Rockbox Development > New Ports
Rockbox Player - Project to design and build a Free/Open hardware audio player
portable:
We are listening.......and definitely interested.....
We are going to get help from Rockbox developers soon, to do the 1st stage of our project......keep a eye on a new thread ;) (Right now, waiting for some product to appear before this can start.....)
roach:
Hi Eric,
Is this going to be an open-hardware project? (ie: public schematics, board layouts, parts list, etc.)
portable:
--- Quote from: roach on October 02, 2006, 07:32:18 PM ---Hi Eric,
Is this going to be an open-hardware project? (ie: public schematics, board layouts, parts list, etc.)
--- End quote ---
We weren't thinking about making this an open-hardware project....we were more on the line of designing the hardware, release public schematics, board layouts, parts list, etc to Rockbox developer (not public). I mean Rockbox developer will get their hands on everything they need on the hardware and source code, etc. And we leave the OS as open-source....(if you read the other thread by me, then you would know we were trying something similar with the current X8 but telechips do not provide source code to make this much further. And the current firmware reverse engineering progress seems to have stalled or at least I didn't hear any updates on it.)
And the 1st stage I was talking about was to allow Developer to work on a simplified version of the project using a simpler hardware (which is going to be mass produced anyway).....with little features just to get the Rockbox working on a particlular chip first and see how well it goes. Then, we can design new models using the same chip and implement additional features on the hardware and Rockbox/other OS (eg linux).......
Open-hardware project does sounds good but I don't know how to make it work though....progress might be too slow to be practical? (and what if Apple, etc come along and steal everyone's hard work on the hardware and make it their own?)
roach:
--- Quote from: portable on October 02, 2006, 07:46:20 PM ---Open-hardware project does sounds good but I don't know how to make it work though....progress might be too slow to be practical? (and what if Apple, etc come along and steal everyone's hard work on the hardware and make it their own?)
--- End quote ---
Well, you still have ultimate control over licensing. If you release it under, say, the LGPL, then Apple (or whoever) has to keep the design open if they want to use any portion of your design.
As well, you're not necessarily limited to relying on external parties for development. The main point (in my mind, anyway) would be:
- Anyone can build one from scratch, if they want, simply by orering the parts, BUT
- it'll be cheaper to buy either a completed player, or a kit, from you guys, since you're making them by the hundreds (or thousands) anyways. You're material costs will be lower (economy of scale) than the average hobbyist. You can charge a slight markup, and resell the required parts. AND
- for people who don't want to make the damn thing themselves, but only want an mp3 player, you can sell the completed version at your regular retail markup.
So, not only are you hitting your regular retail customers, you're also getting all the electornics and rockbox hobbyists out there who'd rather make one themselves...
portable:
--- Quote from: roach on October 02, 2006, 08:04:55 PM ---Well, you still have ultimate control over licensing. If you release it under, say, the LGPL, then Apple (or whoever) has to keep the design open if they want to use any portion of your design.
--- End quote ---
Well, I don't think that's a very good idea though. If you know how fast Chinese manufacturer can copy designs.....And the fact that this device is manufacturered in China....It will be too much of a trouble to hunt down manufacturers that violate the licences. Simply not worth it....you could be driven out of business by others imitation your design with your own blueprints!!!
--- Quote from: roach on October 02, 2006, 08:04:55 PM ---Anyone can build one from scratch, if they want, simply by orering the parts
--- End quote ---
Don't you think electronic parts these days are too delicate and too small to put together yourselves? Much easier and way cheaper to just buy the completed product.
By the way, I found this http://www.simputer.org which is a open hardware project.
And this is these are the products -
http://amidasimputer.com/
http://www.simputerland.com/
(seems not bad, except amida's site says "We do not ship to international customers at this time.")
However, we don't mind if you want to contribute any ideas we should consider to make new devices..
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