you "can" make it, you're just not legally allowed to use it in the USA - there are a few open source hardware projects, well, at least one that is like that... the open source cell jammer - the wave bubble.
good question, i think many folks in the open source hardware communities seem to agree that what tools are used to make the schematics do not matter so much. you can use windows XP to draw a schematic, it's about the information and licensing more than anything else. there isn't a free/open format for PCB files that everyone agrees on yet but anything can be re-created if it needed to be as long as the maker puts the information out there.
as far as "who" defines open source hardware - that's a good question too. right now there isn't a single agreed upon person or entity. TAPR defines OSH, makers themselves define OSH, it seems like the biggest differences are non-commercial and commercial uses by some of the makers. creative commons is in all this too.
i don't think it matters to get to hung up on a who yet, it's still early - just a few years ago there were only a few projects and now their are over 65... arduino shipped over 60,000 units - it's impressive but just a start.
i've sent emails to the address on the gEDA site in the past asking about the project but didn't get a response, can you drop me a note - i really like the project and would like to cover it in MAKE (more). it's one of the best projects out there in this space and i'd like to get the word out more.
opencores are at the bottom of the list in the pending / other section. some folks claim they don't below on a list like the one we have, others think they should be - so they're there and it's open up to debate. the fpga stuff is a lot of fun and we're seeing more projects.
hey davo, i wrote this guide. while there are a lot of arduino projects there are more non-arduino projects. there is a lot going on in the arduino space but it's not fair to ignore all the others in the list: x0xb0x, tvbgone, fuzebox, minimig, openmoko, daisy mp3 player... etc etc.
while there are a lot of arduino projects there are dozens of projects that have nothing to do with arduino... chumby, buglabs, spokepov, x0xb0x, openmoko, tvbgone, fusebox...
the "new" part of this is the ability to use it for commercial use and the projects are things that many people can make at home. usually semiconductors are harder to make at home and there are commercial use restrictions on designs.
all that being said, there will be an addition guide to "open hardware" and these are things that have similar "openness" with specific licensing (usually non-commercial use only).
hi anon - it's me, phil torrone from MAKE magazine - you can look at my/. profile, google or the make site.
as far as the kit goes, the parents that talk to me say that their kids build these kits, get excited about electronics and turn off their tvs in their homes as well as at their friend's houses.
it's an electronics kit, i've seens thousands of kids make these and later their parents tell me that their kids want to be engineers. it's hard to know what will "spark" a kid's mind to get excited about doing things like engineering, but this is one of them.
they posted the files the same time they released the latest arduino.
the freeduino project is very cool, they've made their own and a lot of folks use them, i'm not sure why you're suggesting they're wasting their time. they've added new things, changes, etc - they just didn't license the arduino name.
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.
hey superbanana - i'm phil from MAKE i submitted the story and what you're saying is not accurate. i'll do my best to address your comments.
1. Arduinio is open source, anyone can make them and they released all the files. just check the site you'll see all the downloads, if you can't find them email me.
2. the *name* is trademarked, this is likely the confusion. you can make Arduino clones all you want in china, you just can't call them Arduino. just like you can make other versions of Firefox but you can't call yours Firefox.
3. as far as ladyada goes, the art project you're referring to at MIT never got her punished or "in trouble with the law".
4. lastly, the tv-b-gone is also used to turn TVs on, that's how it works.
this is now fixed, vimeo tells me that their videos sometimes do that if the sound is 48khz, so we changed it to 44khz and it's fine now, plays to the end, thanks for catching that.
just because everyone is doing something like making jokes about women doesn't mean it's ok - why not be positive?
if you want to see more diversity here, why not encourage it?
why should someone need to be "resistant" to sexist jokes? i suppose any ethnic group or gender could get used to any amount of teasing, but why should it be that way? it's 2008 - maybe time to change?
