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Open Source Hardware Hits 1.0

Posted by timothy on from the ok-now-where's-the-pilot-light? dept.

ptorrone writes "The Open Source Hardware Statement of Principles and Open Source Hardware Definition have hit 1.0. Open Source Hardware is a term for tangible artifacts — machines, devices, or other physical things — whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things. This definition is intended to help provide guidelines for the development and evaluation of licenses for Open Source Hardware. The top open hardware electronics pioneers and companies have endorsed the 1.0 definition, and next up will be logo selection."

41 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Arduino documentary by MrEricSir · · Score: 2

    On a side tangent here, if you're into open hardware, check out this (free!) online documentary about the Arduino. It's worth a watch.
    http://arduinothedocumentary.org/

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:Arduino documentary by dmomo · · Score: 1

      Small tangent, but on topic in my opinion. The first speaker. Is is accent really so strong that it needs subtitles?

    2. Re:Arduino documentary by buchner.johannes · · Score: 1

      Is arduino open source hardware according to the new definition?

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  2. Logo Competiton by JSG · · Score: 1

    seems to be the real output from this initiative, given the top post. Perhaps I ought to read the links just in case there is something more tangible ...

  3. 1.0... of a set of principles by jfengel · · Score: 3, Funny

    So, it's not a product. It's not even a design for a product. It's an agreement for what you might do if you had an idea for a product. (It's a little hard to tell, because as far as I can tell, it's hosted on a non-open-hardware Commodore 64. Maybe if it were implemented on Open Hardware the web server might actually serve up the page.)

    Whatever it is, it seems to be evolving fast, because it's at 1.1 already. It'll probably be thoroughly mature and passe before breakfast tomorrow.

    1. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's like Creative Commons but for hardware projects. If you don't know the principal meaning of open hardware, you could familiarize yourself with e.g. Arduino: The Documentary.

      Of course the term "hardware" encompasses more than just electronics, but usually those designs tend to be the most closed ones due to the wide selection and high pricing of available EDA software.

    2. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      I dont know about that...

      One place this might shine would be archetectural plans.

      An open library of archetectural plans would leverage structural designs for a host of potential markets, not all of which would need to be tangible. (Yes, I know this is a thing of the devil, I don't care.) Take for instance, virtual world environments like Second Life, or even just FPS shooters created under open licenses. Archetectural drawings are for more than just houses; they include manufacturing centers, office buildings, etc--- a free and easily accessible/modifyable archive of them would greatly fascilitate startup businesses or home builders (who would then not have to hire an architect to design their building, but only to vet the design), but also any software projects that might be able to make use of such detailed plans.

      This wouldnt negate "all" costs, but pre-vetted designs would be essentially free, and due to license requirements any modified designs that get vetted would be added to the archive as well. Eventually you would have building plans for just about every concievable purpose, and that's just architecture.

    3. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by phooky · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Perhaps you should browse the list of endorsers, which includes many companies that are already offering products and designs which are in accordance with the principles. This isn't philosophical wanking; it's an attempt to refine and protect a movement that's been active for years.

    4. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by pointybits · · Score: 1

      Like open source software it's not just being able to change the design, it's having access to the full internal details of the product. Companies are encouraged to produce open-designed hardware or variants of it because it's cheaper than designing new hardware and marketing it from scratch, and when you buy it you get the full details of how it was made, so you can easily use, repair, reprogram and extend it without having to beg implementation details from a vendor who is uncooperative because they're trying to shield their proprietary designs from competitors.

      Look at what Seeedstudio are doing with Arduino boards for example; they have taken the open-source Arduino design and extended it in interesting ways (Seeeduino Film for example) and they publish the full circuit diagrams, board layouts and firmware so if you want to mod or fix their boards you can.

    5. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by Tanktalus · · Score: 2

      Open source architecture? I don't think so. A library of ideas is one thing, but having a general contractor build something based on the drawings of someone who is not necessarily a licensed architect/engineer, who may not even be in the country of manufacture, is just asking for liability problems. Seriously. Unless you're talking about sheds or other inconsequential buildings, I don't see this passing legal muster, either.

      You still need to hire the architect and/or civil engineer to sign off on the drawings. And they'll need to crunch all the numbers. And random patches are not going to be accepted, period.

      I like the idea of open-source hardware. I'm just not seeing a practical side yet.

