The reason I started offering the STAR as well as the NLITE was because I was getting requests every day from customers wanting more customization than what NLITE gives them. I did not have the source code, nor did DrJones want to provide it, so there was no way I could do this with NLITE.
As for the similar code: why would you reinvent the wheel when others have OPENLY SHARED their code and you are planning on OPENLY SHARING your own code? After you've seen others code that works you would have to try exceptionally hard to write something functionally similar but coded substantially different, especially with the space limitations of this MCU. It is easy to see that there is original work here, along with better, more understandable comments than I've seen in any other project so far. The reason he wrote such descriptive comments was so that when he shared it, lay people (such as I) would be able to understand what he did and build on it.
JonnyC didn't build this firmware to make money, which is why he released the source code after many of the bugs had been worked out. He wants to help everyone with their projects, and hoped that others would take and continue to build their own code with any part of it (or the whole thing!) that they liked. I pay him a percentage out of gratitude for all of the time he spent with me getting this working, not because he asked for it. The reason I charge for it is because (1) it takes me time to configure, flash, and test every driver and (2) because it is my small way of saying "thank you" for the countless hours he has spent with me troubleshooting and making this work. He will never earn enough off of this to be worth even close the amount of time he spent with me alone.
As for me? I spend WAY more time than it's worth configuring, flashing, and testing these drivers. I offer it so that those who can't yet or don't want to do it on their own have a way to get the flashlight they want. With my limited amount of time I would rather sell parts and have people build their own stuff than build it myself, but I know that there are many who have big dreams and not enough time or skills yet to do it themselves.
As for all of the accusations, let's put them to rest right here and now. Answer this question: if I or JonnyC wanted to profit from this firmware, WHY IN THE WORLD would we release the source code??? This was a labor of love, not a profiteering exercise by JonnyC. Let me reiterate: JonnyC wrote this with the INTENTION of sharing it and helping others with their projects. He wanted to make sure that we had most of the bugs ironed out before releasing the code.
So I hope that this settles some of the bad mojo that's flying around here. The reason I love BLF is that spirit of sharing which benefits us all, and if sharing this source code isn't in accordance with that spirit I don't know what is. I know that it's easy to get caught up in a bunch of assumptions when you don't have the whole story, but let's just let this one go.
OK, now that said...deep breath and back to happy BLF! :)