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Week 18

Invention, Intellectual Property and Income

Assignment

  • Develop a plan for the dissemination of my final project.
  • Prepare a draft of the final project, tracking my progress.

My plan to share TrailNAV

I want other people to be able to learn from and build TrailNAV, so I will share it openly. My plan is to keep all the documentation and the design files on my Fab Academy page, write a short build guide, and post about it so other makers and outdoor users can find it. Sharing openly fits the spirit of a Fab Lab, where the work is meant to be passed on.

The licence I chose and why

I chose an open licence so anyone can use, change and build on my work as long as they give credit. For the documentation and the design files I use a Creative Commons licence, and for the code I use an open source licence such as MIT. I picked these because they let people learn from TrailNAV freely while still asking them to mention where it came from.

Future opportunities

Right now TrailNAV is a working prototype. The next steps that would turn it into something real are to make the board smaller and cheaper, to test it with hikers on a real trail, and to find out if anyone would pay for it. To make these likely and not just possible, I would build a few more units, give them to people to try, and use their feedback to improve the design.

  • Short term: tidy the design, write a clear build guide, and share it openly.
  • Medium term: build a small batch and test it with outdoor users.
  • Long term: if there is real demand, look at making it in larger numbers.

Progress on TrailNAV

  • Working: the enclosure is designed and printed, the screen and solar panel fit, and the wiring is soldered.
  • Still to do: finish the firmware that reads the GPS and compass and draws the route, and run a full outdoor test.
  • Questions to resolve: how long it runs on the battery and solar charge, and whether the display is readable in bright sun.

What I Learned

  • Choosing a licence made me decide how I want my work to be used.
  • Good documentation is what lets a project live on after me.
  • Being honest about what is done and what is not makes the remaining work feel manageable.