Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Re: A Humble Request....for allowing to copy Circuit into PCB

[Josh Blum]

Manoj Kumar,
Devendra Purohit,
Marten Christophe,
and others at address@hidden,

A humble request for you to get some perspective:

Running a business costs money: Parts, supplies, equipment,
manufacturing, assembly, testing, employees, export compliance, future
developments. Maybe the developers like to have a job and eat food? The
price you want to pay does not cover the true cost of a USRP.

Matt is not the enemy, and using the mailing list to publicly humiliate
him into giving you a free USRP is not really an appropriate list topic.
If you are angry at the "man" and the big cooperations stepping on the
little guy; you are seriously barking up the wrong tree.

You can find lots of other projects, or great ways to contribute without
radio hardware. I created most of gnuradio-companion with my own laptop
and without any radio hardware or test equipment. Maybe you can get a
signal capture from someone and work on a demodulator; or come up with a
new modulator that works in simulation (as others have suggested). When
the time comes to test the software, perhaps you can borrow some
hardware (maybe a USRP) from another university.

Thank you,
-Josh

On 01/10/2011 07:24 PM, Marten Christophe wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> I have something to show the project which was community developed and
> sold in 450$ even though
> when it was in prototyping phase and FPGA Atera Cylone used to be so
> costly that time coz it was not
> matured that time.  USRP has been sold in $450 ,  how one can claim
> proprietorship on a product which was  develop as open sourced
> hardware  project. many of people have contributed to it on Mr. Ettus
> alone.. he ought to bring its price to nominal and reasonable at least
> for students when he is producing it in bulk.
> 
> I alone Estimated its costing on DIGI key and other sites for parts
> and PCB sourcing and all
> it not exceeding $200 and he is www.ettus.com claiming $150 for
> handling n  shipping alone.
> so outside US it would be around $1000.  my apologies  if i used harsh words.
> 
> Below old mails from Mr. Ettus
> 
> Kind regards,
> =====Q=======
> http://ftp.sunet.se/geda/mailinglist/geda-user25/msg00049.html
> =====UQ======
> 
> To: geda-user-atMUNGEDseul_dot_org
> Subject: gEDA-user: The USRP is for sale
> From: Matt Ettus <boyscout-atMUNGEDgmail_dot_com>
> Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 21:04:00 -0800
> Delivery-Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:04:06 -0500
> DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com;
> h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding;
> b=eD0MWe9lQkMlgqu26zhotdr1wjiGK5o9tZMN+udJfTjnikboIyaQ8WLcf+H3OcXVe65HF6TQviymxppkyTwRTLp2wJKPvkVVas87pS76RAHXUfEJZxkboUsDqp+MmM8L2YnNHWqmLqsVP3GrrDR0bp7s3vRnB0CgryMs3zUUeCI=
> Reply-To: geda-user-atMUNGEDseul_dot_org
> Sender: owner-geda-user-atMUNGEDseul_dot_org
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) is a completely free
> design, which is now complete and going on sale.  I used gEDA for all
> schematics, PCB for the daughterboard layouts, and Icarus for all my
> simulation of FPGA code.
> 
> I know a lot of people on this list have asked about the USRP in the
> past, so here is the official announcement:
> 
> ===============================================================
> 
> 
>       Ettus Research LLC is pleased to announce that the USRP in now
> available for purchase!  Shipment will begin in the first half of
> January.  For more detailed info on the USRP, check out:
> 
> http://www.ettus.com
> http://comsec.com/wiki?UniversalSoftwareRadioPeripheral
> http://gnu.org/software/gnuradio/
> 
>       The USRP motherboard is US$450, and includes a USB cable and power
> supply.  The supply is a universal switching type which works on
> 90-260 VAC, 50/60 Hz, so it will work internationally with a US-type
> plug converter.
> 
>       The BasicRX and BasicTX daughterboards are also available, for US$50
> each.  These boards are perfect for operation with an external RF
> frontend, or for prototyping your own.  Each board provides a pair of
> SMA connectors for IF signals (either two independent signals or one
> IQ signal), and headers for access to 16 general purpose digital IOs
> per board, as well as the I2C and SPI buses, and 4 low-speed DAC
> outputs and 2 low-speed ADC inputs.
> 
>       Each USRP can accommodate 2 Basic RX boards AND 2 BasicTX boards.  A
