Re: On The Fly Tuning (OTFT)

[GM injection <turboalfa@excite.com>]

On Mon, 03 Jul 2000 09:27:03 Bruce Plecan wrote:  

> Subject: Re: On The Fly Tuning (OTFT) - was Re: 8192 baud 1227808 project.
[snipped}

Most of what you say Bruce, I agree with totally regarding Kalmaker.

>  I'd also bet 1/3 of the effort in Kalmaker was the anti-theft stuff.  So
he
>  was able to keep it more to himself, and sell fewer copies, a marketing
>  genius he's not in my book.

agreed, but...

>  get clever with the hardware, and make the software public domain, and
then
>  the product might get better for **FREE**, ain't that a novel idea!!..
>  I'd pay $300 for a memcal to do OTFT, for a series of ecms ie 165, but
>  alias, it's not an option

But this was the problem for Kalmaker - the hardware for OTFT is almost 
trivial. If you make the software - that has taken months write - free, and 
rely on actually making money on selling Kalmaker memcals, then the first
thing that happens is people say "Why am I paying $300 for a memcal, heck
I can buy a couple of complete ECUs with memcals for that price". Second
thing that happens is that someone comes up with a DIY memcal that is a 
clone of the Kalmaker one (sound familiar - recall the "lets get a group
buy going on a Diacom Cable clone" discussion that comes up every six
months). So, instead of fixing bugs and coming out with version two of
the software, you run around with a lawyer threatening people who are
ripping you off (again, remember people get upset when Ed Rinda of Diacom 
fame does something similar - on a regular basis).

Apparently the rip-off rate for software in Vietnam is around the 99%, in
Australia and the US/Canada it's only around 30% mark - However, I suspect 
that in certain sectors that 30% rate is closer to 90%. Food for thought!

----
And if you want to reply to me this week, could you send a copy to
turboalfa@excite.com - I'm in the sticks here - in the "outback" well,
getting there, Brought some unleaded for 101.5 cents/litre - the
servos here need to buy new signs to accomodate the > $1.00/litre 
price.

Peter





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