1) All our monitor kits are licensed under CC-BY-SA (and not as mentioned above CC-BY-NC). There was a short period where we had them under NC license but since NC is not truely open-source we switched to the more permissive SA license. We wrote in more detail about this on our blog [1]
2) We are aware that our open-source firmware is currently lacking the quality level we would like to see because we have been very busy with the hardware side of the project. I do hope that in the coming months we will have more time to look after the firmware side and I already had a couple of calls with contributors in the last few days who are happy to help. It's definitely an area we need to improve.
We are currently setting up a focus group and I would love to have people included that might have a more critical view on the project. Please contact me if you would be interested to participate.
As an AirGradient customer, I just don't care about that. The software side isn't complicated, and I prefer running these things with ESPhome rather than their Airduino sketch anyway. The value of AirGradient for me is that they've curated a nice collection of sensors, designed a good enclosure and matching PCB mask for them, and are offering them at a very affordable price for DIYers.
> Well, although it is definitely more "open" than most, it feels like an afterthought.
Open enough!
I appreciate that they are open with their hardware, and make it seamlessly easy to do the above, and also that they provide information into the industry like with this article. So I give them my money for their hardware rather than purchasing the components separately.
The current version of the file mentioned in that thread says CC-BY-SA https://github.com/airgradienthq/arduino/blob/master/example...
(Though I don't understand why anybody would use CC-BY-SA for code, instead of a copyleft license designed for code)
Whatever you think of the openness or quality of the firmware, the hardware is open enough to just flash your own.
[1] https://www.airgradient.com/blog/are-our-articles-disguised-...
See for example this: https://forum.airgradient.com/t/airgradient-diy-pro-pcb-3-7-..., linked to a Github issue opened in June.
Somehow, the source code for the new version has been overwritten by an older (CC-BY-NC) version, yet the issue has been left to rot, both on the support forum and on Github, letting me to think that the "openness" is mostly a posture to lure the HN crowd. Additionally, the -NC clause is definitely a deal breaker, and I should have investigated further before giving them my money.
(it sucks to air it out in public here, but apparently the AirGradient folks don't care much about issues raised on their own forum).