    6. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      a general form of open hardware was there when they gave you schematics for the electronic stuff you bought, or the maintenance manual for your car. If our rulers really cared for out planet and our wallet the production of goods would have a modularization and compliance to standards phase.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    7. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by smoothnorman · · Score: 1

      But watch very closely who gets to approve the sticker "Open Source Hardware Inside!" A job offer here... a project supported there... and then a small set of private interests are determining what "Open Source Hardware" means. ("so we can't get the information to write drivers for this open source hardware device?" "sure you can! you just need to download and approve this EUA and install this small object code library")

    8. Re:1.0... of a set of principles by Bassman59 · · Score: 1

      Like open source software it's not just being able to change the design, it's having access to the full internal details of the product. Companies are encouraged to produce open-designed hardware or variants of it because it's cheaper than designing new hardware and marketing it from scratch, and when you buy it you get the full details of how it was made, so you can easily use, repair, reprogram and extend it without having to beg implementation details from a vendor who is uncooperative because they're trying to shield their proprietary designs from competitors.

      If the documentation for any particular piece of open-source hardware is as bad as the same for most open-source software, I say: no thanks. The whole point of this is to save time, and if I have to waste time figuring out interfaces and verifying that the open-source design does as advertised on the tin, well, I will just do it myself.

      Look at what Seeedstudio are doing with Arduino boards for example; they have taken the open-source Arduino design and extended it in interesting ways (Seeeduino Film for example) and they publish the full circuit diagrams, board layouts and firmware so if you want to mod or fix their boards you can.

      What people keep forgetting is that Arduino is a trivial microcontroller eval board. It's really no different from a Silicon Labs kit, except that SiLabs markets their kits to actual engineers (people who do it for a living) and they're not trying to surf this absurd wave of "open source hardware."

  4. Re:It's open source so... by Stregano · · Score: 1

    Now... ...will the logo be TM'ed?

    --
    The world is how you make it
  5. Nice presentation by JSG · · Score: 1

    Is that really the best presentation that can be done?

    A huge mass of turgid text.

    I'll grant you that its a good^H^H^H^Hfair defence against a /.ing but they probably have more than a modem to connect to the interwebs.

    Cheers
    Jon

  6. Re:I don't want to be the bad guy, but... by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

    Some of it already exists. I think some SPARC CPUs were open.

  7. I'd like to open source some hardware of mine. by thomasdz · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have a coil of wire that I would like to donate to the project. I call it an "inductor" because I wrapped it on the INside of a roll of DUCT tape OR similar.
    I also have a pencil broken in half with a wire glued on one end and another wire that you can "wipe" up and down the black graphite center... I call it a "variable resistor" for some reason...but in any case... I hereby release it to be OPEN HARDWARE!
    yay!

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    Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
    1. Re:I'd like to open source some hardware of mine. by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      I'll add to this my tinfoil wrapped soda bottle filled with salt water, which I call a capacitor, and the highly polished chinese wok which I call a solar collector!

      Soon we'll be able to build a rube-goldbergian technocratic empire!

  8. Limited but still damn good by oldhack · · Score: 1

    Digital designs that can be implemented with FPGA is a lot like software, but when it comes to optical drives and others that are electro-mechanical or analog, being open-source won't have the same effect.

    Eh, all the same, I applaud the effort. Open society demands open technology.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
    1. Re:Limited but still damn good by skids · · Score: 1

      "when it comes to optical drives and others that are electro-mechanical or analog, being open-source won't have the same effect. "

      It could, if there was any appetite for developing open specifications/language for digital control systems (beyond simple PID setups.) But that would involve actually understanding differential equations and frequency domain math, and horror of horrors, hard real-time systems. That tends to send the lego kids back to their soldering dishes to hide among the rosen fumes.

      As it is, opensource robotics dead-ends at reverse kinematics.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
  9. Congratulations! by joebob2000 · · Score: 1

    I have a coil of wire that I would like to donate to the project. I call it an "inductor" because I wrapped it on the INside of a roll of DUCT tape OR similar. I also have a pencil broken in half with a wire glued on one end and another wire that you can "wipe" up and down the black graphite center... I call it a "variable resistor" for some reason...but in any case... I hereby release it to be OPEN HARDWARE! yay!

    The quality of your work has earned you the title "Maker".

    1. Re:Congratulations! by Bassman59 · · Score: 1

      I have a coil of wire that I would like to donate to the project. I call it an "inductor" because I wrapped it on the INside of a roll of DUCT tape OR similar. I also have a pencil broken in half with a wire glued on one end and another wire that you can "wipe" up and down the black graphite center... I call it a "variable resistor" for some reason...but in any case... I hereby release it to be OPEN HARDWARE! yay!