> simple receive only system would require one BasicRX board.  A basic
> transceiver would require one BasicRX and one BasicTX.  A complete
> system (2 of each) is recommended if you plan to do any multi-antenna
> systems or custom development of code for the FPGA.
> 
>       Additional daughterboards will be available in the next few months.
> 
>       Ordering information can be found at http://www.ettus.com
> 
> 
>       Payment is only by check or money order at this time.  A secured
> website to accept credit card orders will be online at some point in
> the future.  Orders will be shipped in the order received.  Checks
> will not be cashed until your unit is ready to ship.  California
> residents will need to add 8.25% to the price (not including
> shipping).
> 
>       To place an order, fill out the form below, email it to
> address@hidden, and then print it out, and mail it along with a check
> or Money Order to:
> 
>       Ettus Research LLC
>       604 Mariposa Avenue
>       Mountain View, CA 94041
> 
>       If you need a formal quote, need to get an exact shipping cost for
> non-US orders, are interested in purchasing more than 5 USRPs, or if
> you have any further questions, please send email to address@hidden
> 
>               Order Form
> 
> Name:
> 
> 
> Ship to Address:
> 
> 
> 
> Item                  Per Unit        Qty             Price
> USRPs                 $450            
> BasicRX               $50
> BasicTX               $50
> 
> Sales Tax (California addresses only)  +8.25% 
> 
> Shipping and handling ($25 in US)
> 
>                                       Total
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Follow-Ups:
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> 
> 
> On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 4:48 AM, Brian Padalino <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Hi Marten,
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 6:39 PM, Marten Christophe <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> Hello Mr. Ettus,
>>> Do you have any plan to reduce price for USRP1 or release PCB layout for
>>> poor students?
>>
>> So I have a feeling your requests are going to go unanswered, and I
>> don't blame the deaf ears one bit.
>>
>> Here starts some guidance, maybe a little ranting, but try to take
>> from it some good direction as to where students should go and take
>> their want and desire for hardware.
>>
>> The metaphor of a dog chasing a car really stands firm in this case.
>> Once the dog catches the car, or the student acquires a USRP, what are
>> they going to do with it?  In both cases, I predict - nothing!
>>
>> So lets figure out something that is worth while for you to do -
>> simulate something.  Simulate anything!  There is a channel simulator
>> built into GNU Radio.  Use it.  Get familiar with it.  Familiarize
>> yourself with channels of varying types.  If you can't get that
>> channel simulator to work, make your own!  Prove it accurately
>> simulates different channels.  Understand frequency offset,
>> synchronization problems, non-coherent and coherent reception, dynamic
>> range, multipath, equalization, forward error correction, etc.
>>
>> What you seem to not realize or understand is that the GNU Radio
>> software that you can compile and putz around with is worth
>> significantly more to you than any piece of hardware that will capture
>> or create EM radiation.
>>
>> I implore you, as a student, to write papers using GNU Radio, create
>> and simulate systems using GNU Radio, and get your BER curves where
>> you think they should be using GNU Radio.  When you accomplish that,
>> then maybe you could ask someone for some hardware to perform
>> experiments and see how your system works in the real world versus
>> your simulation.  Do the models match?  Where do they differ?  Are you
>> on your way to becoming a communications expert?
>>
>> I believe, wholeheartedly, that if you showed this level of drive,
>> understanding and expertise, you could probably find someone to either
>> front the money to buy you a system for you to continue your work or
>> gladly donate something to you.  But until you can figure out what
>> you're going to do with the car after you catch it and show you are
>> competent, I doubt this line of questioning will be any better than
>> interrogating a brick wall.
>>
>> My sincerest apologies if this comes off as crass or rude, but I
>> honestly tried to be motivating and give direction.
>>
>> Good luck with your endeavors.
>>
>> Brian
>>
> 
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