AndyKent
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Registered: 3rd Sep 05
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For a dumb outsiders point of view, isn't the reason other companies use lots of different people to protect their idea from copying?
You approach a designer/producer with an amazing idea but not a clue how to build it, the first thing they're going to do is investigate the market you're targeting and best you to market.
If you have different people doing different things (ie. one person designs a pcb, another software etc.) you break the ease with which someone steals it.
Or maybe I'm being obvious.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Why would the designer you employ bother looking into the market you're targeting? It's not their job to do that sort of work, they should just do as they're asked.
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Gary
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Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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And tbf if they went and did your idea when you have emails proving you went to the for a service i reckon you'd win in court
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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You'd enter into a non-disclosure agreement whenever you hire a freelancer anyway, unless you're an un-organised fool.
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Gary
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Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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Lets be honest, welsh is an un-organised fool
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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I think I did an NDA for him once, or it could have been for someone he sub-sub-contracted out to me 
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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quote:
Originally posted by Gary
Lets be honest, welsh is an un-organised fool
Bit Harsh
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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quote:
Originally posted by ed
I think I did an NDA for him once, or it could have been for someone he sub-sub-contracted out to me
No, was a client of mine / paid for the lead.
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
Edit - Personally I'd a proof of concept knocked up on a development board (beagleboard or a variant, Raspberry Pi, Arduino if it's basic); at least then you have something to show designers/concept houses etc
[Edited on 15-02-2012 by Dom]
This is a very good idea as you could put together what you wanted the device to do for about £30-35. Raspberry Pi + memory card reader + battery + a case.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by ed
You'd enter into a non-disclosure agreement whenever you hire a freelancer anyway
Yup, this would be the first port of call before you spoke to anyone in great details. Although you can still get shafted especially if you plan to get it manufactured in the far-east.
Gary - Would emails stand up in court? Don't know the ins and outs but I would have thought not considering they can easily be forged.
Noshua - Wouldn't worry about casing it or batteries, it'll all change come development. It's literally just a proof of concept, so could look like a complete monstrosity as long as it worked. And a Raspberry Pi would probably work, but with a rPi you're essentially working with linux as there is naff all data about interfacing with the Broadcom SoC at a lower-level (from what I’ve read), so I’d personally look at something not as 'high-level' like a beagleboard (iirc there is a fair amount of info on the Texas OMAP). Granted it's still high-level in the scheme of things where compared with dedicated development boards you'd get from ARM etc.
Whittie - You're better of asking on a dedicated electronics/circuits/pcb/development forum as unless it is GCSE/A-level grade stuff then no one is really going to be able to help here, certainly not knocking up a prototype for a few pints and a packet of crisps
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Chris
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Registered: 21st Sep 99
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Pm me the full design spec, you dont really need to make a pcb.
If i was doing it it would send level via sms or email, easy to do really.
Full unit cost would be 40 quid, plus gsm line rental unless you want to make it TCP/IP to send direct via router.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Chris
Pm me the full design spec, you dont really need to make a pcb.
If i was doing it it would send level via sms or email, easy to do really.
Full unit cost would be 40 quid, plus gsm line rental unless you want to make it TCP/IP to send direct via router.
If you're dealing with GSM then there are plenty of GSM/HSDPA modules (round solutions is one place for OEM modules) around that can be interfaced reasonably simply with something like an Arudino or Teensy. Have recently been doing something similar for a remote sensor based project.
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Chris
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Registered: 21st Sep 99
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Me too, I have a project is a basement level monitor, if any wants to buy one.
http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=362
[Edited on 16-02-2012 by Chris]
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sand-eel
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Registered: 15th Mar 07
Location: carluke/braidwood--IRNBRULAND
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http://www.expresspcb.com/ExpressPCBHtm/Download.htm
I designed the Intel core I7 on this program for my mate Gordon Moore.
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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Well a guy in Mid Wales has come back to me today.
I now have a base design for the PCB now. Only thing stopping me to make a prototype now is data transfer speeds, and battery issues, i'd rather sort the issues out before making / spending money on a prototype.
It needs to transfer data onto a built in flash drive / ssd, quickly, also the battery can't die when its transfering. These are the two main issues at the moment, so want to sort them out before any kind of model is created.
The data transfer will be sorted. However the battery issue bothers me more.
Obviously wanting to keep costs down if it goes into production, so was going to use standard lithium AA batteries. So either need to add to the device the current percentage of power, and not to transfer data below say 1 bar or 10%. Or go down a recharge route which im wanting to avoid as its probably costly.
Going to be a long project at this rate
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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There's plenty of solutions to the battery issue; as you say disabling writing to your storage medium when the battery voltage goes below a certain value is one; depending on how much data is to be written each time then you could use e-squared to buffer it prior to writing, if power is cut then you still have the data and you'd write it on power up; battery backup is another ie: gives enough time for the current data to be written.
Data transfers (assuming this is to your storage medium) is tricky but ideally you'd want to be using onboard storage where ever possible (could still get it looking like a USB device if need be but USB has it's own issues), you certainly wouldn't want to go down the route of HDD SDDs on basis of overheads and removable storage (like SD cards) can be a royal PITA (seen this first hand with the old mans embedded products) as transfer rates are dependent on both (process and flash) controllers, used filesystem and everything in between.
Good luck with this bit though
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Gary
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Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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You still on with this
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Chris
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Registered: 21st Sep 99
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What was the project?
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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Dom, gone with the option of charging it up and having a spare onboard battery for backup.
Storage is more than likely been done via Flash memory now mainly to keep costs down and reliability of the data.
Gone ahead with a prototype and paid the PCB programmers to do their thing. Fingers crossed will get to see something working end of January/February.
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MULLER2
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Registered: 3rd Jun 02
Location: LONDON
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Have you seen this? http://www.circuits.io
It allows you to design your circuit and order PCB direct from the site. I've never used it but was only looking at it the other day :-)
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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Looks good that Muller, but don't have a clue whats going on im afraid!
Wish I did, would have saved so much money.
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baza31
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Registered: 19th Apr 03
Location: yorkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by Whittie
That's the plan Sam! Just finding somebody that will do it all from scratch. Got quite far down the road with somebody Gary knew of, but they're no longer operating.
Brett - Hope so.
Is this the transvestite at mirfield? If not go he him/her , decent guy/girl that seriously knows his/her shit .
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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quote:
Originally posted by baza31
quote:
Originally posted by Whittie
That's the plan Sam! Just finding somebody that will do it all from scratch. Got quite far down the road with somebody Gary knew of, but they're no longer operating.
Brett - Hope so.
Is this the transvestite at mirfield? If not go he him/her , decent guy/girl that seriously knows his/her shit .
Nah, Colin Somebody, I suppose could have originally been called Coleen.
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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I have a working prototype on its way to me! 
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Gary
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Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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This still going on? We talked about this idea about 2 years ago!
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