ah now, i didn't exactly "accuse" you i simply stated a fact, and i didn't suggest you open source EZ - i fully understand that as long as we submit to being enslaved by banksters, we are all in a sinking boat. in a better world we wouldn't have a ridiculously childish monetary system where we pretend that paper and bits actually have value and you might be doing what you love to do for free, without any stress and sleepless nights and deadlines, just because you love to do it. however we obviously haven't reached that point... yet

i appreciate your enthusiasm and dedication to this project and community and, from what i see, it looks like everyone else does as well. you should be proud

as for me, i don't like limitations, and the licensing issue is a limitation - so is being stuck to windows since i don't know what i might want to do down the road. sure i can license it for commercial use, but that would obviously involve a licensing fee

as for the video/data across WiFi, i understand what you're saying. i just don't want to have to run 2 Tx/Rx to do it and then deal with possibly decreased range, crappy signal and multi-path issues. ground bots are already starting out with a strike against them because you can't really get the antennas working properly - different story if you're in the air

so, when i consider the following, EZ isn't going to fit the bill, at least not on this project...

• cost - in addition to the EZ, i'd need to run an SBC
• having to run 2 WiFi's
• tied to windows, at least partially
• licensing cost, if i did go commercial
• whatever limits i might run into now or, worse, down the road because of proprietary software

i'm not really knocking you for these things, these are just things that i'd be stupid NOT to consider, wouldn't you agree?

I love DJ's last post! Truly inspiring and makes me wish I had a ton of cash to invest!

I agree, very inspiring post from DJ and I whole heartedly agree.

At the end of the day, the EZ-Robots hardware and software is aimed at a specific market, a different market to what all other robotics hardware and software is aimed at. It's aimed at those who don't have the programming skills to create a realistic robot from micro-controllers.

EZ-Robots, as is aptly named, is for easy robots. It's easy. Very easy. Plug in servos and sensors, connect to PC via Bluetooth (or optional wifi, usb or wired Ethernet) and use the extremely simple yet very powerful software to bring it all alive.

Yes it needs Windows but it's aimed at a market where there is a Windows PC usually lying around, if not a few or better still, an old one stored away.

As for licensing for commercial use, I'm still surprised it's not licensed for all use. It's free software that is regularly updated. People pay a lot more for lesser software. But the main thing is, can you really expect someone, anyone, to release open source, free software for commercial use? It would be foolish.

while the software may not cost anything, it certainly isn't free. is it usable without the $136 EZ-B microcontroller? i'm sure DJ would admit that board isn't worth nearly that amount by itself. how many boards do you think he'd sell @ $136 ea. if ARC didn't exist? you're buying a package with the board, and that package includes ARC and the SDK

i think, overall, it happens to be a very cool package that, assuming it lives up to the claims (and i have no reason to suspect otherwise), is a very reasonably priced package, but no part of it is technically free

Would the EZ-B sell as many without the software? Probably not... The software is, at least for me, a major selling point. But, @DJ needn't update the software at all yet he continues to make improvements by the bucket load, often very quickly after the community request a fix or extra feature. My comment regarding it being free was just that, a comment, it was not the direction I was hoping the conversation would go.

For commercial use however, like practically every piece of "free" software that I've ever read the license for, perfectly justifies a licensing fee. Would you like someone else to profit from your hard work without receiving your cut?

i use ez_builder full functions without ez_b full feathers every thing

how familiar are you with the GPL license?

also see http://opensource.org/faq#commercial

again, i am not suggesting that DJ change course and open-source the code - i was simply stating facts: it isn't open source and it would be a mistake to consider builder or the SDK as free, as both are useless without the board

i am not arguing whether a licensing fee is justified or not - that is totally up to the developer - it simply doesn't sit well with me personally, and my personal view is being incorrectly misinterpreted

as far as profiting from the hard work of others, i'm sure you're well aware that that is exactly what most of the *nix community (and many, many others) allow you to do. while you may think that's a stupid idea, keep in mind your computing experience would still be in the stone age if it weren't for people who make their source code available for free, regardless of whether you use it or not. you can profit from their many hundreds of thousands/millions of hours of work for which they charged nothing in many cases. even as a developer you can publish your source code and still profit by charging for installations, support contracts, hardware, etc.

Explain your personal view then as the way I am reading it, it doesn't sit well with you that people want paying for their work just because others give their time away.

Fact is, if you want to use the EZB in a commercial application you are going to have to pay EZ-Robots for the privilege. If you don't like it then you have two choices, use something else (which will be a lot less sophisticated) or write your own software, put in the hours yourself and attempt to turn that in to a worthwhile profit.

What industry would you expect a manufacturer to give away anything for free so you can profit from it? I can't think of a single one.