Open Hardware Journal

Bruce Perens writes "Open Hardware Journal is a new technical journal on designs for physical or electronic objects that are shared as if they were Open Source software. It's an open journal under a Creative Commons license. The first issue contains articles on 'Producing Lenses With 3D Printers,' 'Teaching with Open Hardware Submarines,' 'An Open Hardware Platform for USB Firmware Updates and General USB Development,' and more." Mr. Perens has promised to be around tonight to answer any questions readers might have.

Comments

I'm here

[Bruce Perens]

I'm playing editor for Open Hardware Journal. I'll be in and out this evening, and will be able to answer questions from Slashdotters, maybe with some delay.

Re:I'm here

[siddesu]

Congratulations first. This looks like a piece of really good really nerdy news. As for input and questions, maybe you should wait a day or two until we've read the first issue and let it sink for meaningful comments and do a separate Ask Slashdot thing?

Re:I'm here

[pmontra]

Congratulations, an interesting journal. My question is about the format: why a PDF and not a blog? The advantages of a blog are: it lets you publish the papers as soon as they arrive and it attracts people to your server every day instead of a peak of hits once per month. You choose PDF so it must have some advantages that outweighs those of a blog (or less disadvantages) and I'd love to learn about them because I'm also in the process of making a similar decision. Thanks.

Re:I'm here

[teidou]

Will purely physical objects be of potential interest?

Re:I'm here

[Bruce Perens]

eBooks and tablets are a relatively new phenomenon, but lots of folks have them. PDF works well offline, for these devices, and is well-supported by Free Software as well. I haven't learned the specialized eBook file formats yet.

I tried this on a blog a while back, that is part of what technocrat.net was supposed to be for. What I found was that I was talking with the same 30 people all of the time. And there were maybe 3000 to 5000 regular readers at best.

There's also differentiation - I don't want this to be "just another blog".

And it seems that there is a history for technical journals being in print, and a more recent history of them being open publication. So, I am trying to do something that people who submit papers, and their bosses are used to. I have sometimes, working in academia, been asked to produce a list of my own publications. They seem to take the journal stuff more seriously than the blog stuff.

Re:I'm here

[Bruce Perens]

Sure. Someone, I know, has been working on Open designs for the 50 basic tools for civilization - tractors and plows and stuff. As long as the plans for them are under an Open Hardware license, we're interested in papers about them.

Re:I'm here

[jonbryce]

I find pdf doesn't work that well on a small screen. Either you design the pdf for A6 sized paper, which doesn't look so good printed on A4 or on my 24" desktop screen, or you end up with something on your portable device that is either too small to read or requires lots of sideways scrolling. Maybe you should do the journal in something like docbook format, and use that to generate pdfs and ebook files.

Re:I'm here

[QuasiSteve]

Go figure - while I posted that, the page was updated with some further internal links (besides just the journal). My question regarding the name ("Open Hardware" vs "Open Source Hardware") is partially answered in:
http://wiki.openhardware.org/Project:Constitution

Re:I'm here

[ciotog]

I would assume you're referring to Open Source Ecology: http://opensourceecology.org/

Re:I'm here

[Christopher_Olah]

Bruce isn't the only person from OHJ here :) I'm Christopher Olah, the author of the "Producing Lenses with 3D Printers" article.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about my article, surfcad, ImplicitCAD, Malthus, 3D printed vacuum cleaners, and any questions about my other projects or 3D printing in general.

Re:I'm here

[Bruce Perens]

Are you going to focus on things that are actually worthy, or will it be nothing but nonsense about 3D printing?

FIrst, if I am not mistaken the RepRap guys want to be copied.

However, I have also taken the RepRap guys to task for overstating what their system can do. I have a slide in my current talk about Open Hardware regarding the fact that you absolutely can't print a makerbot with a makerbot. Only some of the plastic parts.

I also hate going to Eric Drexler's talks, because so much about nanotech still doesn't work. I am with you on that.

I can't do much about folks who only read the headline, they're rampant on Slashdot. But if you read the article, I think the guy worked very hard to explain that printers can't even approach optical precision right now, and he showed that his current lenses are only good for colliminating flashlight illumination rather than manipulating images. I found his technique to be innovative, I would not have thought of making lenses at all with the current state of the art. And the real point is that extruders will get better, and we'll be able to use these techniques to go to next steps when they do. IMO, it was the most scientific paper in that issue. And he did show that his result was, to a great extent, a failure.

It sounds like there's going to be enough content to balance out the 3D stuff to everyone's satisfaction.

Re:I'm here

[Bruce Perens]

Why did you create a new logo - wouldn't it be better to share your efforts with http://www.openhardwaresummit.org/

The main reasons for creating yet another logo are:

• We need a controlled-use logo for use in enforcing Open Hardware licenses where copyright is insufficient. The gear logo has already had too much uncontrolled use.
• The gear logo is reminiscent of the OSI logo. But only us insiders will know about OSI. It's not so useful in giving an idea about Open Hardware to outsiders. Marketing programs like this should, of course, be outward-facing.
• Am I the only one who has a problem with OSI? :-)
• The chip-and-lock logo is language-independent. It says something without words, which the gear logo doesn't quite do.
• The chip-and-lock logo is more position-independent than the gear logo. But not perfect. Many of the objects we would put it upon do not have a preferred orientation.

Mr?

[oldhack]

Hey! When did Bruce become Mr. Perens in these parts?

Re:Mr?

[Bruce Perens]

That made me smile too. In academic circles I keep getting called Dr. Perens, sorry no Ph.D. I'm also called "K6BP" a lot.

Re:Mr?

[Ethanol-fueled]

No, as somebody who works in that field, we would call 'em "tethered ROVs (remotely operated underwater vehicles)."

By the way, this is what a real one looks like. Notice the big cord sticking out of the top.

Here's come constructive criticism of the journal itself. Bruce, you listenin'? In the 3d printer section, details are given on how to write the parabola. The other articles seem to be glorified links to sites. Is the journal meant to be instructional, or just a showcase, or both? I for one would love to see more detailed information on how to, for example, modify the ROV's sensors to determine the distance to the bottom based on the time-amplitude of pulses, or to program stepper motors so that one could run a "race" untethered. I understand that not all of us are technical people, however we should keep it at a level above Dick and Jane.

Another gripe I personally don't care about, but others might, is that the USB guy gives a disclaimer saying, "Well, it's not completely free, but deal with it." It's sure to annoy all the mouth-breathing purists.

One more question, Bruce - I've designed an automatic waterpipe(informally known as a "bong") utilizing a pump and some valves. Will you be willing to print it despite its controversy?

Many thanks for your answers, if you provide some.

Re:Mr?

[Bruce Perens]

An Open Hardware bong. Well, when I was in Tunis, they had a hashish bar in the middle of the shopping mall. And you can use it for tobacco, and there do seem to be legitimate pipe joints around here (San Francisco Bay Area) with tobacco in bongs. So, yes, but it would have to be a good paper. Not just "here's my design and I dare you". You'd have to find something interesting to say.

I intend to get a paper selection committee together. Hopefully by issue 4. Right now, I'm it, but that doesn't generally get respect for journals.

It is a fact that most papers will be "documentation of practice" rather than scientific experiments. That's just the nature of the field. But we aren't trying to get down to anyone's level, there's already Make magazine if you want the Popular Mechanics of the movement.

Licensing - copyleft?

[femto]

What are the current licensing options for open hardware? Has anyone found a "copyleft" equivalent?

About a decade ago, this issue was discussed at length on the OpenCores mailing lists. At the time, the best we (engineers) could come up with was that the design documents/files could be copyrighted and so GPLd, but there was no way to oblige that a physical device be distributed with design data.

It seemed to be okay for someone to take a design, make secret modifications, build it and distributed a physical product that could not be replicated. The obligation to share modifications only kicked in when the GPLd design data was distributed, not when the physical product was distributed. Is this the case, or has a real legal mind figured out that we were wrong?

Re:Licensing - copyleft?

[Bruce Perens]

I like The TAPR Open Hardware License. But yes, there is a problem that Hardware Isn't Generally Copyrightable. We can deal with the problem by using contract law, sometimes, and imperfectly, and by embedding copyrightable and trademarked content. I have a proposal for this that I've not finished yet, I'll try to get it up on the Open Hardware wiki soon.

Re:Licensing - copyleft?

[AndreyFilippov]

We at Elphel are now using the new CERN OHL ( http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cernohl/wiki ) and believe it is the closest to GNU GPL we are using fro the sofware

Fab lab network

[dirvine]

Hey Bruce (do you mind if I just stick to Bruce :-) ), well done and congrats
I have been a wee bit involved in the fab lab network (born in MIT by Neil Gershenfeld), it's a really cool network of 'labs' which are basically small buildings with some 3d manufacturing equipment, printers and enough 'stuff' to allow people to make anything they can dream of. One of the goals is to spread the designs to other labs around the world.
1: To me it would seem this effort you are now involved in could act as a catalyst to bring this and the (seemingly) many other open hardware initiatives together, do you agree?
2: I also watched a video on TED about open source cancer research (from Boston, still on front page) and note the open publication efforts currently being touted. Do you not think there is an opportunity for a Open X network (X == everything) ?
In essence, do you think there is a possibility of momentum towards a new world here, where research and innovation in all areas take centre stage and move us all along at the pace mankind can move along? (I am thinking of the mass unrest with the way everything is and the apparent move towards a change, I feel we need a catalyst and somebody has to do it. I for instance have donated all my shares in a business I have been building for more than 5 years to a charity for innovation and education and the rest to the staff of the business, I know there is need for change and I constantly look for ways to actually do it, something more than 'rooftop shouting').
Is there a chance here to stimulate a new movement, a slow and focussed movement with real thought behind it ?

Re:Fab lab network

[Bruce Perens]

1: To me it would seem this effort you are now involved in could act as a catalyst to bring this and the (seemingly) many other open hardware initiatives together, do you agree?

Well, not just bring projects together, but avoid some of the mistakes we made with Open Source. Like have "recommended" licenses, with the recommended set really small, so we don't have the problem of 80 licenses accepted by the Open Source Initiative and no "recommended" list because we can't dis-recommend a license without offending someone. And not start out by building a schism between Free Software and Open Source. I could rant about all of the things that went wrong for a while...

We could use good videos for smart people. The coverage we have so far panders to a lowest common denominator of viewers. I'd be delighted if someone was able to make better videos. If I tried to do it, though, it would eat all of my time.

Yes, we definitely want to stimulate a new movement, and put both thought and experience into it.

Does 'hardware' extend to FPGAs and the like

[fatphil]

Being almost entirely a softie, I've often been tempted to take some of my embarassingly parallel mass evaluations (e.g. board evaluations in games, or number-theoretic applications) onto a large array of tiny slaves on an FPGA. However, I've get to find a comfortable route into that field. Will the OHJ be heading into that middle ground? And with the skin-flint newb in mind?

Re:Does 'hardware' extend to FPGAs and the like

[Bruce Perens]

Get a book on Verilog and VHDL, and a Papilio One. $50 for 250K gates. There's a 500K gate model for $75.

Alas, the software is mostly proprietary but at least low-or-zero cost. We will eventually get Open Hardware gate-arrays, but we're not there yet.

Re:Does 'hardware' extend to FPGAs and the like

[femto]

VHDL Cookbook is a good, though dated, intro.

Use ghdl to learn vhdl, without the need to have hardware, as it compiles VHDL to an executable. Icarus is similar, but for Verilog. gEDA has good tools, including the gtkwave waveform viewer. Combined, ghdl, Icarus and gtkwave are a pretty useful simulation suite. You can go a long way with simulation, since the normal design flow is to get the system 100% using simulation, then as a last step program the FPGA with maximal probability of it just working. As Bruce said, the actual partition, place and route tools are proprietary and specific to each FPGA vendor, and a google search will come up with a number of cheap FPGA boards.

