that certainly does not sound very "open".
See: http://opensource.org/licenses
it would be a shame to have something so cool be protected by copyrights.
I would willing to contribute if indeed it is open source.....
Haven't you read the README explaining the license issue? The whole project is OHSW but without a proper license so far. Also a copyright doesn't contradict an open source license. The problem will be fixed in about 2.5 months
Indeed, I read every word of the readme, as found in the root of the transistortester-trunk.tar.gz file, as shown below (nothing with regards to copyright):
This directory contains the program source for all TransistorTester versions.
To build the programming files for your ATmega microcontroller
please change to one of the following subdirectories:
mega8, default, mega328, mega168_strip_grid, mega328_strip_grid, mega328_dogm and mega328_strip_grid_dogm
The mega8 subdirectory contains the Makefile to build the programming data for a ATmega8 microcontroller.
The default subdirectory contains the Makefile to build the programming data for a ATmega168 controller.
The mega328 subdirectory contains the Makefile to build the programming data for a ATmega328 controller.
The subdirectories with the _strip_grid ending contains the Makefiles for the different connection
of the LCD used for the strip grid board and can not be used with the normal connection of the LCD.
You can find the programming data and the matching Makefile for the DOGM style LCD in the subdirectories
with dogm ending (mega328_dogm and mega328_strip_grid_dogm).
All subdirectories hold the Makefile the compiled data TransistorTester.hex and TransistorTester.eep!
The .hex data must be loaded to the flash memory and the .eep data must be loaded to the EEprom memory.
With the Linux operating system or with WinAVR the data can be loaded with the program avrdude to the
memory of the ATmega, controled with the Makefile. The connected ISP programmer must be supported by the program avrdude.
The data can also be loaded with any other program to the ATmega without control of the Makefile.
You can also create a own subdirectory and copy any of the Makefiles of the other directories to this
own subdirectory. Now you can set other options in this Makefile copy in your directory and try to build
your own TransistorTester programming data in this directory.
Please tell me, if you have problems with my software or if you have found errors.
You can send me a Email to kh_kuebbeler [at] web [dot] de or answer to my www.mikrocontroller.net thread.
Good luck
Karl-Heinz Kübbeler
However, I think I did find the README you are referring to... in that was uploaded in a ZIP that was attached to message post here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/%2420-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg723065/#msg723065That says:
* License
The original author hasn't provided any information about the licence
under which the firmware is distributed. He only stated that it's open
source and any commercial user should contact him. Unfortunately we (
Karl-Heinz and I) haven't found any way to contact him. To remedy
this problem I will choose an open source license at 2016-01-01, if the
original author doesn't contact us to state his wishes until that date.
Since the source code of this firmware version is a major rewrite with
tons of new code and features, I think that this approach is justified.
* What's different?
Karl-Heinz has done a really great documentation of the tester. I recommend
to read it. Therefore I'll tell you just about the major differences to the
official release:
- user interface
No worries!
- adaptive component discharge function
- resistance measurement
+ dedicated method for resistances <10 Ohms (instead of using ESR check)
- capacitance measurement
+ starts at 5pF
+ additional method for caps from 4.7µF up to 47µF
+ correction/compensation method
- diodes
+ detection logic
- BJTs
+ V_f is interpolated for a more suitable (virtual) I_b based on hFE
- TRIACs
+ detection of MT1 and MT2
- structured source code
- some more I couldn't think of right now
There are more details in the sections below.
...(snip rest of readme)...
But as I found this in a zip file on this forum, not sure how that would apply to the source found here:
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/Markus/sorry I still don't see any license/copyrights in the tar.gz file.... all the readme's seem to be only compile instructions. Here's a list of all the readme's in there:
ComponentTester\trunk\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\mega328_T3_T4_st7565\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\ST7735\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\mega328_fish8840_OC\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\default\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\mega328_fish8840\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\mega168_strip_grid\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\mega328_wei_st7565\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\ILI9163\ReadMe.txt
ComponentTester\trunk\mega328_GM328\ReadMe.txt
Note a single instance of "license" or "copyright" mentioned. Certainly nothing saying "This program is free software; you can redistribute it".... but also nothing saying that it you can't... again, not even a copyright note.
I'm not trying to be difficult here, just trying to understand as a newbie to this topic before I get involved.
All things considered... posting all that code on the public internet without even a "copyright" would seem to imply public domain.
edit: changed email addresses to de-spider the [at] and [dot] for kh_kuebbeler