Purchase limits (and a rant)

[atamagaokashii]

I don't remember how I found this site, i can only assume it was after watching wermy's original gbz videos on YouTube as a recommended video after watching agdq or sgdq... I can't remember. I any case I have watched each and every single one of them and slowly started accruing parts to make my own until I came here after seeing the link to the forums in wermy's community blog. I waited and waited for them to come back in stock and went with kites aio instead. Now in the present I'm just waiting on Dec's battery to be delivered and then my year long accrual of pieces will take shape. I have bought a mintypi PCB and parts combo so I can do a side project for my brother as a surprise.
Wermy's and helder, your ideas and the creations that spring from them are your own. Your videos, threads, and tutorials have opened my mind to soldering, electronics, and possibilities for retro gaming that I thought were just dreams or expensive pieces of hardware on thinkgeek. Whether you decide to release files or not (I don't have a 3d printer) you have my support - there isn't anything more frustrating than seeing your work wasted or your ideals betrayed. I buy from you or other reputable members here, or kitschbent. That's it. (Well the Altoids tin will be from the supermarket once I have the internals, but that's beside the point :-p)

[enemone]

We support you and Helder, and Wermy. It isn't right for someone to copy and paste your ideas and hard work and bank off of it. You two helped a lot of us make the GBZ a reality for our enjoyment. And given the type of situation that has arisen I think it's fair for the two of you to profit from the hard work you've put in. Your ideas = Your money


Personally though I would not release the files at all. If someone wants them so damn badly they need to get their s*** together and make their own.

Hey guys,
Someone had asked in another thread if we planned to do limits on things like the PCBs and 3d-printed parts (i.e one person can only buy X every batch or something). It honestly had not crossed my mind before so I didn't intend to. Then this happened:

"Hey there A sorry for my late reply.

Im a user from Helder & Wemy's forum, I contacted them couple of weeks ago to see If I could realize my project with their PCB and also use their images as example.

You can see in the image link I send you they allow me to sell pre-built units but they dont allow me to use their images ( which is okey ).

And im contacting you because they will only make a few availible to the public which is the reason why I contacted them and I have their permission.

Best Regards,
D"

rude.png
This is a guy from the forums who has contacted me before about setting up an online shop to sell completed mintyPi units. I told him it was fine with me. I can't (and wouldn't) stop people from selling stuff they make, and others sell completed GBZ units all the time. I told him he just couldn't use any of my photos or anything on his site, so that people wouldn't think it was "official" straight from me. He took that as permission to go around my and Helder's back, straight to the PCB manufacturer, and try to order 1000 PCBs (which we haven't even finished testing!). He sent them an image that Helder had posted of the latest prototype and said "I want 1000 of these."

So, in light of that experience, it seems prudent to put a limit in place, at least initially.

The other thing this made us stop and think about was whether/when to release designs for the PCBs and 3d-printed parts. The PCB designs are Helders, so it's up to him if/when he releases them. I *will* release the STL files for the case, I'll probably just wait a bit before doing so. It sucks because that sort of goes against the whole spirit of the 3d-printing and maker communities, but we kind of dodged a bullet by having the PCB manufacturer contact us and let us know what was going on. The guy above nearly had a business built completely off our work and designs without our permission, ready to go from day 1. That doesn't seem right.

We're still trying to figure this out, so I wanted to open up a discussion to talk about it and decide what's fair. The boards will be easy to put a limit on, since they will be in batches anyway. The 3d-printed parts will be a little harder to decide on how to limit, since I'll basically be cranking out as many as I can.

What do you guys think? Is this an overreaction? Hopefully it doesn't seem like we're being greedy. I know I've sunk considerable time and money into getting everything ready for this project, and to be frank, I was really hoping to recoup that and then some. That could be hard to do if there are lots of people like the guy above who want to sell huge amounts of them and profit off of it right off the bat.

[SuperNova]

Wow, just when you thought you had seen it all!

There is always someone trying to make a fast buck, if it's not the 'pre loaded' SD cards for silly money then it's a pi in a box for 3 times the price of the parts.

You are well within your rights to limit sales, maybe even include the forum into it, so only users with more than a handful of thanks to there name can order one. Might limit it to real users maybe?

