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0 pointstoast04y ago0 comments

Global supply chain manufacturing for noobs in two parts:

Part 1; make a compelling mockup, post to kickstarter etc and other social media

Part 2: bide your time with product update mockups until knock offs appear on Alibaba. Make a show about complaining about the knock offs and then return the kickstarter deposits.

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guntars4y ago

This is what's happening with open source hardware. For example, VESC and ODrive both quickly had knockoffs in all the usual places. The maintainers were somewhat understandably irked by this, but if you ask me it's exactly what should be happening. Maybe the issue was the knockoffs not complying with the license or not giving credit, but if that's all good and proper, and we should check as the end buyer, it's a net benefit to the consumer.

wolverine8764y ago

> This is what's happening with open source hardware. For example, VESC and ODrive both quickly had knockoffs in all the usual places. The maintainers were somewhat understandably irked by this, but if you ask me it's exactly what should be happening.

That is fantastic (at least as far as I understand it). What a fantasy of open source that not only do people download your code and compile it, but they download your hardware design and manufacture it!

Who doesn't it benefit? The designers and other developers now have prototypes, etc. without having to pay for manufacturing.

guntars4y ago

Agreed. I'm working on some hardware that I intend to open source and prepare a ZIP with all the files necessary to order your own boards from some place like JLCPCB that also does assembly. For the user it's a matter of dragging the ZIP to the manufacturers site and filling in some details. But that also means that they can easily swap out parts and customize it any way they want. Together with a 3D printer to make a case, you could make OSS/HW replacements to a lot of the crapware products that we have to use.

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0 pointstoast04y ago0 comments

Global supply chain manufacturing for noobs in two parts:

Part 1; make a compelling mockup, post to kickstarter etc and other social media

Part 2: bide your time with product update mockups until knock offs appear on Alibaba. Make a show about complaining about the knock offs and then return the kickstarter deposits.

0 comments

guntars4y ago

wolverine8764y ago

Who doesn't it benefit? The designers and other developers now have prototypes, etc. without having to pay for manufacturing.

guntars4y ago

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j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse