On 9/22/05, Jesse Lackey wrote: > Hello all, > > I've just finished a product that uses a specialized dc/dc controller > (designed for a wholly unrelated field) with some further tweaks to > solve a particular thorny problem. > > It took three major redesigns to get here, 100s of hours, etc. 100 hours of work for a project is not so much. > > But... it could be easily copied. And can't be patented. A patent will not help too much since a 30% difference from the original scheme means a new product. On the other way in this huge world (or huge USA) how you will knew if someone has copied entirely your design ? > > So... at the very least I'm going to (carefully) sand off the markings > on the IC. For a good engineer this is piece of cake. How many IC used for drive switching supplies are common used on the market? Not many. An attentive look to the board, a reverse engineering schematic drawing and a few hours of work. > > But it would be great to seal everything up as well. Only the dc/dc > section need be protected, there is no need to encapsulate everything. > Ideally just a tablespoon of viscous goo poured over it. Some companies are using red silicone. But it may be cleaned if someone really want this. > > Now I realize there are limits to what can be protected, the goal is to > make it hard enough that casual poking around won't yield any clues. > The product is a specialized enough thing that there aren't many > companies in the business field that would be interested in it, so it > doesn't need to withstand some concerted, well-equipped "attack". > > Has anyone been in this situation before? How many pieces do you think will be produced ? If less than 5.000, probably it's useless to protect the whole thing. Just for an ideea, a 120...240Vac to 5V/2A+12V/1A chinese power supply can be bought here with $4 in small quantities. I don't know what your DC converter does. cheers, Vasile -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist