Here's an idea I had, and feel free to shoot it down. Not even sure if this is the right place to post this but hey whatever, just thinking out loud.
I like to share project's I've done PCB layouts for in an "open source" not-for-profit context. I know @ruffrecords has also contributed a whole lot of great open source projects and PCBs to the forum as well over the years and that is pretty inspiring. Obviously @gyraf is the OG and changed the game for everyone in that context.
On the flip side, many valuable projects are now obsolete and/or have been lost over time (Igor's stuff, LaZ stuff, etc), but some (like the Whistle Rock Audio ML12 preamp) have gerbers and documentation available if you dig through the threads.
Because of all the great contributions to this forum, many of them free, maybe it would be cool to have a stickied thread in the Technical Documents section or something for sharing open-source projects complete with PCB Gerber files, etching files, and documentation where applicable.
For my own layouts, I prominently place a Creative Commons logo on the silkscreen to discourage commercial exploitation. There have been instances in the guitar pedal community where successful companies sold pedals built on gooped DIY PCBs and claimed them as original designs which just sucks. Obviously people can still steal a schematic and do their own layout and sell that, but whatever. Can't copyright a circuit. That's why I mentioned maybe making it locked and restricted for "members only" (even though the forum is obviously free to join...)
I like to share project's I've done PCB layouts for in an "open source" not-for-profit context. I know @ruffrecords has also contributed a whole lot of great open source projects and PCBs to the forum as well over the years and that is pretty inspiring. Obviously @gyraf is the OG and changed the game for everyone in that context.
On the flip side, many valuable projects are now obsolete and/or have been lost over time (Igor's stuff, LaZ stuff, etc), but some (like the Whistle Rock Audio ML12 preamp) have gerbers and documentation available if you dig through the threads.
Because of all the great contributions to this forum, many of them free, maybe it would be cool to have a stickied thread in the Technical Documents section or something for sharing open-source projects complete with PCB Gerber files, etching files, and documentation where applicable.
For my own layouts, I prominently place a Creative Commons logo on the silkscreen to discourage commercial exploitation. There have been instances in the guitar pedal community where successful companies sold pedals built on gooped DIY PCBs and claimed them as original designs which just sucks. Obviously people can still steal a schematic and do their own layout and sell that, but whatever. Can't copyright a circuit. That's why I mentioned maybe making it locked and restricted for "members only" (even though the forum is obviously free to join...)
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