@DarKlajid - when women give examples of why they're not so interested in being part of a community like this, or even go in to the technical fields your comment about a "geek girl that doesn't know how to screw" pretty much symbolizes why. i realize it's a joke, it's just not that funny. to joke like that and then say it's fake to discount her ability as an engineer would make any person steer away from putting themselves out there to be made fun of.
yes, it's a joke. i don't take it seriously, it's easier that way. something to think about, each one of us can be the change we want to see in the world...
the screw needed to be loosened before it could hold the clips for the phone (i edited this and cut it short). limor isn't an actor, she's an engineer - follow the links and you'll see all of her projects and work.
arduino is a good suggestion, i'd also say the online (or print) versions of MAKE. in addition to skill building sections like soldering, making PCBs we also have 4 volumes that come out per year with tons of electronics articles.
http://www.makezine.com/
(i'm the senior editor)...
the article is over 5+ pages with a lot of details on making something (http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol04/?pg=124&pm=2&u1=friend) - while the author didn't post the data sheets he used an analogy and explained it to do the project, that's what most folks want, at least for this type of article - for more details we usually the companion pages on MAKE, the forums and additional articles we refer to. part of a project like this is a little reverse engineering from an amateur who is ok with exploring things too - regardless, sorry we didn't live up to your expectations.
it's a start, it's hard to really force people not to use PDFs, since it's a schematic that can be reproduced fairly easily since it's a picture with nothing "hidden" it's not the end of the world. for PCBs,.brd files are one of the formats used or images - not ideal yet (see the caveats in the article) but a start...
wait what? really software we make, templates and hardware jigs - i guess you'll just need to watch and see. the how-tos, material settings, everything you can't "get" without paying will be available.
since you created the "open source" of all this, where is it?
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you "can" make it, you're just not legally allowed to use it in the USA - there are a few open source hardware projects, well, at least one that is like that... the open source cell jammer - the wave bubble.
good question, i think many folks in the open source hardware communities seem to agree that what tools are used to make the schematics do not matter so much. you can use windows XP to draw a schematic, it's about the information and licensing more than anything else. there isn't a free/open format for PCB files that everyone agrees on yet but anything can be re-created if it needed to be as long as the maker puts the information out there.
as far as "who" defines open source hardware - that's a good question too. right now there isn't a single agreed upon person or entity. TAPR defines OSH, makers themselves define OSH, it seems like the biggest differences are non-commercial and commercial uses by some of the makers. creative commons is in all this too.
i don't think it matters to get to hung up on a who yet, it's still early - just a few years ago there were only a few projects and now their are over 65... arduino shipped over 60,000 units - it's impressive but just a start.
i've sent emails to the address on the gEDA site in the past asking about the project but didn't get a response, can you drop me a note - i really like the project and would like to cover it in MAKE (more). it's one of the best projects out there in this space and i'd like to get the word out more.
opencores are at the bottom of the list in the pending / other section. some folks claim they don't below on a list like the one we have, others think they should be - so they're there and it's open up to debate. the fpga stuff is a lot of fun and we're seeing more projects.
hey davo, i wrote this guide. while there are a lot of arduino projects there are more non-arduino projects. there is a lot going on in the arduino space but it's not fair to ignore all the others in the list: x0xb0x, tvbgone, fuzebox, minimig, openmoko, daisy mp3 player... etc etc.
these are all really cool projects too.
minimig is towards the end.. pending/others section.
opencores is at the bottom in the pending/others section (it's being added, this is not a static list).
while there are a lot of arduino projects there are dozens of projects that have nothing to do with arduino... chumby, buglabs, spokepov, x0xb0x, openmoko, tvbgone, fusebox...
the schematics are here... it's a tough project to make "from scratch" but it's possible...
http://downloads.openmoko.org/schematics/
the "new" part of this is the ability to use it for commercial use and the projects are things that many people can make at home. usually semiconductors are harder to make at home and there are commercial use restrictions on designs.
all that being said, there will be an addition guide to "open hardware" and these are things that have similar "openness" with specific licensing (usually non-commercial use only).
silab is great, they make excellent stuff - but they're not through-hole and what i think folks would consider "diy" - they're more of a pro market.
that said, i could see people moving from arduino to silabs as they outgrown arduinos.
bassman, if you want - send me an email and write up something on them, we'll post it up on MAKE!