What happened here is shitty and I get the need to protect Wermy and Helders intellectual property, so the gut reaction to only sell to 'trusted' users is natural, but it really puts new users like myself at an unfair disadvantage. I singed up here, pretty much because I wanted to build my first GBZ and am seeking parts, guidance and a cool community to share the fun with. So based off of that I'm not the likeliest candidate to gather a lot of thanks to my posts, because a lot of them are bound to be questions, rather than helpful answers.
That doesn't mean I'm not a real user or that I will try to steal other people projects though...:/

I know this might not even have an immediate effect on me right now bcause I'm not currently in the market for a a minty pi, but I think it's a given that it will influence how both wermy and helder and maybe others in the community treat their producs and releases.
I don't mind buying the 3D printed parts instead of having the files to print them myself at all, for example, but at least let me buy them, so that I can have a chance to experiment and be helpful in the future.

[Herb]

Because of some greedy people, you are under the obligation to protect your work, that's normal. I was on a Facebook group of retropie, a member had created an image of retropie (rey img 128gb) with attract mode, all covers, roms, animations .... it shared 128gb image on the group. A few weeks later YouTube channels with links, eBay ads with his work was everywhere no respect for the person or the work provided

[OriginalNorris]

Hi wermy,

Totally understand if you choose not to release the STL files, but would you be willing to release some 2D PDF drawings with dimensions?

I don't mind designing my own parts to 3D print but it would be really useful to have something to work from, even if it's just some really high level sketches.

I'd actually prefer to do my own design so I can easily make changes to it in my preferred CAD package.

Cheers!

[VeteranGamer]

Hi wermy,

Totally understand if you choose not to release the STL files, but would you be willing to release some 2D PDF drawings with dimensions?

I don't mind designing my own parts to 3D print but it would be really useful to have something to work from, even if it's just some really high level sketches.

I'd actually prefer to do my own design so I can easily make changes to it in my preferred CAD package.

Cheers!

i dont understand some of the posts people are making..... this is becoming like a broken record.... this matter has already been made very clear

these 3d printed parts are really designed to go along with Helders screen and pcb boards, if you've bought that kit then buying the 3d part from wermy shouldnt be an issue...


if you haven't bought that kit, then apart from the hinge everything else will be specific to your own diy build, so requesting or pleading for 3d files for parts that may not fit or will require modifications dont really make any sense (unless by some chance they end up on a selling portal trying to undercut the sudomod price)

if people can design their own, just get on with its not that difficult
get the altoids tin dimensions (which are available on the net) get the ds lite buttons layout/dimensions (which are available on the net) pair the two


the parts will be available in a couple of month, all good things come to those who wait.....

also a bit suspect, that most of these requests are 1st posts

apologies for the tone, but their is rant in the post title....

[OriginalNorris]

these 3d printed parts are really designed to go along with Helders screen and pcb boards, if you've bought that kit then buying the 3d part from wermy shouldnt be an issue...

I already own a 3D printer, I'm not about to buy 3D printed parts that I could make myself. If I wanted to just buy everything ready made I'd just buy a DS Lite.

[abrugsch]

these 3d printed parts are really designed to go along with Helders screen and pcb boards, if you've bought that kit then buying the 3d part from wermy shouldnt be an issue...

I already own a 3D printer, I'm not about to buy 3D printed parts that I could make myself. If I wanted to just buy everything ready made I'd just buy a DS Lite.

At no point has he ever said the STL's won't be made available. just not straight away. For a start, the kits themselves aren't going to be ready for a few weeks so it's not really fair to let the bootleggers get them made before the first run buyers...
I'm in a similar boat, I have (access to) a printer and will save a LOT of money on this build by printing my own. I can however wait until the STL files as I'm not Verruca Salt

1qc2n2.jpg (58.87 KiB) Viewed 8874 times

[OriginalNorris]

Jesus, alright lads I'll wait.

[VeteranGamer]

these 3d printed parts are really designed to go along with Helders screen and pcb boards, if you've bought that kit then buying the 3d part from wermy shouldnt be an issue...

I already own a 3D printer, I'm not about to buy 3D printed parts that I could make myself. If I wanted to just buy everything ready made I'd just buy a DS Lite.

this isnt a ds lite, you obviously dont even kmow the project and the link it has with the ds lite....

it might be best you make your own, you come across as a very capible person in the 3d design department...