Including kits in other kits

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rellik
 
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Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:48 pm

Including kits in other kits

Post by rellik »

Is it ok (proper etiquette) to include someone's (open source) kit in my own (open source) kit? For instance, I'm working on a kit now which uses nunchucks, so that means I'd like to use either nunchucky or wiichuck. Both of which are kits (technically, I think, though they are just boards and headers). I'd really rather just toss one of those in my kit than redesign the same thing.

If it's ok to include them, what's the best way to give credit? Both nunchuck boards have the designer's URL on them, but I imagine it should be made more clear that I'm designing with other people's building blocks.

Thanks,
Patrick

adafruit
 
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Re: Including kits in other kits

Post by adafruit »

rellik wrote:Is it ok (proper etiquette) to include someone's (open source) kit in my own (open source) kit?
hmm, we don't understand your question exactly, maybe you can clarify... are you running their boards on your own? did you buy them and you're including them?

either way, have you contacted the maker? it's solarbotics right? they're super nice and super responsive.

cheers,
adafruit

rellik
 
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Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:48 pm

Re: Including kits in other kits

Post by rellik »

adafruit wrote:
rellik wrote:Is it ok (proper etiquette) to include someone's (open source) kit in my own (open source) kit?
hmm, we don't understand your question exactly, maybe you can clarify... are you running their boards on your own? did you buy them and you're including them?
To clarify, for the kit I'm working on, I'm currently using one of thingM's nunchuck adapters (wiichuck). When I am actually ready to sell the kit, I'm wondering if I can include thingM's (or solarbotic's, instead) PCB for the nunchuck adapter, or if I need to reimplement it myself. I shot an email off to thingM, so we'll see what they say.

Alternatively, the issue could be avoided altogether if I could design my PCB such that there was a rectangle sticking out of one side, for the nunchuck to plug in to. I don't know if PCB houses support that, though. I'm using Fritzing as my PCB software, and it just supports rectangular PCBs.

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sircastor
 
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Re: Including kits in other kits

Post by sircastor »

I think it depends a little on the licensing. If the kit is completely open, you can take their design, produce it, and include it with your kit. While not required, I think it's considered good form to let someone know that you're doing that.

The creator of the kit may prefer it if you're distributing their product rather than just their design, and you may work it out with them as it might be mutually beneficial to do so.

I remember a while back seeing a post from adafruit about someone selling the schematics to an adafruit product. They said something along the lines of "The license allows them to do this, but we don't think it's in the spirit of open source." When something is open source, you take the risk that anyone can use it for whatever they want - the difference between someone who abuses the license and someone who uses it in "good faith" (?) is that the latter will make the effort to include the creator - give credit where credit is due.

For credit, I'd recommend links to websites on your instructions and selling pages. If you want to go further you could include it in the kit name: "My great kit with Solarbotics Nunchucky"

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lyndon
 
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Re: Including kits in other kits

Post by lyndon »

Just be sure you're not creating a support nightmare for yourself.

rellik
 
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Re: Including kits in other kits

Post by rellik »

lyndon wrote:Just be sure you're not creating a support nightmare for yourself.
That's true. In this particular case, the "kit" I'm talking about is really just a tiny PCB with 4 pads connecting to 4 headers. It is trivial (but handy) enough that I don't imagine it would be a problem. http://todbot.com/blog/2008/02/18/wiich ... available/

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technobly
 
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Re: Including kits in other kits

Post by technobly »

I would recommend just putting the adapter right on the edge of your board, but don't make your board larger to accommodate it. Make your design flow around the edge connector. Or, send your emails and work out the logistics of including the child kit with your parent kit.

Most board houses will let you do any board outline you want, but you will probably have to learn Eagle CAD or KiCAD to generate the proper files. Personally for open hardware designs I'm leaning heavily toward KiCAD as I'm natively an OrCAD user and KiCAD mimics OrCAD best. If you are starting from scratch, you might want to give both an honest shot.

You have a third option... remake the adapter PCB in Fritzing (can you?) and order 1000 of them from China (PCBCart.com).

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