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Open Source Hardware, For Fun and For Profit

Posted by timothy on from the make-it-so dept.

ptorrone writes "Lots of open source hardware articles making the rounds this week, first up — Wired has an excellent piece on the Arduino project, an open source electronics prototyping platform, its founders and business model (they have sold over 50,000 units). And next up MIT's Tech Review has a profile on a few open source hardware businesses including NYC based Adafruit Industries best known for projects like the open source synth (x0x0b0x) and 'fun' projects like the Wave Bubble, the open source cell phone/wifi/GPS/RF jammer."

14 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Yes 'fun'... by abigsmurf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Radio Jammers are most definately not fun. It's bad enough the ones that send out a burst designed to disconnect phonecalls but one that's designed to run for 2-4 hours...

    If someone on a cell phone is annoying you, ask them to keep it down or turn it off. Don't potentially block a call that may be to (or from) the emergency services or another life or death communication. There's a reason jammers carry stiff penalties in most Western countries.

    1. Re:Yes 'fun'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Don't potentially block a call that may be to (or from) the emergency services or another life or death communication.

      It's remarkable that the world managed to function at all before the age of cellular communication.

    2. Re:Yes 'fun'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It's remarkable that the world managed to function at all before the age of cellular communication.

      The world also functioned before sanitation, electricity, writing, farming, etc. But a greater proportion of people died younger and just surviving was a lot harder.

      For every new invention X there's always some sarcastic idiot with the "one must ask how the world managed to function before X?!?!!!!11110xb0xb\lim_{x\to 0} \sin x/x" The point, you reactionary retard, is not to turn the world from somewhere where everyone dies into somewhere where no-one dies, but to make life easier and to save the occasional soul. If you think it's not worth carrying a cellphone yourself or encouraging your loved ones to carry one while travelling, that's your choice - feel free to make it. But it will be to no-one's benefit, except that you'll feel a little superior.

      (Sorta like choosing to switch to Mac. (Kidding, I use a Mac.))

      Anyway, Adafruit projects are cute and all - the power supply is a particularly useful reminder of how to Do It Proper - but there's much less than you'll see at a good undergrad EE course. No offence intended beyond the indication that, if this is state of the art, open source hardware entrepreneurship has a long way to go.

    3. Re:Yes 'fun'... by zacronos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't potentially block a call that may be to (or from) the emergency services or another life or death communication.

      It's remarkable that the world managed to function at all before the age of cellular communication.

      It's remarkable that the world managed to function at all before the age of modern medicine.

      Just because humanity survived through it doesn't mean it is responsible or ethical to strip it away in circumstances when you don't understand the consequences.

      The truth is, people before modern medicine might stand a better chance of dealing with a given health issue because they knew folk remedies which may have helped (though they didn't always help, they were rarely harmful). Today, most of us have an almost total lack of ability to deal with major health issues without modern medicine. The same is true with cellular communication -- people were fine without it at the time, but they (we) have grown fairly dependent on it today. Take it away unexpectedly, and they're worse off than when it didn't exist.

      Note that I don't say this as if it were a good thing -- I think it's a horrible thing. But that doesn't make it any less true.

    4. Re:Yes 'fun'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's remarkable that the world managed to function at all before the age of cellular communication.

      I'm sure that people were saying the same thing about land lines when telephone poles/wires started cluttering up the scenery.
      While jamming cell frequencies in a local area is not the same as chopping down a telephone pole it's still illegal in most places.

      Cell phones are here to stay, it's the people not the technology that is causing the problem.

    5. Re:Yes 'fun'... by ArhcAngel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Gimme a cell phone jammer so I can use it while driving. That way assholes around me will get off their phones and pay attention to the road.