      The quality of your work has earned you the title "Maker".

      Where are my mod points when I need them!

  10. Re:I don't want to be the bad guy, but... by BillX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's still early if the definition of open source hardware is only official as of today, but a number of open-source-friendly hardware companies exist today - Sparkfun, Adafruit and the Arduino universe are probably the most well-known examples. It's definitely too early to say whether the Big Boys will get in on it, but it'll be exciting to find out in anycase.

    An aside - who says it needs to be backed by business? I think the real story behind an "open source hardware definition" is that someone(s) are serious enough about it to lay the groundwork while the idea is still in its infancy, and expect it to begin really taking off. The difference between hardware and the FOSS we already know and love, as others have pointed out, is that hardware has real material costs while tinkering in software is free... but that is changing rapidly, too. Nowadays you can pick up Arduino-style devkits for $30 or spin your own PCBs for well under $100 USD, and open-source personal fabrication tools are at the cusp of exploding. That is, 3D printers for under $1k, laser cutters and CNC mills for a few hundred, pick and place robots for comparable (coming soon!). The wall to entry vs. pure software FOSS is still there, but getting shorter all the time.

    --
    Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
  11. See also open manufacturing... by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 2

    http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing?pli=1

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
    1. Re:See also open manufacturing... by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_parity
      "The fully-loaded cost (not price) of solar electricity is $0.25/kWh or less in most of the OECD countries. By late 2011, the fully-loaded cost is likely to fall below $0.15/kWh for most of the OECD and reach $0.10/kWh in sunnier regions. These cost levels are driving some emerging trends:[8] ... Oerlikon Solar announced in 2010 that its 'ThinFab' production line is capable of manufacturing 143Wp panels at a cost of 0.5 euro per watt (0.64 dollars per watt) and has a capacity of 120MW per year. The company also claims that its production plants have very low energy consumption rates, so that the energy payback time of its 10% efficient, silicon thin-film modules is less than one year.[12]"

      Who has been telling you otherwise, and why?

      Eventually we will have 3D printing systems that probably can also recycle plastic and reuse it, as well as print out plastic solar panels to power them, and print out equipment to produce plastic...

      --
      A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
  12. Economics by vosester · · Score: 1

    I use to think that the economics for open source hardware cloud not work, but a while back I thought about it.

    One way would be for the R&D to be done by a community. Licensed to manufactures at fixed rates to recoup cost, kinda like a non-profit, any surplus could go to new or related projects.

    Manufactures could build the designs. The market would be leveled because it's not who has the biggest patients or latest tech anymore, But who can make the most cost effective/efficient component.

    Efficiency is the new selling point for hardware, So the marketing would not be that difficult for the masses to understand.

    Obversely there world be resistant from the old guard but what's new there.

    I know the situation is a lot more complex than I just stated, But you know the old Einstein quote about simplicity/complexity.

  13. Will it work? by noobermin · · Score: 1

    So may be some people will fund open source programs but hardware? The pull of proprietary is stronger in the hardware realm it seems and the "open" people there seem closer to the "hobbyist" side.

    1. Re:Will it work? by xanojsp · · Score: 1

      Here's a non-hobbyist site for control and data acquisition hardware: http://www.ohwr.org/

  14. Great news. by Dzimas · · Score: 2

    I run a company that produces what we term open source hardware, and the open hardware definition takes a stab at providing a framework that individuals and companies can use to release a hardware/software project. The key ingredients are (a) that you must provide source code and design files sufficient to allow someone to build/extend your device, (b) that there can be no non-commercial restrictions (for example, "You can build one for yourself, but don't you dare make them for others", and (c) that any devices based on the source code and design files must be released under a similar license.

    Up to this point, we've had to license the hardware designs, schematics, and code are provided under the GPL v3, and then release the documentation, schematics, panels, and illustrations under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license. It's a mess that doesn't work well with nebulous concepts like case design and control panel layouts.

    1. Re:Great news. by Dzimas · · Score: 1

      That's basically what we ended up doing by releasing files under several different licenses. This is where the the open source hardware definition is important -- it encapsulates a consistent set of use terms for both hardware and software IP.

  15. Re:It's open source so... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2

    Okay, I can't be the only one thinking that an OPEN SOURCE logo is going to see a great deal of images that look like this ...

    http://unintentionalgoatse.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/westnet-logo-goatse/

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  16. Re:I don't want to be the bad guy, but... by Americano · · Score: 1

    An aside - who says it needs to be backed by business?

