About givingout gerbers of any Aleph pcb's

[Kari]

Hi,
recently i've got several email requesting for gerbers on my resent AX design. My opinion is that i will NOT supply those gerberfiles. It is afterall NP's stuff we are using. If i could be sure that the usage of the gerbers are for non profit only i could send the gerbers.

Now i'm asking for your opinions, especially Nelson what is your tought about this?

Best regards,

Kari

[Bricolo]

The gerber files are your work, based on Mr Pass's work on the aleph-x

both have to agree

[mpmarino]

BTW: I am one who has asked.

Kari,
I do understand your reservation, and I expected you to respond in this manner. You have a first class design here and the possibility of someone making a buck on it is certainly possible...and unfair/illegal.

I, for one, am simply asking as I find starting with a .brd file the quickest way to ultimately come up with a design that suits me perfectly. A design I would etch in my garage.

Truly, I think if anyone were to go commercial they would simply take the time to come up with a layout. I don't have that much recreational time so I try to conserve....i.e. use a current layout to build on.

Yes, it is more than fair to have Nelson and yourself agree that it is ok.

Regards,
Marc

[REXHIFI]

Hi
I understand Kari's concern about giving out the gerbers.
1) Mr. Nelson Pass owns the Patents for the Amp and has to make a living.

2) Kari has been using his sparetime and a lot of effort to design the PCB files. WERY Nice Job Kari.

I dunno if NP has to allow Kari to release the gerber pcb files. If so, we must wait for NP to say Yes og No.
If NP says Yes and allows the release, it is still up to Kari to deside weather or not to release them.
I for one would like to scale them for an AlephX High Power edition i'm trying to build, as i would like to replace my old Musical Fidelity A1.

My B&W's just don't like the A1 i wonder why.. hehe
and i can't afford to buy a big single ended class a.

[hifimaker]

What about a second group buy using the gerber files, but centered here in the US?

Anyone interested?

-David

[lpm76]

I for one, have always wondered why there weren’t any gerber-files available. I waited several months for a group buy to come up, and thanks to Kari I am now looking forward to some very nice boards with a quality I would never have been able to match.

The option to send gerberfiles to your local company would have been a nice option though when no group buys is available. Of course NP’s IP must be protected, but the way I see it, there is two things that makes Gerber-files a valid option.

#1 NP has only revealed details about discontinued products. Yes, the Aleph-X is a different story, but in a way it is a NP-approved backengineered XA-amplifier.

#2 The risk of someone making a profit of NP’s IP, isn’t any greater with gerber-files available. One could just as easily join a group buy and order 100 pcb’s.

Misuse of IP is always a risk, but I sincerely hope and believe that brute legal action would be taken against anyone, who dared go up against Mr Pass. That! is our and Nelson’s protection against misuse, and not whether gerbers are readily available or not.

Of course in the end it is entirely up to Mr Pass, and in this case Kari, whether they won’t or will have gerber-files flowing around. They way I see it, they have gone to great length to please us already, and they don’t owe us anything at all. Never the less, gerber files would be a really nice and flexible option.

[Mark A. Gulbrandsen]

My feeling is that if you're paranoid then don't give them out, then you can sleep at night. But really.... not sharing them because you're afraid of someone putting things into production is totally rediclous as anyone that would chave the ability to do that sort of thing would also have the ability to generate their own PCB design and Gerbers anyway were you not to share. Were I a hobbyist PCB designer I would gladly share any Gerbers I did for this sort of stuff as long as it was through this site. I've always thought that this site should have a place for people to post their Gerbers! The world police will have to take care of the wrong doers.

Mark

[Kari]

> I for one, have always wondered why there weren’t any gerber-files available.

This is exactly WHY i started to do the pcb's myself. I have never found basically any gerbers for what i wanted. So i invested 800USD in Eagle and started the fun of learning how to make pcb's.

There is basically only one "supplier" of Aleph boards and that is KK. However during the course of choosing a pcb fab, i feel that the boards he sells are too expensive. I did actually buy the Mini-A boards from him and they work great.

I'm also considering of keeping a stock of the AX boards(ex. 10pcs or so) so if anyone wanted they could just buy them from me. The price would ofcourse be the same i have to pay to my pcb fab, ie. NON profit.

I have not yet desided if i'm going to release the gerbers or not BUT if i do i would like them to be hosted here at diyaudio.com. I think that this is the only place to have them, access to it gets logged and everyone HAS access to it.

Comments?

[mpmarino]

Quite fair in my opinion..

The Idea of keeping some boards for those that missed the group buy is nice as well.

I once posted a question to KK regarding layout files. I don't think he answered. (correct me if I am wrong) I asked him why he does not make the files available in the true spirit of DIY. If there were no profit made by his sales, how would it harm him?

I understand the time, effort and money put forward to complete a design as this.

No matter to me..It's a good excuse for me to master Eagle!

regards,
Marc

(I would still like to have them though )

[jleaman]

Chritian K is banned because he is selling boards without Nelson's
permission or a licensing agreement in place. BUT me as a person i have ordered a few set's of his boards and was extreamly happy with them and support from him. Id hoped he was going to do some licencing and stuff to continue but he doesnt. I think he still sells them but just not on Diyaudio