.
The AMRAD people have done several batches of this system already for
workshops. ~100$ for the Digilent Board, ~100$ for the SDR board. The
Digilent part is good for a lot more fun, too. NB: John Schwacke, the
creator of the board, has already built a GNU Radio block for this.

Patrick
-- 
Engineers motto: cheap, good, fast: choose any two
Patrick Strasser <patrick dot strasser at student dot tugraz dot at>
Student of Telemati_cs_, Techn. University Graz, Austria