Open Letter to SeedStudio

A while ago I purhcased a couple of relay shields from your site and was recommending them to my project's users . Unfortunately, you discontinued the original product and no documentation, nor any forwarding or upgrade information, is available.

Even though a new version of the product now exists, it is not immediately obvious to my users whether the new product is compatible with the old, and whether it can be used as a drop-in replacement.

Other open hardware manufacturers retain documentation for even discontinued products available indefinitely (example here), because even though the product is discontinued, there are many instances of it in possession, and sometimes open source project maintainers need to support products that they don't have in their hands (such is my case).

It would be much appreciated if you could consider making the documentation for the old version available, and providing version compatibility notes on both old and new devices so people without deep technical knowledge could be sure that the new version of the product can be used instead of old. Including a link to a new device on old device's page won't hurt either.

Thank you for consideration,

--vt

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PS: The text above was sent to you a few months ago, but there was no response. Since then, it came to my attention that not only relay shield was upgraded, but also the UartSB V2.2, and possibly others. The pattern is obvious - you're upgrading devices as soon as you run out of stock of components you could get for the cheapest price. That's OK, everyone has to make a living. However, if you respect people that make your bread and butter just a tiny little bit more, you might get more respect, which will definitely make your sales better. On the other hand, if you are an uncertainty, you are a risk. If you are a risk, you are a threat. Threating your customers is a bad business strategy.

For now, I will only recommend your products only if there is no other alternative, and a clear link to this post will be included next to recommendation. Your competitors' products will be recommended instead, even if the price is higher. Good luck.

Emme: The Vaporware of 2010? [Update: Yes]

Emme was discovered in December 2009, slated for release in April 2010, then delayed until July, then until August.

It's now the middle of September, but the registration page still lists August as the availability target.

Tsk-tsk-tsk...

Maybe all it is is a market research tool? Too many things seem to be stuffed into one body, thus violating "do one thing, do it well" principle.

Especially interesting is the claim about, quote,

patented algorithms to identify most individual appliances and electrical devices, giving you insight into your energy use that to this point was unavailable.

Show me the money, or I call it snake oil.

And I still can't find my hat after it's been blown away by a promise of supporting whole three wireless sensors.

UPDATE (January 1 2011): registration page still lists August 2010 as availability date. I guess they gave up.

UPDATE (January 21 2011): the date on the registration page is gone, and it claims now that "Emme products are available nationwide through our extensive dealer network". Oh well. Let's see now how long will it take them to materialize. With three wireless sensors.

DZ 3.6.3 Release Is Out

• Download from SourceForge
• Download from Google Code
• Download from Ohloh
  
• Get source code from Subversion
• Get the hardware and start enjoying your home
• Tell us what else we missed

Changes since 3.6.2

• Fixed the Cold Start bug;
• Improved XBee device handling upon late arrivals.

Dilbert Creator Weighs In

Scott Adams wrote an article called How I (Almost) Saved the Earth.

If you care to read and see through the usual Dilbert language, there are quite a few good advices on what and how to do (and not to do).

(Image: Wall Street Journal)

Correction: HVAC Controller Setup

"HVAC Controllers" section of the Configuration Guide was missing a slide - thanks to KF for pointing that out.

Fixed.