[sdiy] Discrete OTA

[cheater00 .]

Hi Roman,

On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 12:13 PM, Roman Sowa <modular at go2.pl> wrote:
> I get your point. There's no worry about law suit from Korg or Buchla as we
> all are just peanuts for them.

I didn't know what you meant by that at first, but after reading the
rest of this email I understood that this and the previous mails were
about you being worried that you might be seen as copying someone
else.

> How about you David, what would you say if I
> ever do a thru-zero triangle core VCO that is just like yours? I have never
> seen it, but hey, there maybe only a dozen ways to build that anyway.

This always results in a little bit of drama, and there's a few factors at play:

1. Attribution of alternatives
Suppose you come out with a module, which has the same functionality,
and uses the same chips, as David's. It's in good taste to say: "even
though I've never seen the insides of David's module, it may or may
not be similar inside, as there are only a few good ways of doing
this".

It's also crucial to do some market research and find the people who
might feel they are affected.

2. Your credibility
Basically, how believable is it that you created the design yourself,
rather than ripping it off? In this case, David was still playing
around with vials while you were forever revolutionizing synthesizer
music ;) I think in your case you don't need to prove anything to
anyone - the whole community should know you're smart and can come up
with stuff on your own, and don't need to rip anyone off. So if push
ever came to shove, and both you and someone else released the exact
same circuit at the same time, I wouldn't believe you copied it, and I
would be inclined to believe they copied you. However, in specifically
David's case, he's a gentleman and would never start bickering with
you like that.

3. the credibility your design's originality
Keep documentation of your designs. Keep a versioned copy the your
schematics you've tried during the design process - use mercurial for
that (or, yech, git). Keep your notes.

Then, when you release, it's a good idea to start showing off that
stuff. Especially the missed approaches. This makes it look like
you've done actual work rather than turn on the photocopier.

Another good tool for that is to have a blog and progress reports
online. Inevitably coming up with a new module will take months or
years. So if you do *public* progress reports on a project every
couple of months, once you've released, there will be blog posts there
that have existed for a year, maybe more. That is a believable time
scale for a project like this. Nothing much needs to be said on the
blog post, other than: "here's an update on my VCO project. I'm using
the following chips as the base: SSM2164, TL072 (list here the
important chips on the board). It sort of works, but it's got the
following problems currently: temperature tracking, amplitude
variations (list any other issues). I'm still working on that. Below
is a demo of some oscillator waveforms (add some soundcloud links or
youtube links)." All in all 15 minutes of work, and the benefits are:
lack of ambiguity of whose work it is, and more importantly, great
marketing for you. You don't need to talk about secret technology,
such as the circuit topology, the schematic, etc.

4. the state of mind of the person who is forming an opinion
some people just like to stir up shit. Don't care about them. Forums
are full of drama. That's one reason why I don't go there. Some people
will never believe you that you're real and will listen to their
buddies.

On the other hand most people are sane and can recognize original work
when they're presented with it.


I think if you follow the few tips above, it will be self-evident to
everyone that you've been working on your own. It's not so much work
and doing most of those is usually a good idea anyways.

D.