Hi shackman.
The story behind the development of this project is a bit long winded, but I'll try and cut it down as much as I can. You also have to remember that I have come in half way along so the origins of the tale are shrouded in mystery even to me
OK, Tristan (Vader UK - the guy who started this thread) wanted some chest LED's. He had a contact at a school electronics club and talked the guy into getting the school kids to make the chest LED's as a school project.
it's the God's honest truth. As far as I am aware, the kids did all the R&D cold. i.e Tristan just said "this is what I want - make it for me", and off they went. The display came back. Tristan showed me, I then went and got one from the school as well. The guy there said they couldn't really mass produce them. Plus, without intending any offence to the kids, these things are a little "rough and ready" and the PCB is pretty bulky at approx 4" x 2".
Tristan then spoke to a company about producing them. and they said they could do this, but there was a "tooling charge" of £250 or something if the minimum order of 50 wasn't met.
The interest didn't appear to be likely to get to 50, so Tristan spoke to me about seeing if the guy I got doing the RF servo controllers could do any better.
I sent my schoolkids version to him and said "can you do this LED sequence, but tidy up the PCB, and keep it to $75 inc shipping".
After a bit of a delay he has come back to me and said yes he can do it, but the price is up slightly (as mentioned above). He also said he has reduced the PCB considerably by programming the sequences into one chip that will sit above the upper LED bank.
So, the answer is that as far as I am aware I think it's been individually researched on 2 seperate occasions without direct recourse to your schematics. I have certainly not asked anyone to plagiarise anyone elses work. I just said, "here's an end result, can you make it work for me" and it seems to have done so far. I have little interest in the journey, just the arrival at the end.
I'll gladly send you a pic of my schoolkids PCB if you like, Shackman. I am the furthest there could possibly be from an electronics expert so I couldn't tell you whether what I have is based on your schematics, but even so, the product being offered here is different again, as it's reduced to programming on a chip rather than capacitors and resistors etc. Hope that explains things.
And BTW, your comments were not at all taken in an inflammatory way
Thanks for putting the question in such a level headed way. I can see your point of view completely. I would feel the same way and probably ask the same question if I was in the same position.
Si