Things you think are opensource hardware, but aren't

[unitedatoms]

Grats on the milestone! That enclosure is fantastic. If you will make extruded parts done and mass produced, this will be a nice product by itself.

[zapta]

And the deal with the video drivers - yeah, but big deal ... What you are describing is the absolutist, the strongest possible definition of "open source" that pretty much nothing will ever satisfy, because any hardware you use is full of binary blobs with firmware, microcode, configuration, etc.

It does matters to me why some design aspects of blobs are opaque. Is it because the author just chose to have them closed (e.g. the Teensy case) or were there external constraints that prevented the author from sharing them (e.g. third party trade secrets). In the later case the author did a good faith attempt to open as much as he could which I appreciate.

[charlespax]

Grats on the milestone! That enclosure is fantastic. If you will make extruded parts done and mass produced, this will be a nice product by itself.

Thank you :-) My plan is to sell the LCD, keypad, enclosure, and a development board, so people can make their own project in a beautiful case. I will make a bare bones board with microcontroller, MicroSD slot, buttons, LCD, power system, battery charging, and all. There will be an empty section of the PCB where people can solder in one or more modules they purchase or design. It'll all fit in the case and be beautiful. Every day I wake up excited to make this happen.

[unitedatoms]

Is the width of plastic enclosure less or equal 103.5mm ? If yes, I have immediate use for it.

[ElektroQuark]

Wrong reading...

[charlespax]

Is the width of plastic enclosure less or equal 103.5mm ? If yes, I have immediate use for it.

Lucky you...

[unitedatoms]

That is great. I am lucky. I have steel enclosure 104x104mm. So the front of plastic instrument enclosure may work as panel mount bezel + screen.

[charlespax]

That is great. I am lucky. I have steel enclosure 104x104mm

Nice. I'm shipping probably in September. If you're okay with hacking the hardware a little you can buy one of my prototypes. I've just been putting them in the Mystery Bags. If you pick one up, just email me your order number and I'll make sure you get one that has a prototype, with LCD.

[unitedatoms]

Great. PM-ed you