It's assumptions on how a product will be used that end up ruining so
many potential products for me.
Like the GPS modules with a PPS pin and people build breakout boards for
them that either don't use the PPS or use the PPS for flashing an LED,
but there's no pin nor contact point for grabbing the PPS (who would
ever use a PPS?), and you (well, I) don't dare drill into a multi-layer
board to do so.
Another example, happens to be a clock, that would have exactly fit my
needs back in November. I was keeping in touch between where I am and
Germany, Dubai, Nepal, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Thailand, Hong Kong &
Beijing. There was this great clock, great looking and easy to use. Big
dial on the front to simply turn to quickly set the UTC offset, which
would have allowed me to quickly & reliably view my target local time,
so I could easily judge whether to call/not-call and the length of a
call. Only that clock was no longer available with that dial. Builder
decided that people obviously only ever use clocks set to the zone they
live in, so they'd only ever set it once and leave it, so the dial was
removed and replaced by a trim on the board. A great looking clock,
great display, perfect function, made useless for my needs.
Most people can't tweak firmware. Most won't buy/trust a future (like
adding half- and quarter-hour offsets), that may or may not be
achievable (most wouldn't know how hard or easy that is), or may or may
not be done: they just find another product.
Sometimes we need to 'think outside the box', as to how a product will
be (could be) used.
On 26/12/2016 11:47 PM, Nick Sayer via time-nuts wrote:
...I tend to make certain assumptions about market sizes in deciding what
priority to apply to feature sets.
That said, it *is* open source firmware.
...
If a Tongan wants to *actually* buy one, then maybe I’ll roll some custom
firmware for him or her. :)
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