15 replies to this topic

[EdO]

I am looking for a library that supports a HD44780 LCD display in 4-bit mode using 4 data wires. I have found a great example called Bansky.SPOT.LCD.LCD4Bit (http://bansky.net/bl...-port-extender/), but it appears to have been expanded past its original function and does not have an ITransferProvider provider that supports 4 bit mode using 4 data wires. Unfortunately Pavel Bansky appears to have gone off-line so I cannot ask him for an earlier version. Any help would be appreciated.

[EdO]

Thanks very much for the information, it worked !

[greg]

Please note that GHI developed code is for use only on GHI products. Their code header (which was stripped out here) says as much. It's their code, they can decide the license.

Edit by moderators: removed quoted portion of original post [see copyright notice violation by GHI Electronics below]

[Chris Walker]

Please note that GHI developed code is for use only on GHI products. Their code header (which was stripped out here) says as much. It's their code, they can decide the license.

Good point, greg. From a legal perspective we have to respect the rights that 3rd-parties have to restrict the use of their source code.

The good news is that Netduino is 100% open source. As we work together to build drivers for the community, we can ensure that all sorts of feature are available without such encumberances.

Chris

[greg]

Good point, greg. From a legal perspective we have to respect the rights that 3rd-parties have to restrict the use of their source code.

The good news is that Netduino is 100% open source. As we work together to build drivers for the community, we can ensure that all sorts of feature are available without such encumberances.

Chris

Totally agree Chris - it just came up as a big stink on the Fez boards so I figured I'd post here to try to remind folks that not all code is free (as in beer).

[Szymon]

Totally agree Chris - it just came up as a big stink on the Fez boards so I figured I'd post here to try to remind folks that not all code is free (as in beer).

Actually that was the main reason I wrote my own version of LCD library from scratch (and the Wii Nunchuck as well). They are based on open source Arduino libraries and I attributed the creators in source code header or in the coresponding blog post so I hope everything is fine from legal perspective there.

[Chris Walker]

Actually that was the main reason I wrote my own version of LCD library from scratch (and the Wii Nunchuck as well). They are based on open source Arduino libraries and I attributed the creators in source code header or in the coresponding blog post so I hope everything is fine from legal perspective there.

That's a great point. And one of the beauties of open source: we can build off each other's work, and people get credit and kudos for what they've done. It's really a fantastic system in many ways.

Please note that if the source you're building off of is GPL or otherwise share-alike that you'll need to note that in your derivative code. Share-alike code is fantastic, but businesses will often stay away from it due to legal concerns (founded or unfounded).

Chris

[Szymon]

That's a great point. And one of the beauties of open source: we can build off each other's work, and people get credit and kudos for what they've done. It's really a fantastic system in many ways.

Please note that if the source you're building off of is GPL or otherwise share-alike that you'll need to note that in your derivative code. Share-alike code is fantastic, but businesses will often stay away from it due to legal concerns (founded or unfounded).

Chris

I couldn't find what license is covering Arduino libraries. From the Arduino FAQ I understand that the Arduino environment is covered by GPL but this doesn't prevent it's use in comercial products: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/FAQ

The footer on the LiquidCrystal library page says about "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License" but I think this applies to documentation. http://arduino.cc/en...e/LiquidCrystal

I'm not sure how this applies to the code that was ported to different language or platform so if anyone can clarify this I'll be happy to change the licensing or take any other actions as appropriate.

Maybe this is another good reason to publish the project on CodePlex, because it ensures that users accept the license for each download.

[Chris Walker]

Maybe this is another good reason to publish the project on CodePlex, because it ensures that users accept the license for each download.

Definitely.

We've been using different repositories for different projects.

We used GitHub for the MonoDevelop porting project because that's what many of the Linux and Mac folks seem to love.

We used CodePlex for the Visual Basic .NET MF project because we thought it would fit in there well.

And I have to say, CodePlex is pretty fantastic. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only do they support Mercurial, but the licensing support was seamless as well. We wanted to make sure that everything stayed open source (Apache 2.0) consistent with the .NET Micro Framework core license--and it only took a few mouse clicks.

Chris

[Chris Walker]

Please note that the original author of this driver is claiming a copyright violation, and we have removed the infringing code from this thread.

This post from GHI's management was brought to my attention:

Copyright violation is not okay!

I just want to express what I feel. We make it VERY clear that the drivers we have on this website may ONLY be used on GHI Electronics products. You look on on-GHI-device forums and it is very clear that everyone is using our drivers!!!

