I’ve said this for a long time. Keep on keeping on. I would have done exactly what you did Stan - ordering pcbs and building for the community. But I’m lazy. But proud owner of 4 I built.
In the end there is only a handful trampa can really argue with - and I mean no offense but it is @Ackmaniac as he has modified the code, distribted it, but not released the source in compliance with GPL.
Mind you that regards software. Hardware is fair game, especially since there is no reference design publicly available, only the schematic. Meaning only changes to the schematic must be released.
In the past we have 4.12 modified hardware, which released all Gerber’s. Modifications to the hardware should be released as well, so for example Entertion Focbox, is a modification of 4.12, while not publicly available, you can email Entertion for these files.
It all matters what the originator has released. And the originator only released a schematic… Sooooo
Damn, I would love to give it a try but I am pretty bad at soldering… Would be nice to have someone state side making these. Oh well, I’m happy to support anyone of you guys, anything is better than going through Trampa! Keep up the good work guys!
I know, that’s why I was saying it’d be nice to have a fully assembled manufacturer state side. I would just ruin things if I tried to solder it myself…
If you decide you can make a few fully assembled units though, please hit me up!
So true, it’s hard not to see that way. I would encourage companies to do better. Forces you to keep your stuff cutting edge. Evolution is doing it better over time. So far haven’t seen the law suite from the apes for walking upright.
I heard about all this tramp bull months ago when I heard about some guys on Facebook getting a threatening letter from them. This issue is wider than this forum and Trampa has been threatening the whole industry with this crap. Maybe they should be recognized for being the bottleneck for innovation here, regardless if their AT boards are the best on the market or not, their reputation, even before this revealing thread, was a shit show…someone has to point it out and I’m fairly new and objectionable…they are hurting the industry they are apart of and it makes no sense at all…does anyone have a better theory other than ignorant protectionism and greed? I would like to think industry leaders like this had more sense and substance…pretty sad show guys…not sexy at all…and it’s been going on for what? A whole year now? when you gonna all put a stop to it? Protecting your innovations from people copying it is one thing, but when it’s not even really your innovation and open source…then you just look like a douche…like a whinny troublemaker…how about Trampa put it’s money where it’s mouth is and make one of those “other ways” and then patent it or something if they want this threatening position so badly they are willing to lie for it? . I personally work with some people in this industry and avoid people just like this…its about the skating anyway, its about the fun, not the greed…
Wow… I mean WOW… What a freaking deceitful scumbag! Who the hell does he think he’s filling with those blurred images, only on his product for that matter! Man I had very low opinion of Frank before, but after seeing that! The guy is a freaking con artist, plain as day. I would really like to see the letter he sent you threatening you. People need to know just how low this guy is willing to sink just to make money and basically trick people. Positively shameful…
On a side note, Avenue trucks has a patent on their suspension truck design, and they are working on an electric specific badass version for us. But in the mean time Acton Global already stole the idea, and unashamed asked how to get around the patent after refusing to pay for the design. They went on to create an unsafe and crappy version anyway, not only stealing a patented idea but threatening to ruin the reputation of suspension trucks through a horribly implemented version now in the hands of the consumer…and you guys are sitting here bitching and whining about open source? come on…
I have been wondering about those trucks ever since I saw them! I didn’t know they are working on a Esk8 version that’s awesome!
I honestly hadn’t heard anything about this though, if I had I would of course voiced outrage over it. Sorry but this is the first I’m hearing about it. Can you post a link that has the details and all the info? I am very interested in those trucks, since the first time u saw them. I even emailed Carvon and asked if their hanger would work with the base plate of Avenue trucks.
The purpose behind the U.S. patent process is A.) So the rich can protect their wealth by patenting all their designs because they have the money to, and B.) So that we can have COMPETITIVE pricing on items like paperclips because if one jackass claimed that he bent the first little metal rod into a paperclip then he would have a total monopoly on the paperclip market and could charge outrageous prices (errr… $350) because he is the only one who can make paperclips, and if you don’t buy from him, good luck at fastening that 30 page research paper together for a teacher that requires paper clips so she can look through it easily.
Regarding us ‘sitting here bitching and whining about open source, come on’, I hardly feel you have the right to pass judgement on us regarding this first and foremost, I don’t think anyone had any idea this was happening, I certainly didn’t, and I am a big fan of them. Further more, this issue were bitching about has been going on for over a year, and if you can’t understand the reasons behind our reactions to what just went down, I don’t even know what to say to that. It’s a fucked up situation that was extremely costly and even legal action and threats were made, so it’s not like we were bitching over a non issue, it’s a very big issue. As is the Avenue trucks issue, but once again, I don’t think hardly anyone knew about it, so please don’t act all self righteous implying what your protesting against has more of less implications than what we were protesting.
That’s probably true actually, no one knows about it…the people who do hear about it don’t speak up and the people who get the letters haven’t been saying anything…like its a big secret or something…it’s really not a secret though because I’m a nobody and I heard all about it…for a very long time…it’s like people are afraid of looking like complainers or being labeled as negative when the source of the issues are clear…just communicate what is going on…I can tell you all that anyone close to using the name vesc, or thinking of making a new esc is being threatened by Trampa…and I thought it was an open source thing. I wonder if Hobbyking got a letter from trampa, that would be funny…it would most likely bounce off their legal department like a bug on a windshield…but yeah, why isn’t it more widely known what is going on? why don’t people talk about it?
That’s a very good point, and I have only been on the forum for about a year but I think they used to have a problem where the majority of the posts were people complaining, and so the moderators implemented new posting guidelines.