++ agree.
hi anon - it's me, phil torrone from MAKE magazine - you can look at my /. profile, google or the make site.
as far as the kit goes, the parents that talk to me say that their kids build these kits, get excited about electronics and turn off their tvs in their homes as well as at their friend's houses.
it's an electronics kit, i've seens thousands of kids make these and later their parents tell me that their kids want to be engineers. it's hard to know what will "spark" a kid's mind to get excited about doing things like engineering, but this is one of them.
(phil from MAKE magazine)
SuperBanana - if you're still implying that the arduino files are not available here is the link.
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardDuemilanove
they posted the files the same time they released the latest arduino.
the freeduino project is very cool, they've made their own and a lot of folks use them, i'm not sure why you're suggesting they're wasting their time. they've added new things, changes, etc - they just didn't license the arduino name.
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.
hey superbanana - i'm phil from MAKE i submitted the story and what you're saying is not accurate. i'll do my best to address your comments.
1. Arduinio is open source, anyone can make them and they released all the files. just check the site you'll see all the downloads, if you can't find them email me.
2. the *name* is trademarked, this is likely the confusion. you can make Arduino clones all you want in china, you just can't call them Arduino. just like you can make other versions of Firefox but you can't call yours Firefox.
3. as far as ladyada goes, the art project you're referring to at MIT never got her punished or "in trouble with the law".
4. lastly, the tv-b-gone is also used to turn TVs on, that's how it works.
this is now fixed, vimeo tells me that their videos sometimes do that if the sound is 48khz, so we changed it to 44khz and it's fine now, plays to the end, thanks for catching that.
just because everyone is doing something like making jokes about women doesn't mean it's ok - why not be positive? if you want to see more diversity here, why not encourage it? why should someone need to be "resistant" to sexist jokes? i suppose any ethnic group or gender could get used to any amount of teasing, but why should it be that way? it's 2008 - maybe time to change?
@DarKlajid - when women give examples of why they're not so interested in being part of a community like this, or even go in to the technical fields your comment about a "geek girl that doesn't know how to screw" pretty much symbolizes why. i realize it's a joke, it's just not that funny. to joke like that and then say it's fake to discount her ability as an engineer would make any person steer away from putting themselves out there to be made fun of. yes, it's a joke. i don't take it seriously, it's easier that way. something to think about, each one of us can be the change we want to see in the world...
the screw needed to be loosened before it could hold the clips for the phone (i edited this and cut it short). limor isn't an actor, she's an engineer - follow the links and you'll see all of her projects and work.
arduino is a good suggestion, i'd also say the online (or print) versions of MAKE. in addition to skill building sections like soldering, making PCBs we also have 4 volumes that come out per year with tons of electronics articles. http://www.makezine.com/ (i'm the senior editor)...
the article is over 5+ pages with a lot of details on making something (http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol04/?pg=124&pm=2&u1=friend) - while the author didn't post the data sheets he used an analogy and explained it to do the project, that's what most folks want, at least for this type of article - for more details we usually the companion pages on MAKE, the forums and additional articles we refer to. part of a project like this is a little reverse engineering from an amateur who is ok with exploring things too - regardless, sorry we didn't live up to your expectations.
it's a start, it's hard to really force people not to use PDFs, since it's a schematic that can be reproduced fairly easily since it's a picture with nothing "hidden" it's not the end of the world. for PCBs, .brd files are one of the formats used or images - not ideal yet (see the caveats in the article) but a start...
send a note, we're posting it all.
wait what? really software we make, templates and hardware jigs - i guess you'll just need to watch and see. the how-tos, material settings, everything you can't "get" without paying will be available. since you created the "open source" of all this, where is it?