Is there by chance anyone else producing these LTE expansion cards, who is not putting questionable symbols on the PCB and the shell? The snake of the Gadsden flag is something I really don’t want to be carrying with me all day. Thankfully LES has made the hardware open enough that modifying these aspects and custom building a version without those symbols shouldn’t be too much effort.
Welcome to the forum.
The snake on the pcb you could get away with scraping off. It’s on the edge of a ground plane, even if you scrape hard enough to take off the copper in that spot, it should be fine.
If that would be ok to you, then you’d just need a replacement 3d printed shell.
Yea, along with questionable remarks in both the website and the trailer. also the product itself is not certified by any regulatory agency which would be something I’d like to see from a device both emitting and receiving RF signals and also illegal to sell in certain countries and could cause damage to the laptop/LTE card.
This is simply untrue. Our device bears the CE marking and also has the UKCA and CE marking affixed to the accompanying manual according to EU and British law. We are currently in the process of gaining certification for the USA markets, but we have not shipped any devices to that country yet.
We also have filed declaration of conformity documents, detailing which regulations the device is certified for in these markets.
Please do not make these claims without evidence. Our product is perfectly legal to sell in the markets we have chosen, we do understand the regulations within these markets.
Please do not insinuate that users may have their cards / laptops damaged through negligence on our part, this is simply untrue.
Humour is subjective
Welcome JC,
You could indeed print the bottom shell without our logo if you so wished, it’s as simple as commenting one line in the openSCAD file for that part
We of course do not recommend this. If it’s of any consolation our silkscreen logo will be hidden most of the time unless you go out of your way to remove the board from the shell
Then where is your DoC (Declaration of Conformity) and Technical Construction File (TCF) which should be publically accessible? Also if a user brings their own antenna that compliance is broken. You can have a very high gain antenna (with low VSWR) and you will break allowed RF levels so this note in the manual is useless “If you chose to bring your own LTE antennas at checkout, please ensure you purchase LTE antennas with a VSWR < 2 for optimal performance.”
Using anarchocapitalistic dog-whistles hidden on the silk screen of your products isn’t subjective.
Your “logo” is taken directly from the Gadsden flag. You claim to have that trademarked in the UK, but I can’t believe that this would hold at all if you’re being challenged on it. And even if hidden, I’d really, really not want to carry the Gadsden flag with me.
The first third-party project I saw on this forum with a real finished product.
There are a few.
List of company or individually driven projects
Though it might be a simple product, the SNACK drawer has been available for sale for over 2 years. Probably the first 3rd-party community product for sale.
You also have the UART Expansion Card, RS-232 Expansion Card, other items like the Input Cover controller board. But you could argue that this LTE Modem Card is the first of its level. Something requested by many, useful to many, and more challenging than some others.
It brings me much joy that I get to hold that title with such a goofy product.
I was just looking at the Tall SNACK Drawer: The Original SNACK Drawer's Big Brother thread. Your example pictures have always been hilarious. I love them!
And also I know there was a “sip of water” somewhere. I had to find that too. Combine it with the pocket sand Drawer of sand, and I could build a tiny sand castle!
By the way, we still need that Heated Drawer. Please with enough power to make popcorn.
The declaration of conformity for our product does not have to be publicly accessible as per the law, it is only made available on request to market surveillance authorities. This is our current understanding. Nor does a TCF have to be made publicly available, this again is only for market surveillance authorities on request.
We will not be held liable as a company if a user uses an antenna with illegal levels of gain, this claim is rather silly. To our knowledge, no other manufacturer is held to this standard, nor should they be.
We will investigate this further and add an additional clarification on allowed levels of gain per region, however this is a courtesy on our part and not legally required.
The intention of this clarification was to pass on advice from Quectel, the manufacturer of the modem, not to serve as a legal disclaimer.
We are discussing different things here I believe. Our logo is not “hidden”, nor is it to serve as some kind of dog-whistle, this is a weird allegation to be honest. We’re quite up front about our logo, I find this to be a strange sticking point personally.
Indeed, it is inspired by that flag.
Within the United Kingdom, trademarks are filed with the intellectual property office, and are publicly available, much like patents and the like. Our trademark for our logo was filed many months ago, and was not disputed by any authority. You can access our filing publicly here.
Indeed, we are far from the first.
We are discussing different things here I believe. Our logo is not “hidden”, nor is it to serve as some kind of dog-whistle, this is a weird allegation to be honest. We’re quite up front about our logo, I find this to be a strange sticking point personally.
So you didn’t choose this to appeal and signal to other ancaps that you’re ancaps? I mean not that you have to, with Monero being a payment method on your site.
Our trademark for our logo was filed many months ago, and was not disputed by any authority. You can access our filing publicly here.
That doesn’t mean that it’s legit though. A dispute can still come at any time
Either way, I’ll stop arguing with you, as it doesn’t add much value to this thread.
I’d really, really not want to carry the Gadsden flag with me.
Then wait for another producer or replace the shell yourself? It makes no sense to complain about a person having different political beliefs and including it in their product. It is not even that difficult to do.
Then wait for another producer or replace the shell yourself?
Which is exactly why I’ve asked on this thread, whether anyone else was making one. Replacing the shell is not enough, it’s also on the silk screen of the PCB.
It makes no sense to complain about a person having different political beliefs and including it in their product.
I’m not telling them to change their beliefs, I’m saying that I won’t buy from them and am interested whether anyone else was making these? And sure, people will complain about that, and that’s perfectly valid, the question is just where you draw the line.
It is not even that difficult to do.
No, but with the PCBs it’s a matter of cost scaling. If I get someone to manufacture a single one of these, that’s gonna be way more expensive per piece than if someone orders a dozen of them. I’m asking here because I know it’s not that difficult, if it was then this would be the wrong place.
That is not how it sounded but whatever you say.
Put me down as another person who would be interested in this hardware, but not in purchasing it as long as it carries the symbology of the Gadsden flag on shell or PCB.
To be clear, I do not argue the manufacturer’s right to mark it as they please.
If a variant becomes available without those marks, I will likely purchase one. Otherwise, I may wait for a 5G card, should that ever become a thing.
Cool to see this release as a product, but I will never buy one because the designers don’t seem to be able to recognize that their logo is of bad taste.