    If you need to have hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in manufacturing equipment to produce a piece of "open hardware," it's gonna be pretty hard to get there without having a business backing you - the market for "open source wooden spoons" ("Whittled by inmates on death row from virgin balsa wood!") is probably pretty small.

  17. So where is it? by evilviper · · Score: 1

    I've been hearing about open hardware for a good decade now, so where is it? Where's the patent-free 500mhz MIPS CPU based tablet that runs on AA batteries, maybe with with a 32 shade grey scale b+w LCD (no backlite needed)?

    if you fab it, they will come.

    I'm sure there are chinese manufacturers out there who would love a tablet they can manufacture initially locally, without license or royalty payments. Hell the government has that as a major goal.

    So with the innumerable products coming out every year why haven't we seen even one based on open hardware?

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    1. Re:So where is it? by drewm1980 · · Score: 1

      It's because all of the open hardware/software geeks have been naughty this year...

      http://xkcd.com/838/

    2. Re:So where is it? by trickyD1ck · · Score: 1

      Because it is not profitable/noone has incentive to do this/there is no demand. So no, they will not fab this, and noone will come. If open-source hardware made any sense, it would already be here. There would be no need for manifestos, logo contests, or "pushing." Why would a chinese company would want to do this and enjoy no competitive advantage and the corresponding 0.01% profits? A government? Right, those are well-known for innovativeness and efficiency.

    3. Re:So where is it? by evilviper · · Score: 1

      Products like RAM and integrated video are typically protected by an army of patents,

      You clearly missed my meaning. I'm referring to something decidedly low end. Something that is dirt cheap, but more than capable of being a good ebook reader, though it won't compete with saxophones on the few high end features like h.264 video playback.

      Its only at the high end where patents are a hindrance. 2D graphics is easy. Basic 3d has been around well over 20 years now, too. Jurassic Park comes to mind, on sgi they were probably using open gl as well.

      Ditto for memory. You might not get the fastest or lowest power memory, but it will be plenty fast for a low end device.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    4. Re:So where is it? by evilviper · · Score: 1

      If open-source hardware made any sense, it would already be here.

      An idiotic assertion... Nothing is here until it its created. Not everything that can be made, has been made. Not every good idea had yet been realized. The demand its not there because you can't expect purple to demand a theoretical product that doesn't exist. One it's created, we will see if there is demand.

      Why would a chinese company would want to do this and enjoy no competitive advantage and the corresponding 0.01% profits? A government? Right, those are well-known for innovativeness and efficiency.

      Dvd players are a complete refutation of your above assertion. profits are terrible due to the heavy patent license fees, yet companies are rising to make them. their tony profit margins are better than the nothing they were getting before. And the government initially subsidized the factories building dvd players specifically because they wanted their populace to have cheap electronics available domestically. There done the same thing with the Dragon Chip, and many, many others.

      chinese companies would love such a product without license fees, far more than they like dvd players, yet they churn those out for $20 a shot.

      And cell phones are another good example. The no named chinese companies are turning out $50 smart phones ruining Android, at next to no profit, with no differentiation, while the big names are making vastly more profits... Yet the no name chinese companies keep churning them out, even with the royalties they have to party on the underlying tech. They'd love to be rid of those fixed fees they get nothing out of and only inhibit their business. And when the fees drop, and the device prices can be lowered even further, new markets will open, creating all nw demand, ala EEE PC

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  18. Re:I don't want to be the bad guy, but... by commlinx · · Score: 1

    Sure but you don't need to own that equipment yourself, and smallish runs of PCBs can come in under $100 loaded with components (obviously depending on complexity) in which case you don't really need any equipment at all. Sure in practice you'll probably drop a few grand on test and prototyping gear to test the hardware first, but that's not much different in cost to a decent software development rig.

    When all the design files are available there are plenty of small manufacturers that will do all the hardware stuff start to finish. Sure they'll charge setup fees, but I've had that done for around $1K (minus components) so for simpler projects you only need 10 friends / colleauges / customers / club members and it all starts to become cost effective. Not versus consumer products, but against niche products like say a vehicle telemetry system where your local racing club might not want to pay for a system that's aimed at Formula I teams.

  19. Re:It's open source so... by peterbye · · Score: 1

    I don't get it.

  20. Re:It's open source so... by DaVince21 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, it's not tangible enough.

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    I am not devoid of humor.
  21. Re:It's open source so... by peterbye · · Score: 1

    Nobody gonna help me out here?