How Much Is Free Worth?

I use TinyCAD and FreePCB and ViewMate Gerber reader to design PCBs. All free for the purposes I use them. What part of my work actually shows up as GDP (at least in the development stage)? The boards I get made by OSH Park plus the parts I buy from Mouser and Digikey. But I must add that many electronics manufacturers are relatively free with samples. For instance I got 10 microprocessors at no charge from NXP which in fact has a very generous free sample program.

It is a new world. And although I’m an old man I have been living in it for over 30 years. Since before the days of the first BBS which I had a small part in developing. I sold the developers the I/O board and consulted about its use for free. You see free attracts free. And I count myself among the Freemen.

And that ATeam thing I mentioned the other day? We are a very small team of developers (three) working on software and hardware that we hope will change the world. If we are good. And lucky. And a lot of it will be free. Because we like working in the free market.

And I must add that the work is being bolstered by some angel investors. Not big money by any means but small infusions of cash at critical points. Thanks guys. The ATeam couldn’t be doing what it is doing at the rate we are doing it without your help at critical points. And the best thing about our angels? Their motivation like mine and the rest of the team is to make the world a better place. We will find a way or make one.

H/T Product Design and Development


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5 responses to “How Much Is Free Worth?”

  1. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    I use Dip Trace for PCB design and Sunstone for production. Not free, but reasonable, and I get paid for my projects, so it’s all good.

    btw, if you use SPICE you can get a free version of Tina from Texas Instruments. It’s intended to sell TI parts, so it only runs if you have a TI component in your design; BUT you can just stick some
    op amp off in a corner with all the pins grounded to satisfy it.

  2. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    TI is still around? I didn’t know that. Trash-80 was the first computer I ever programmed on for a real-live-job. Nice, back then, compared to some others. and their calculators were second to none – I’ve STILL got one from the early 1970s – and it still works.

  3. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    As to your original question, free is worth everything if it’s free. Only problem is, HOW do you support yourself on free? I’ve done it, but I assure you it isn’t easy and involves a hell of a lot of begging. I’d rather find a ‘cheap’ that supports both the client and the developer’s budgets. Just saying…

  4. Eric Wilner Avatar

    I use EAGLE Professional for schematic capture and PCB layout… decidedly not free, but it works well for my purposes, and I’m putting it to profitable (i.e., Real Business) use.
    For prototype boards below about 20 square inches, with no urgency, OSH Park is great. I fear I’ve been abusing their pricing structure with some of my latest designs, which, at less than 1/4 square inch, barely pay the postage.
    If I need boards faster, or the per-square-inch pricing catches up with conventional pricing, I find that PCB Fab Express is a pretty good deal. Sierra Circuits is pricier, but has somewhat better capabilities on simple on-line orders. I keep PCB Express (Sunstone) on the vendor list for, e.g., boards over 100 square inches. All of these vendors have idiosyncratic design rules, just to keep life interesting.
    Most of the hardware I’m developing is proprietary, at least for now, but some of the more ambitious items will be running software that I plan on open-sourcing once it’s rather more polished and at least a little bit documented.