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fairecasoimeme / ZiGate

Zigate is an Universal Zigbee Gateway
http://zigate.fr
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License #359

Open gio-dot opened 3 years ago

gio-dot commented 3 years ago

Hi, i would like to ask if there are licences limitations in this firmware use: it would be possible to use it in other self developed boards (eventually also for sale use)?

pipiche38 commented 3 years ago

I think the answer is in each of the source file with that header.

Hedda commented 3 years ago

Hi, i would like to ask if there are licences limitations in this firmware use: it would be possible to use it in other self developed boards (eventually also for sale use)?

To just quickly answer your question, yes the ZiGate firmware is licensed so that could be used be used by third parties like yourself in your own hardware board/module design as long as you only flash and run the ZiGate firmware on NXP MCUs i.e. NXP Microcontrollers such as chips or off-the-shelf modules based on JN5148, JN5142, or JN5139.

That is, you could make your own ZiGate compatible product if you base the on NXT JN5148, JN5142, or JN5139 MCU and flash it with ZiGate firmware. The reason for that is ZiGate firmware contains code from NXT which is only licensed to use on NXT MCUs. As such you according to the license are not allowed to flash the ZiGate firmware on an MCU not manufactured by NXT. This type of license is standard among commercial manufacturers of MCU chips (including NXT, Silicon Labs, and Texas Instruments) as they do not want you to use their code/software on on other manufacturers MCU chips

Using this ZiGate firmware 'as-is' means that your hardware will be compatible with all existing application that supports ZiGate.

FYI, just as an example, another open-source project that uses the ZiGate firmware it is Open Lumi Gateway, (which is an open source DIY ZiGate gateway you make hack yourself by hacking a Xiaomi Lumi Gateway DGNWG05LM and ZHWG11LM with the modded OpenWRT based OpenLumi firmware and then also flash ZiGate firmware to the gateways NXP MCU chip to use for Zigbee).

https://openlumi.github.io/

https://github.com/openlumi

https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman/pull/241

Update! To clarify; Openlumi was just an example and I am not advocating that project in favour of using hardware from ZiGate.

Hedda commented 3 years ago

Not sure how to understand this above comment except that is advertising an other project.

I thought it was obvious that did not mean my comment was advertising another project. That was not my intent anyway. By the way, that specific Openlumi project is not even a commercial project but a hobby hacking project for advanced enthusiasts so it not like they are even in competition with the original ZiGate project. They are not getting any money for working on that project.

FYI, both the ZiGate project here and projects are open sources and the developers of the Openlumi have already actively contributed code (bug-fixes) back upstream to the original ZiGate project and as such the ZigGate project and its users has benefited from others using their firmware code on other hardware.

Transparency, sharing and open collaboration is how open source projects and open source communities are intended to work. Not though censorship and discrimination against other projects that shares the same code base. Especially not when those other projects actively contribute back code to the original project.

If open-source did not work like that then the ZiGate project would not have be able to base its WiFi module firmware on ESP-LINK by Jeelabs/esp-link

The history of the ZiGate project has as I understand always been all about hacking and open source. Frédéric Dubois explained in his blog early on that he started making ZiGate out of interest and planned from the beginning to share with the community.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1361563794/zigate-universal-zigbee-gateway-for-smarthome

http://faire-ca-soi-meme.fr/domotique/2017/02/27/hack-xiaomi-mi-smart-temperature-and-humidity-sensor/

Yes, there might be a difference in definition between "open source software" and "the spirit of open source", but please do have a think again what most open source projects are about before having an attitude that suggests that people should not be able to refer or hint about other projects that are also basing their projects on the same code. As if you do not have "the spirit of open source" in the ZiGate project then the chance is that you will get a bad reputation which might cause other open-source projects/developers not to want to collaborate with you and that usually means your project will lose in the long term.

https://hackernoon.com/why-we-need-open-source-spirit-g2573yzv

https://haacked.com/archive/2012/02/22/spirit-of-open-source.aspx/

https://www.informationweek.com/software/how-to-maintain-the-spirit-of-open-source/a/d-id/1330707

https://opensource.com/article/18/11/what-open-source-community-means-me

https://universespirit.org/open-source-spirituality-manifesto-part-1-definition-and-general-description