Keep an eye on left field though. There is a convergence in progress between desktop CPU's, GPU's, parallel systems and FPGAs (which can be seen as an array of massively parallel simple processors). One day all I wrote may be obsolete and you will be able to program your FPGA in CUDA, or whatever results when mainstream programming figures out how to handle parallel systems properly.

Re:LibreOffice

[Christopher_Olah]

Hey, I'm the author to the article "Producing Lenses With 3D Printers". It was originally in LaTeX and I think it looked a lot better that way. You can get the original PDF of it here .

I'd be happy to answer any questions about it, surfcad, ImplicitCAD, Malthus, 3D printed vacuum cleaners, or any questions about my projects or 3D printing in general.

(Essentially resubmitting my previous anonymous comment since I reset the login for this account and no one sees Anonymous Coward posts.)

Re:Sad Microsoft bashing

[Bruce Perens]

What the Motorola embedded software was doing about its preferred brand of battery was sufficiently similar to what media copy-protection does. These things are always software, with only as much hardware as it takes to implement to them. Now that Windows 8 will insist on UEFI, we're seeing something very similar to the Motorola hardware platform and its manufacturer-interest-enforcing embedded software.

When we say Open platform, it really means a vendor willing to sell hardware without locking down the software in it.

Re:Sad Microsoft bashing

[Bruce Perens]

Vista's media protection was intrusive. Going back farther, you might remember copy protection dongles. I sincerely would put both of those things in the same bag with the Motorola battery lock and its failure in this case, the stupid way my HP printer is programmed to behave once I reload ink in its reservoirs, and the need to jailbreak an iPhone. They are all instances of the software placing someone else's agenda above that of the customer.

A proper DTP app will eventually be needed

[UBfusion]

As the Journal is evolving, you'll find that simple applications like Libre Office simply are not flexible enough. Please consider (the sooner the better) migrating the workflow towards Scribus (http://www.scribus.net) - it's Desktop Publishing - oriented, open source and the best FOSS tool for the job.

Also, as a former DTP pro, I'd recommend producing two versions of the journal - one that's meant to be read on paper, and (at least) one meant to be read on-screen. The present form of the Journal is a hybrid and does not suit everybody. Having a low and high quality download doesn't solve the problem.

Finally, before making decisions for the screen-only version, you could administer a poll to see what screen size is the majority of readers using. Formatting the Journal for 15" is very different from formatting it for 9". Perhaps a HTML version (where users can adjust the font size at will) is a better solution than the fixed-font-size PDF format. Probably the commenter above that suggested a blog format had this problem in the back of his mind.

EPUB should be your e-book format of choice.

[sgtrock]

Homepage for the EPUB standard.

Why do I recommend EPUB so highly? Besides the fact that it's an open standard, that is? ;) Well, Wikipedia has a good comparison chart of e-book formats versus the e-book readers that are covered. It shows that the only format with a broader range is straight text. (Yes, it even beats out PDF and HTML.)

There is a plug-in available for OO.o and LO called Writer2ePub that will save directly to EPUB, btw. The main support channel is through a MobileRead forum.

May I suggest that you spend some time browsing MobileRead before making any final decisions? In particular, I would like to call your attention to the Calibre, Sigil, and OpenInkpot forums.

Next, there is a package called eLyXer which does a pretty good job of converting LyX files to XHTML. EPUB relies heavily on a subset of XHTML as part of its specification so I've been experimenting with a new toolchain.

I write my documents in LyX to get good looking PDFs, then use eLyXer to get XHTML, then use the import/convert function of Calibre to get a good looking EPUB, then use Sigil to fine tune the final output. Since both eLyXer and the e-book conversion utility packaged as part of Calibre can be called from the command line, it would be possible to automate some of that work pretty easily. I haven't bothered with that as my needs are only for occasional use at the moment.

Another alternative would be to just write the journal in Sigil. That would probably mean abandoning PDFs and paper output entirely, though.

P.S. How come you didn't have an article focussing on Arduino in your initial issue??