From: Dave Taht <dave.taht@gmail.com>
To: esr@thyrsus.com
Cc: thumbgps-devel@lists.bufferbloat.net
Subject: Re: [Thumbgps-devel] Build vs. modify vs. what should we be doing anyway?
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:01:54 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAA93jw5OUNiBx-_w5giZWhCrxuxUGk8uijcohQPDsWZwHKz8vw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20120312224546.GA18404@thyrsus.com>
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 3:45 PM, Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> wrote:
> Patrick Maupin <pmaupin@gmail.com>:
>> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:39 PM, Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> wrote:
>> > Sorry, my eyes aren't educated enough. (I'm an ex-mathematician; what
>> > relatively little I know about electronics design I've picked up by
>> > osmosis doing software). What does it say?
>>
>> It says:
>>
>> I am a very simple board. My major components are:
>>
>> - USB module
>> - USB patch antenna
>> - Small PL2303 clone (fitting in with your lawsuit theory)
As noted elsewhere it might be cool to get away from serial emulation entirely.
>> - Simple 5v -> 3.3v voltage regulator
>> - Coin cell battery
I like the supercap idea more than the battery idea. I imagine (and I
may be wrong) - that that will have a longer field lifetime than a
battery could.
>> - Diode so as not to drain battery during operation
>> - USB connector
>
> Yes, I identified most of these myself.
>
>> There is nothing there that would require 4 layers, and all the
>> traces seem to "go somewhere".
>
> That is *exactly* what I thought when I looked at it. Perhaps I am
> less clueless than I feared. :-)
>
> So, this is probably cloneable with relatively little effort, then?
>
>> There doesn't seem to be a real 8 pin SOIC PL2303.
>>
>> It almost certainly isn't illegal to clone one of these chips
>> (although there might be an infringed patent or two there, that isn't
>> necessarily true either). It probably is illegal to exhort people to
>> download the copyrighted Windows PL2303 driver and use it with this.
>> Probably not a problem with Linux :-)
>
> At that, PL2303s are cheap. This page
>
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=pl2303+usb
>
> clues us that they're probably less than $2 a unit.
> --
> <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
> _______________________________________________
> Thumbgps-devel mailing list
> Thumbgps-devel@lists.bufferbloat.net
> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/thumbgps-devel
--
Dave Täht
SKYPE: davetaht
US Tel: 1-239-829-5608
http://www.bufferbloat.net
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-03-12 23:01 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 39+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-03-10 18:02 Patrick Maupin
2012-03-12 21:03 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-12 21:18 ` tz
2012-03-12 21:26 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-12 21:28 ` Patrick Maupin
2012-03-12 21:39 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-12 22:10 ` Patrick Maupin
2012-03-12 22:23 ` tz
2012-03-12 22:33 ` Patrick Maupin
2012-03-13 2:29 ` Ron Frazier (NTP)
2012-03-13 2:39 ` Chris Kuethe
2012-03-12 22:45 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-12 23:01 ` Dave Taht [this message]
2012-03-13 1:43 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-13 2:04 ` Chris Kuethe
2012-03-13 2:13 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-13 2:40 ` Dave Taht
2012-03-13 2:53 ` Chris Kuethe
2012-03-13 4:54 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-13 13:23 ` Dave Taht
2012-03-13 14:35 ` tz
2012-03-13 16:04 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-13 16:22 ` tz
2012-03-13 2:38 ` Ron Frazier (NTP)
2012-03-13 2:42 ` Chris Kuethe
2012-03-13 3:00 ` Ron Frazier (NTP)
2012-03-13 3:04 ` Dave Taht
2012-03-13 3:06 ` Chris Kuethe
2012-03-13 3:16 ` Dave Taht
2012-03-13 3:31 ` Chris Kuethe
2012-03-13 4:49 ` Dave Taht
2012-03-13 4:55 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-13 4:16 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-12 21:40 ` tz
2012-03-12 21:27 ` Patrick Maupin
2012-03-12 21:22 ` Patrick Maupin
2012-03-12 21:37 ` Eric S. Raymond
2012-03-12 21:45 ` Patrick Maupin
2012-03-12 22:02 ` Eric S. Raymond
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