Yesterday HK released a video about their new 433Mhz LRS modules.
And i shocked. Because it is unauthorized copy of my OpenLRS !
OpenLRS is an Opensource RC and i'm the developer of that system.
Stop the video on 1:08 and check the receiver.
And check the pinout or something. http://www.flytron.com/openlrs/146-openlrs-receiver-v2.html
Only the difference is 6 pin ICSP. We don't need that because of our production procedure.
Now the question is "What can i do?"
If i cant find an answer about that, i will stop to designing open source hardware.
Comments
Hi Guys,
Sorry for my late reply. I was in HongKong for a week and just turning back (not for meet with HobbyKing, just another)
At first, thank you for your comments. I'm agree with all of you about being open, laws, rules, GPL and others. But i have some extras.
At first, everyone using this "China" thing to cover the copying but you are forgetting one thing, "Hobby King is NOT a China company". HK is a company that placed on HongKong and his owner is an Australian. And yes, they are copying everything without any respect. We have to separate "china" and "copy" words. Because i have good Chinese friends that have respect.
Production in china is cheaper than every place on the earth and HobbyKing selling most of item under the cost. Because they are making the money from "Shipping" not from the products.
today i sent a half kg package with HongKong Post from HongKong and paid only 7USD. If you send 10 or more item, they are giving half of it as "bulk post". And if you have some export agreements, Shipping is free for most of HongKong company here.
Making the money from shipping is the strategy of HobbyKing and this is why no one cant be competitive with them on the market.
Some friends suggesting to dealing with HK about OpenLRS. Yes it is possible but not now. I think, they have to do that before releasing it, not after. I think, respecting the developers more important to making money.
By the way, OpenLRS is not only the copy. They are also copying our closed products too :)
The Blue board is the announced by HobbyKing in last week. I guess they didnt recognize and copy our microprocessor and used PIC12F508 with same circuit. Holes, passive components and LED places is %100 same with our one. It is getting funny :)
@Ricky & Mark,
Thank you for your wishes.
The best think about that, I have the ideas but they dont :) They can copy but I'll be one step ahead ;)
Cheers from HongKong International Airport
Melih
Melih, i think what you're going through is a part of the opensource curse. Hobbyking is a china /hk based company and they neglect almost all copyrights/patents whatsoever. nevertheless they also have franchise in countries(germany, usa etc.) where those issues are big deal. maybe there you can prevent sales. hope you can make it.
Copyright is considered a 'moral right', so you can, if you choose change the license for your hardware from CC-SA-3.0 to CC-SA-NC or other more restrictive license. Though I do wonder how much other than the PCB layout you can protect. Looking at the schematic http://www.flytron.com/pdf/OpenLRS_RX2.pdf it's the combination of couple of chips. The firmware is the defining difference.
Open Source is offering value for the service and selling that service. It's just not so clear when you are selling hardware that anyone can make as it's open source.
As somebody pointed out in the rcgroups, is you just need to stay ahead of the copiers. 3DR are doing this by innovating and reworking the products based on customer feedback on a 6 month schedule. The plans for the innovations are kept secret to a degree and that keeps them current and up to date. ie. APM2.5 in the summer. APM 2.5+ just released with new power management, power supply module. (The combined cost is also $179 instead of $199 without the Power Module) (Slight gripe there is that I need to pay $25 extra ;-) )
The is the advantage of this model for customers is that innovation happens faster. HK are selling your old 100mW model. the new one is 1w, so why would I want that ;-)
Maybe contacting 3DR to sell your solution as a preferred solution would also help.
All I would like to say is keep up the good work, you look like you are ahead of the game.
@Max,
I'm happy when i design something. I guess enough people knowing arduino and they can read the code and find better usages than me. In the current code you can add just a gyro and use your receiver as an MultiWii controller No need an external receiver. It is fully compatible with MultiWii 2+ firmwares because i a member of multiwii project. :) Or just stabilize your plane with only few lines code. I guess this is enough starting point for other developers.
I will return to my designs and think twice before releasing new open things. My all money coming from closed source projects and going to the opens. I know i'm not a good capitalist. Because i'm not. :D
Thank you for your comments.
@Max,
Yes this is another important point. I guess i have to stop supporting the OpenLRS project but they do. Because I have only 50 customers but will be 1000+ OpenLRS user after HK release.
Good news for me:
One of the customers is the copier of the HK. Now i have only 49 customer. Less support job for me :)))
Bring on futaba modules!
Hobbyking is not first one to clone OpenLRS, these prototypes exist from May 2012. I did some improvements to Tx module, made it JR compatible. I also plan to change it to 868Mhz and then sell few pieces as kit.
https://picasaweb.google.com/m.kolinsky/KolinSRCDev
This is good for OpenLRS project, there will be more users, maybe new firmwares.
Bad for Melih, he will loose profit. If they will not include copyright on board as I did, sue them.
People will buy hobbyking units because they are JR modules, who wants hitec/futaba?
Another discussion about same case in RC Groups
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1778553&page=3
From my side, I'm designing open source projects to sharing the how to with community. Yes I'm not protecting them with hard licenses but I didn't understand "if you don't do that they have rights to doing it" like approaches.
Yes they have but we are not lawyers, are you?
In this case, they are copying all RX layout and name of the project. But as you know they will not open a support forums, google code pages, new how to or share new firmware about it. Who will? Where is the profit of community? Will we applaud them because of cheaper production ?
@Earl, last year I sold only ~50 units Tx and 100 units Rx of OpenLRS. But I redesigned it 4 times and only PCB cost is more than 4000$. As you see , OpenLRS is not my favorite money maker project, just I like it :)))
this is why this blog post not about money. This is a way to learn the real approaches of community about clones.
Why don't you just ask HK for a reasonable payment for your efforts. Maybe they will read the DiyDrones forum and consider giving you something.
Earl
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