by Echotapper » Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:09 pm
I guess I'm to start here....
Thanks (again) for bring this up! My objective was to consolidate my knowledge to a range of products that would be both affordable and 'state of the art'. Some years ago I wrote an entry in a popular forum explaining the 'madness' to construct a new echo device based on new technologies while making it a profitable ROI (return of investment) adventure. Obviously, as an engineer, I did those calculations showing that this never could work.
My rational to step-in as an 'open source approach' was based on the fact that protection by patents would add another 5500€ non-recoverable cost on top of the investment of marketing a commercial unit.
So why did I go through this difficult, time consuming mode?
Firstly, opensource is, from my point of view, the most effective way designing this type of product as more people will add value to the product then possible with a very small commercial team. This is not only resource related but also knowledge of the field of electronics and software, both automation and coding DSP processors. In hindsight, this already proved my point as the virtual team is already exceeding my expectations offering 'state-of-the-art' automation including eTap2hw delay-core based products based on improved electronics both solid-state and valves/tubes.
My12 years spent on Echotapper already produced a tremendous payback being extensive social contacts and new friends including the extensive brain gymnastics I would not have missed! My efforts (complete work) is licensed under an umbrella "Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License". My sourcecode is selectively distributed to extend life-cycle to avoid misuse and enable future.
I would also like to mention here, in no specific order, Johan, Philip, Stephen and Chris for the excellent contribution to the design(s) Barry,Peter,Roger,Lars and Dick for the 'sound' testing and suggesting improvements and Johan,Lars, JC, Mick and Ecca for taken the eTap2hw delay-core to other exciting configurations. Without this we could not have this success of more then 250 units build!
On patenting echo equipment the mentioned 5500€ cost for a international patent kills the ROI. I guess the grinding off type-numbers from electronic parts or even embedding the design in (black) epoxy would be the only way out to prevent the copycats to duplicate.
Piet