[eazycnc] Re: How many of you have got PICKIt2?
- From: "Brian Willis" <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <eazycnc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 18:37:35 -0000
Hi Kusti. I would welcome the new chip and will install sockets on both of
my boards. Let me know when and how much please.
Regards Brian
-----Original Message-----
From: eazycnc-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:eazycnc-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Kustaa Nyholm
Sent: 31 January 2015 11:22
To: eazycnc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [eazycnc] How many of you have got PICKIt2?
Hi EazyCNC list members,
looking further down the line in the development of EazyCNC I'm asking how
many of you have got PICKit 2?
I'm especially asking about *2* not PICKit 3.
And how many of you have soldered the CPU chip already directly onto the
board without a socket?
I'm asking this because I'm considering the possibility of offering a 'pro'
(as in professional) version of EazyCNC at some price.
I will keep a basic version of EazyCNC available and free but I could offer
some advanced features at a price to enable the continuous development and
support of EazyCNC.
To do that the EazyCNC should somehow be copy-protected.
One way to do that would be by storing a secret key into the PIC device on
the TOAD4 board. I find this option rather attractive as this would allow
the EazyCNC software to remain free but the advanced features would be
unlocked only when used with a PIC18F4550 supplied by me.
To remain loyal to and to show my appreciation for all the pilot users I
would like to extend the pilot program to include the advanced features for
all the participants who have purchased the kits from me.
However this would require swapping the PIC18F4550 chip on the board.
Obviously this is hard to do if the chip is soldered in place.
One way around this problem would be for me to provide a time limited
key-burner program that could be used to program a PIC18F4550 with the
secret key. This involves some work from my part and risks the security of
the secret key scheme plus would require a PICKit2 to program the chip,
PICKit3 could not be used.
It is do-able but I would rather not. Much easier for me would be to supply
all who want to participate in the 'pro' version pilot with the chips at
cost which I anticipate to be about 4 EUR for the chip and 3 EUR for postage
in letter envelope.
The existing Open and Free TOAD4 firmware will still be maintained and
supported regardless weather I go further with this scheme or not.
As a bonus the PIC18F4550 with the secret key would also support USB
firmware update and would be based on HID class. What this means in practice
is that absolutely no driver installation required (not even on Windows) and
firmware updates without any PICKit programmer. The later is especially nice
as you don't need to open the enclosure to connect the PICKit nor do you
need to own one (especially nice for future users who have not invested in a
programmer yet).
Let me know your views please.
br Kusti
Other related posts:
