It’s been a while since my last post, as usual. I’ve started to scale back my design work for various reasons. Also, it’s become economically unviable to have circuit boards made and assembled, primarily due to the idiocy of the current tariffs, component shortages and price increases. And a lot of people don’t have disposable income these days anway.
I’m going to sell off what remains of my current stock of boards. Here’s what’s left:
ASR-10 SCSI
EPS-16 SCSI and Flash Bank
Prophet VS CEM5530 module and I-626 keyboard scanner
Dynacord ADS/ADD-Two memory
OB-Mx two voice board (coming soon)
Sequential Prophet 3000 memory expansion and I-627B adapter (for rev A machines)
People often ask me to share my designs, gerber files, schematics, etc. I often get questions like this:
Can you share the schematics for this project? I promise I won’t distribute them!
Can I have the source code for project xyz
Can you open source this project? Everyone would really appreciate it!
Can I get the gerber files for a board, I only want to make a few for myself
Can I collaborate on this project, I have some great ideas about features…
Will you allow me to make this board under license, to avoid tariffs in the EU (or wherever)
The answer to all of these is no. I’ve invested hundreds of hours researching and building these projects, and I don’t have the time or interest to answer emails about how to get boards made, where to buy components, and what to do when the board doesn’t work. The majority of people who ask for design files have no clue about what they are getting into. I know this seems harsh. But after having to repair 90% of the DSS-1 upgrades done by customers, I can safely say that most people are not up to the challenge. I would rather provide a complete, tested and working product that people can install without having to worry if it’s going to damage their instrument or spend hours trying to troubleshoot problems.
And I’m not interested in collaboration. The few times I’ve done it, it’s been a disaster, mostly because of peoples’ inexperience and unrealistic expectations. Maybe I’m just hard to work with, and I’m fine with that.