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lasersbee said:Don't get me wrong.... I'm not really taking anyone's side here...(maybe the design engineer's)
I think that if anyone should cry "It's my circuit and I own it" it should
be the original Design Engineer that originally showed the Schematic of
the LM117/LM217/LM317 Regulator application schematics...
I have a National Linear Data Book (dated 1976) that shows similar
if not the same Voltage and Current regulated application circuits.
And if anyone was copying anyone..... I was not the Design Engineer....IMO
BTW... I agree with dr-ebert and rkcstr in that... the difference is in the
quality of the build and the honesty/reality of the stated specifications....
And even more important... Customer Service...
I personally prefer a professionally produced Solder Masked PCB...
I have no problem with competition...
I mean.... look at the PHR803T GBs... without competion... the prices here
on LPF would not have dropped as fast... I remember paying $55.00 for a
sled not long ago... :
Jerry
Like Jerry here, I can't take sides in this. But I can say that Jerry is right. All these "LM317/117" drivers (DDL, rkcstr, etc.) are just slight variations on the standard LM317 current limiting schematic that can easily be found on almost any 317 series datasheet. Therefore the only person who would be able to claim true rights to designing the LM317 driver is the engineer who first laid out the schematics in those datasheets.
The actual layouts of the circuits are similar, but there are enough differences that I don't think anything has been copied exactly. If the schematics for these circuits were drawn using the same program, and the board layout was generated in the same program with the same dimensions, it stands to reason that (as similar as they are) the program would render a similar board layout for each.
A little competition is a healthy thing..