      You, kind sir, are an optimist. Given your scenario I would break it down thusly:

      1) 50% (the xx variety) will just keep yappin because they never stop talking long enough to realize the call dropped.
      2) 20% will wildly shake their communication device in an attempt "squeeze" out more signal.
      3) 15% will beat the device within an inch of it's life swerving across lanes while beating their head against the steering wheel. (It's not so bad since I got that leather wrapped steering wheel)
      4) 10% miscellaneous teeth grinding, nail biting, anxiety driven rage, etc., etc.
      5) 5% will actually put their phones down and begin to drive.

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    6. Re:Yes 'fun'... by Restil · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But I don't want to be a farmer, plowing fields with rocks, hoping to save enough extra to survive the winter, and hoping I don't catch some fatal disease so I can live until I'm at least into my 40s.

      Yes, I could live without it if I had to. But I don't want to, and I'm guessing that nobody else wants to either. We can't go back, and we can't stay where we are, so we only go forward.

      But if it will put your mind at ease, you can be contented in the fact that 10 years from now, there will likely be some new electronic gadget that nobody can live without which will annoy us far worse than cellphones or ipods ever did.

      --
      Play with my webcams and lights here
  2. Re:Handy for terrorism, kidnapping, piracy, etc. by sukotto · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The next time I grab a 15-year-old girl to rape and kill her ...

    I'm all for freedom of speech, but could we exercise a little self-control over what we say and publish?

    Oh the irony....

    --
    Come play free flash games on Kongregate!
  3. Re:Open "source" hardware by iamdrscience · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Depends on the project. In the case of projects like OpenCores the term "open source hardware" is very apt because the project consists of Verilog and VHDL files which are essentially programming languages (similar in many ways to C and Pascal) which are compiled as hardware designs for chips instead of programs. For other projects, it's a little more abstract, but still fitting, I think. I mean, open source software is software that provides with all the files you need to build a program yourself and allows you to modify them to suit your needs. An open source hardware project would generally provide the same thing, but instead of source code, it's schematics and board layouts.

  4. Re:Handy for terrorism, kidnapping, piracy, etc. by MrNaz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree. Please run for president and I shall vote for you so you can establish a Ministry of Acceptability that ensures that people only do and say things that are in line with your definition of peace and safety.

    --
    I hate printers.
  5. Re:Don't forget Arduino! by JustKidding · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Arduino is nice as an introduction to microcontrollers, but there isn't a whole lot worth protecting in the first place; it's a microcontroller with an USB UART, a crystal and voltage regulator. There is nothing novel about the design, it's all copied from the reference designs in the datasheets. The board is nothing any remotely competent electrical engineer couldn't design in a couple of hours.

    The Wired article makes it sound like it's a huge advancement in electrical engineering, and they're giving it away!

  6. Counterproductive. by camperdave · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You'll only make things worse. People will start fiddling with their cell phone to try to figure out why it just stopped working. They'll try redialling. They'll be looking at their screens to check the signal, etc. You'll draw even more of their attention away from the road and onto their phone.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  7. Re:Don't forget Arduino! by Bassman59 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Arduino is nice as an introduction to microcontrollers, but there isn't a whole lot worth protecting in the first place; it's a microcontroller with an USB UART, a crystal and voltage regulator. There is nothing novel about the design, it's all copied from the reference designs in the datasheets. The board is nothing any remotely competent electrical engineer couldn't design in a couple of hours.

    The Wired article makes it sound like it's a huge advancement in electrical engineering, and they're giving it away!

    Wish I had mod points ... this post sums up exactly how I feel about the whole Arduino thing.

    I stopped reading Make because they just won't stop creaming their pants over Arduino. Yawn.

  8. Re:Don't forget Arduino! by ptorrone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    hi, it's phill from MAKE - we cover and celebrate what *makers* are doing, over 50,000 sales of arduinos means a lot of people are doing projects and sharing them.

    that said, we do feature articles on basic stamp and we had a huge article on the parallax propeller chip, picaxe, you name it. it's more about what folks are making more than a chip.

    if you don't like arduino because it's simple and there's "nothing to it" that's likely the reason it's so popular and it's good to see so many people from all walks of life and skill sets getting in to electronics.