This is NOT fair! We do all the hard work to support our devices and our customers. Someone just comes and steals it that easy is not helping us in supporting you better. So, if you think about it, those people stealing our work is harming you at the end sine we can't support you enough.


Wakeup copyright violators, piracy is not helping anyone move forward and this is called **stealing**
http://www.tinyclr.com/forum/1/900/

Szymon--I suppose this is another good reason to build off of your LCD library. Keep it all open source.

They give away the source code to their peripherals--so it doesn't really make any business sense for them to _not_ open source their peripheral drivers. Their business is based around closed-sourcing .NET Micro Framework...but they could make good money selling accessories for Netduinos if they gave their users that freedom. [But then again, most of their accessories are made by other 3rd-parties, so I can understand why they've locked it all down license-wise.]

Chris

[greg]

Please note that the original author of this driver is claiming a copyright violation, and we have removed the infringing code from this thread.

This post from GHI's management was brought to my attention:


Szymon--I suppose this is another good reason to build off of your LCD library. Keep it all open source.

They give away the source code to their peripherals--so it doesn't really make any business sense for them to _not_ open source their peripheral drivers. Their business is based around closed-sourcing .NET Micro Framework...but they could make good money selling accessories for Netduinos if they gave their users that freedom. [But then again, most of their accessories are made by other 3rd-parties, so I can understand why they've locked it all down license-wise.]

Chris

Chris - read http://www.tinyclr.com/forum/1/904/ - GHI is open sourcing their drivers. That's good for everybody. This just changed yesterday.

[CW2]

Chris - read http://www.tinyclr.com/forum/1/904/ - GHI is open sourcing their drivers. That's good for everybody. This just changed yesterday.

Unfortunately, the post does not state what drivers exactly - it may be just managed drivers (i.e. SDK libraries), not the firmware native drivers.

[greg]

Unfortunately, the post does not state what drivers exactly - it may be just managed drivers (i.e. SDK libraries), not the firmware native drivers.

They are referring to the managed drivers at this time.

[Chris Walker]

That would be very cool if they removed the license restriction from their component drivers.

GHI just deleted dozens of forum posts from their users related to this topic (including the thread itself--the topic no longer available). So perhaps that is a sort of confirmation that they have changed their mind.

Either way, hopefully good news for their users and the .NET MF community generally--and many kudos to GHI if they do indeed remove the license restriction on the accessory drivers.

Chris

[greg]

That would be very cool if they removed the license restriction from their component drivers.

GHI just deleted dozens of forum posts from their users related to this topic (including the thread itself--the topic no longer available). So perhaps that is a sort of confirmation that they have changed their mind.

Either way, hopefully good news for their users and the .NET MF community generally--and many kudos to GHI if they do indeed remove the license restriction on the accessory drivers.

Chris

I stand corrected, GHI now has open-source firmware called "FEZOpen". It doesn't have all the features of the USBizi firmware but it covers pretty much everything that Netduino currently has. I don't have all the details yet but there's a bunch of new information on the GHI website.

This is all good for everyone involved.

[Chris Walker]

I stand corrected, GHI now has open-source firmware called "FEZOpen". It doesn't have all the features of the USBizi firmware but it covers pretty much everything that Netduino currently has. I don't have all the details yet but there's a bunch of new information on the GHI website.

This is all good for everyone involved.

Hi Greg,

We just downloaded it. It's actually a clone of the free port included in Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework Porting Kit -- but with a few features removed. GHI's custom NXP port is not included.

ADC, PWM, USB host, etc. are not included. It's a rebrand of the free Microsoft port.

You can compare the files yourself. The Microsoft Solution source is located at:
C:\MicroFrameworkPK_v4_1\Solutions\EA_LPC2478

We'd love to see GHI and other manufacturers give away the actual source code to their products. Right now, it's just a really confusing marketing point (and is not related to the actual GHI closed source version of .NET Micro Framework in any meaningful way--according to GHI's own posts).

Chris

P.S. With Netduino, we actually checked our custom porting code back into the .NET Micro Framework trunk where possible. When you download the .NET Micro Framework porting kit, you're actually getting our code. We provide a ZIP file that you can unzip right on top of the porting kit to give you additional features because there was no clean way to integrate them. You get the real source.

P.P.S. We have some other big chunks of true open source code coming, and some of them are managed code and will run on closed source platforms as well.