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Open Source Hardware Projects, 2009
ptorrone writes "MAKE's yearly open source hardware guide is now online with over 125 projects in 19 categories. The creators of all of these projects have decided to publish completely all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings, and 'board' files to recreate the hardware. They also allow any use, including commercial. In other words, you can make a business making and selling any of these objects. This is similar to open source software like Linux, but hardware-centric."
Look under the "religious" projects. Finally a Christmas card that looks more geeky than the "iphone with cardboard" posted earlier on /.
Just because you have the tools and skills doesn't mean you don't need the blueprints.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
A home-brewed cell phone jammer, long distance TV turner-off'er, and an Area Effect Sickness Generator. MAKE is clearly pandering to the Got-Stuffed-In-Their-Lockers-A-Lot-In-High-School crowd...
Agree with you. And also, software should be free (as in free speech) due to the inherent nature of software (lines of code). OTOH, one can choose not to display the schematics of the hardware thus preventing someone from duplicating it. Of course, in most cases, one can open it up and reverse engineer it; however not so easy with microchips and the like. I find "open source hardware" just a fashionable tag people use to promote themselves.
You might want to look at their subscriptions, for Australia its about 49 USD for 4 issues the last I checked. Or even the digital version for 5 USD for 4 issues.
PS: I not way endorsing them, I have no comment on whether I like or hate them.
Well, programming isn't that easy either. I mean, in theory, all you need is a computer, but in practice it takes a lot of time to learn properly.
I think that getting started in electronics wouldn't be that expensive. Soldering irons are cheap, and components like capacitors are sold for prices like $0.05/unit. Of course microcontrollers and such are more expensive, but you don't need those in large amounts.
Make is not about making stuff cheaper than off-the-shelf, so if the price of mag puts you off, you're not going to make anything with it anyway. The idea behind Make is a form of self-empowerment, to understand hardware and to enable individual constructions. One-of prices are always going to be much higher than the price of mass-produced merchandise.
I'm a die hard free market capitalist and I have to say you are clueless. If legit software can't provide value beyond what is freely available, it deserves to fade away. This is even more true for legit hardware -- whatever that is...
A lot of people confuse "use" with "derivative works". Use means run the program.
Bruce Perens.
Stallman used to sell tapes with GNU software, as well as manuals. He even said this was the way he initially supported himself.
The creators of all of these projects have decided to publish completely all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings, and 'board' files to recreate the hardware.
Why must everything be labeled "open source?"
Plans and projects for the technically-minded hobbyist are at least as old as Popular Mechanics, first published in 1902.
Quite a lot of money? As far as hobbies go, electronics is extremely affordable. Try "car racing", or "remote heli/plane" or even wood-working. You can make many interesting electronic projects for under $50 AU. Spend a bit more for an Arduino, and there are a nearly limitless number of projects you can build. As hobbies go, I don't think electronics can be classed as "expensive".
the arduino seems to be as close to 'programmable logic for the masses' as I've seen.
this year, I finally took the plunge and got very into this arduino thing. love it! recommend it.
I'm a mostly-software person with a hardware hobby background. the arduino is just enough hardware to 'stay interesting' and yet not need a full EE to do useful things (design, build AND code).
its not a host like unix is; its a controller. but its all in C, its multiplatform (the IDE) and it does quite a lot for the cost (almost no cost; just a $20 usb serial cable for development and that's all, over the chip and board itself). chips and boards can be made for $5 (I built my own arduino clone on perf board. not hard.)
the arduino craze is taking off and only going to get bigger as time goes on.
need an IR receiver that 'does things' based on learned IR codes? arduino. need some X10 wireless stuff controlled? arduino. need to talk to LCD displays easily? arduino. and ALL the source is out there, so your coding is mostly a 'glue' exercise without a huge amount of new code that needs to be written.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
The "Arduino" is innovative in the way it's packaged and used. I'm not much of a hardware guy, but I looked into microcontrollers like six or seven years ago and was pretty much scared away. The Arduino has made entry into the world of microcontrollers very easy and lets people get really creative without a steep learning curve. Rather than just getting a microcontroller to work, you can think about what you can hook up to it and the software, which is great for software nerds like me who have little experience in hardware. Before this the most I had done was build a kit distortion pedal in high school. If you know how to write simple programs, that same level of hardware knowledge can now be used to do far more interesting and useful things.
The most stable, versatile and powerful operating system is useless if the users don't like the applications that are made for it. It is the applications and ease of use that make people choose an operating system, not the quality of code in the operating system.
You want Linux or Unix to catch on? Make an open source Outlook & Exchange substitution. You'll have to beat businesses off with a stick.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
Choosing an odd word to name an interface specification doesn't qualify its users as belonging to a 'cult'.
THANK YOU. And not the half-assed ones that are out there. I'm talking RPC over HTTP, calendar invites, tasks and contacts handled properly, PST file support, the works. When OpenOffice Calc supports pivot tables properly and Evolution supports Exchange Server properly, you'll see a massive switch in my company and many others.
The Arduino is all about the "cult," however.
That "cult" has created an ecosystem around the ATMega8/168/328 - in fact, what makes the Arduino so interesting isn't the hardware, or even the shields (although they are nice - a de-facto standard for expansion,) it's the software. The software reduces the barrier of entry to microcontroller programming drastically.
You can make an Arduino that doesn't use their hardware at all, only their software, and get quite a lot of the benefits. In fact, there are official Arduino designs that use different layouts.
I consider my model airplane design open source because I made the plans available. People have built them all over the world and have added revisions to the plans. Is that what makes it open source? Here is the URL: http://www.rubber-power.com/
Inventor, Artist http://www.Rubber-Power.com
I looked into microcontrollers like six or seven years ago and was pretty much scared away.
The Arduno's ecosystem has helped in that area. There was a previous generation of microcontrollers with hobbyist support, the PIC and the Basic Stamp. Those devices were getting rather dated; the Basic Stamp is descended from a 1970s National Semiconductor part. Moving to Atmel's ATmega128 was a step up, with 32-bit registers and a hardware multiplier. The industrial world made that step up a decade ago, but the hobbyist world was still struggling along with limited hardware. This is one of the reasons that entry-level hobbyist robots hadn't gotten much smarter for over a decade.
Although Atmel offered a complete set of free development tools for the ATmega line, they were never presented in a hobbyist-friendly format. Atmel has a huge range of products, and this is just one of many. It's not at all obvious what to order and download.
(Actually, not 32-bit -- it's all still 8-bit, except for the AVR32 line which is another set of chips altogether.)
You're right, there was a lot lacking and people could be "scared away" from getting started with microcontrollers, but what we're trying to do with NerdKits is make it less scary without hiding the complexity or the conceptual learning. Our hypothesis is that people are actually smart enough to handle real tools, if you show them how, and will be far better off with that experience. Guide newbies through looking at the datasheet, setting registers, etc. Add some unique content that really makes you use your brain, and we've got a lot of very happy customers!
The reason that the confusion is a bad idea is that copyright law - not the Open Source folks - define a set of individual rights, and without knowing the definition of those rights you end up not being able to much much sense about them. You end up like those folks who think the internet is made of tubes.
Bruce Perens.