The "Respects Your Freedom" certification program encourages the creation and sale of hardware that will do as much as possible to respect your freedom and your privacy, and will ensure that you have control over your device. u.fsf.org/3g0

@fsf Respect Your Freedom is bullshit that actively sabotages Open-Source Hardware development through endorsement of proprietary developers like librem who refuse to release the relevant hardware files despite their CEO promising to do so years ago[source.puri.sm/Librem5/communi]

Stick to software and hug off from hardware you are not qualified to make any kind of polities there

@kreyren @fsf So, you are not happy because they provide schematics and files to mod the case but didn't open up there business for push button clones form china by providing the files needed for the fab. In my book, they respect my ownership if I buy there product and I respect there right to have a chance to make back there investment and maybe even have some profit to keep existing.

@dgr @fsf i am unhappy that i can't modify the hardware to fit my computing or when it breaks to just open KiCAD and know exactly why e.g. like with OLIMEX (github.com/OLIMEX).

Librem made their investment back multiple times already [git.dotya.ml/kreyren/kreyren/i]

Saying that librem respects your ownership is insanity, because they really don't

@kreyren @fsf Maybe I misunderstand but the schematics like file:///home/dgr/Downloads/librem5_mainboard_schematic.pdf are what's needed to fix problems and modding the hardware the CAD and Gerber files are what you need to oder 100'000 copies from the fab in china.

@dgr @fsf Last time i checked the schematics are released under a restrictive license so if you are developing OSHW hardware like me then you can't really look at them e.g. i have RockPro64 that broke few weeks after i got it under minimal use (i basically just tested NixOS on it for collectively ~20min runtime) and i have to pay a local repairer instead of using schematics to fix it myself.

And even that schematics will tell you where to put a jumper wire so that you can have your very own spaghetti monster inside the system which is not really sustainable it's more like hotfixing to see if the configuration works to then make proper PCB, bcs it won't allow you to change the pcb itself e.g. using the OLIMEX's teres-1 i can just open KiCAD i currently work on adding:
* RFID reader
* Fingerprint sensor
* changing the case to be 3D printable and rugged
* hot-swappable batteries
* changing the PCB material from FR4 to aluminium so that i can later manufacture them myself in investment silver base
* Eventually use the IMX8QM-TUKHLA instead of A64 so that it can have an NVME drive and performance better than pinebook pro
* etc..

when company gives you these files it also enables you to go further e.g. i am using the KICAD files from TERES-1 and OLinuXino A64 to re-engineer the electronics of Xiaomi Scooter to run nongnu guix and develop drones.

Not to mention that you can actually verify how the PCBs are wired e.g. librem is shipping the systems with hardware vulnerabilities (SPECTRE + meltdown) and backdoors (proprietary router running proprietary firmware with evident wired access to kernel's ring-0).

@kreyren @fsf

License doesn't look to bad. I maybe now understand your frustration. "Respects Your Freedom" is for users like me and not for Open-Source Hardware creators like you. I'm fine with the FSF certifying hardware for me that isn't "as a service" and I can have a realistic shot at fixing it with a jumper wire. This and printing a case is about the extend of my capabilities.I guess, you're not the audience and your needs aren't a concern because of the skill gap - you're OP dude ;)

@dgr @fsf The skill gap is not really a thing.. hardware development is easier to learn than learning python as kicad makes that really easy.. consider investing few hours into it

@kreyren @fsf you lost me, software is way easier then hardware. I'm a developer by trade and dabbled a bit in hardware with building keyboards and a 3d printer. Software is cheep, fast and a lot less dangerous. I can change software in minutes but if I tinker with hardware, it's hours!

@dgr @fsf For a practical example lets use the Allwinner A64:

This is all you will need to make the schematics linux-sunxi.org/A64, if something is missing then ask the sunxi community and they will help you the documents are 200+ pages majority of that is just for developer reference and marketing garbage soignore most of it and just look though the table on page 2 for the things you are looking for.

doing that this way would take you around 9 hours of work which you can skip through using github.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO/tr

now you have a dirt cheap linux computer (A64 is +- 2 EUR) that can be used without a problem as daily driver and can be adjusted to do whatever you want

e.g. you want to make a drone -> you add motors to the "bus" (read up on this it's a solution to manage additional devices such card readers, joysticks, etc.. etc..) which basically works by soldering 1~2 wires to the right place and they will then be available for you to manage on the software-end

once you are happy with the spaghetti monster you've created then you open KiCAD and remove things you don't need and use your spaghetti wires to figure out where to put in the traces you want (very easy)

@kreyren @fsf A A64 based dirt cheap Linux computer able to be used as daily driver? You're delusional, that thing is capable of using 2GB RAM max and I'm using 5GB with only ~ 60 tabs open! Maybe I'm wrong and it can handle more but the site is down. linux-sunxi.org/A64 - I get a host error from cloudflare...

Follow

@dgr @fsf it's arm-based system so it manages system resources differently so that e.g. your web browser doesn't need to use as much RAM and can be further optimized compared to x86_64 systems for me i can use 200 tabs without much of an issue on firefox.

Works for programming quite well assuming that you do offloading to a system that has more resources for compilation of complicated things e.g. using gitpod or nix daemon otherwise you will have to wait +- the average amount.

e.g. Pinebook and Pinephone (non-pro) are using A64 (though i discourage their use):
* invidious.tiekoetter.com/watch
* invidious.tiekoetter.com/watch

Note that this is just an example in general A64 is used for prototyping (bcs it's well documented and cheap) to then use whatever different chip you want e.g. the mentioned TUSKLA or RK3399/RK3588 and all the way to Snapdragon 845 (wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Qua) and beyond or if you want RISC-V, MIPS, etc..

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.