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Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Lisa/M questions


From: antoine drouin
Subject: Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Lisa/M questions
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 13:25:47 +0200

Hi Christophe

Schematics will be released ASAP, CAD files will come later. When ? I
don't know.... Worst case would be when Joby Robotics releases a new
version of the board, but I hope it will be sooner than that.
Now, why do I have the feeling that we get attacked all the time on
that choice ? The "beginning of closedsource-only APs in paparazzi"
does not sound very neutral to me. Maybe I'm just overreacting, but
you seem to be implying that there would be some evil hidden
motivations behind that choice. For you information, Lisa/L CAD files
have been released (
http://svn.savannah.nongnu.org/viewvc/paparazzi-hardware/trunk/lisa/v1.1/?root=paparazzi
) 3 month ago.
I had already written a mail to the mailing list to explain the
motivations behind not releasing CAD file together with new boards
when all the fuss about about lisa/L happened but renounced to send it
in order to avoid fueling the flameware.
I've started this project together with Pascal 8 years ago and since
then I have dedicated my time to try and make it successful. I'm
utterly convinced of the benefits of open source, but observing how
Paparazzi grew over time, I came to the conclusion that hardware is a
bit different than software... "gcc tiny.brd" is not going to make a
board magically appear on your desktop. I'll list here some of my
arguments in favor of releasing CAD files after the board is mature.

1- Unlike software, where an unskilled user can type make and get a
piece of complex software to successfully build, assembling hardware
requires tools and skills. Providing gerbers and BOM have lured a
bunch of new users into believing otherwise and has created tons of
frustration. I've myself fixed a number of badly assembled boards and
I even recall that while helping debugging a board ( so after
assembly), discovering that the person had manufactured two layers
PCBs instead of four layers. As the technology of the autopilot
increases, this problem becomes more and more important.

2- The success of the project depends on the availability of
affordable hardware. The price of hardware is directly and
exponentially dependent on the number of manufactured units. If ten
persons manufacture 10 boards each, the cost will be much higher than
if one person manufactures 100.

3- Last and not least, the quality of assembly also depends very much
on the number of manufactured units. Good quality can only be achieved
through the use of automated placing and soldering, and those
processes can only be used if the number of units reach a certain
amount.

 You may think that my arguments are wrong and I'm ready to debate
them with you, but questioning my ethics hurts. I, as well as all the
Paparazzi developers, only have one goal in mind, the success of this
project.

Best regards

Poine




On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Christoph Niemann
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> thank you very much for your replies.
>
> @Eric: The reason why not to use Spektrum is the following:
> I have 2.4Ghz video-gear, so if I'm using it, I have to use 35Mhz. My 2.4Ghz 
> stuff is JETI-equipment, so I'm using a receiver, that has been modified to 
> output the PPM-Signal.
>
> So the first question is solved, PPM should work. What remains is the 
> question of the license. Will the shematics (perhaps the eagle-files) be 
> available, like at the old APs, or are the Lisa-APs the beginning of 
> closedsource-only APs in paparazzi? Please don't get me wrong, but this is 
> really important to me for making some strategic descisions and might be for 
> some more guys too.
>
> Cheers
>
> Christoph
>
>
>
>> Datum: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 07:58:45 +0200
>> Von: antoine drouin <address@hidden>
>> An: address@hidden
>> Betreff: Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Lisa/M questions
>
>> ppm on lisa/M works, and so does it on lisa/L
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Poine
>>
>> ps: on lisa/M, PPM is at the moment sharing a line with servo6 (
>> because it's the way it was wired on lisa/L ). It would be trivial to
>> adapt the driver to use another line. look at
>> sw/airborne/arch/stm32/subsystems/radio_control/ppm_arch.c
>
> _______________________________________________
> Paparazzi-devel mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/paparazzi-devel
>



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