Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] re: Smart box / Dumb box

Jeff Barlow wrote:

> We can't escape the constraint that you have to spend real money to
> develop real hardware. You can do open source software projects with
> nothing but people's spare time. Someone has to put up money, in front,
> to build hardware. They generally want some ROI. I don't expect Jon and
> Mariss would be dumping their time and money into even a 'dumb box'
> project without expecting some return. A 'smart box' would soak up much
> more. Are we going to take up a collection here?

Print this out and hang it up in front of your desk so that you see it
when you look up from your computer. Just to put things in perspective,
the out of pocket, actual expenses for Jon's parallel port machine
controller are in the thousands of dollars. Mariss may actually be a
special case in that he is already in the business of producing
electronic assemblies, so he can piggyback his prototype work on his
regular production jobs so as to minimize his R&D expenses (you can
refer to
http://www.egroups.com/files/CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO/CIRCUITS/About+Geckodrive+Inc.pdf
for more details on Gecko Drives corporate facilities and operations ;)
). This is similar to my situation with machine work, I can slip in
personal jobs into the regular flow of my work with little cost.

Matt