Slashdot Log In
The State of Open Source Hardware In 2008
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sat Nov 29, 2008 01:15 PM
from the time-to-pick-a-winter-project dept.
from the time-to-pick-a-winter-project dept.
ptorrone writes "MAKE Magazine has put together their 3rd annual 'State of Open Source Hardware 2008' — in just a few years, the number of projects has grown from a small handful to an amazing 60+ offerings. Similar to open source software, open source hardware is available with source code, schematics, firmware and bills of materials, and allows commercial use. The most popular project, Arduino, the open source prototyping platform for artists and engineers, has shipped over 60,000 units."
The article is formatted such that the first link for a particular device will usually take you to the project home page. Some will bring you instead to where you can purchase the items, but most still have a "How To" tab which will direct you to guides and instructions on how to build your own gadgets. There are a bunch of interesting devices, from the Game of Life on the outside of a cube to a home-made MP3 player to OpenMoko.
Related Stories
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Just in time (Score:1, Offtopic)
(sorry, I couldn't help myself...)
Testing the waters, won't last if we don't act (Score:2, Interesting)
Companies, in a never-ending pursuit of getting our money, are only testing the water. If we don't BUY products for Linux these companies will drop us like a hot potato. There is no "open source = freedom" to make-a-buck companies, only bottom lines.
What's new? (Score:4, Interesting)
So what's new with 'open source hardware'?
I work in a semiconductor company and we got lots of designs including schematics board layouts firmware and BOMs, other companies do the same thing.
The point is of course to sell our devices by having customers using our designs, but the point is that there are lots of free designs out there, and they have been made available for many years not just the last few as it has been stated in the article.
Re: (Score:2)
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).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not new either. You can't copyright a circuit (you can copyright artwork, like PCB layouts and schematics, and possibly patent novel designs) - so any published design that's not patent encumbered can be made and used commercially if so desired. If you publish a schematic, you can't go and put restrictions on the design like "non commercial only" because the circuit itself isn't copyrightable.
Re: (Score:2)
I can assure you that our designs are absolutely available for commercial use. That is the entire purpose. We release freely and unencumbered reference designs using components we sell.
These designs (usually called appnotes) are specifically made to ease the design-in for a commercial user.
I can't imagine why a semiconductor vendor would release reference designs with limitations on commercial usage. Commercial usage is what we make a living of.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What's new? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Whats wrong with a Ardunino?
Ok its probably too big for your use.
You can however take the chip the arduino uses (or a similar model), and use it standalone without the USB and power regulator stuff you dont need..
Re:What's new? (Score:4, Informative)
You've never played with a Arduino obviously.
I've got three of them. Very nifty.
Actually its not the Arduino its self which is great.
Its the ATtiny and ATmega processors from Atmel which seriously kick ass.
Little chips which you can wire up in 5 mins, run at 20mhz and Atmel has very thoughtfully provided patches to GCC.
You program them with standard C/C++ on any OS you can name and its all open source.
The Arduino builds upon that.
Parent
OpenMoko? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:OpenMoko? (Score:5, Informative)
the schematics are here... it's a tough project to make "from scratch" but it's possible...
http://downloads.openmoko.org/schematics/ [openmoko.org]
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You cant make it yourself, the schematics for the GSM radio portion are not there (because of the FCC etc, its illegal to operate a GSM radio that hasn't been approved by the FCC).
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
http://geda.seul.org/ [seul.org] looks interesting as a solution to the $1000+ software. I'm not sure if it's capable of doing what you ask with openmoko, but I'm sure it can work with many projects. The conversion and debugging would be a labour of love for a hobbyist which would negate many of the associated costs, and once one hobbyist shares it, the gap disappears. Can't you just be happy that the potential is there, even if it costs $25,000? Designing from scratch would entail a far greater cost.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
>You need files showing how the wires are routed on the pcb (assuming you're going to modify it somehow, why else would you go to all this trouble?). Oh and by the way you need > $1000 software to generate the files you'll send to manufacture the pcb
You clearly know nothing on the subject.
Go google "EagleCad"
>And after you do that you'll have to locate and buy each of those components on the board, assuming they'll even sell you > 10 of them at a time
Go google "Farnell" or "Digikey"
>And after
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
>smds: what's your solutions for bgas?
I don't use them. I use my brain and my engineer's instinct to design something without them.
Signal integrity - yes, you need that if design very high frequency circuits, but that doesn't discount the whole bloody exercise. There are *many* more circuits that can be designed with hi
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, can you build _any_ cell phone from parts you purchase yourself? It's as open as it can be...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But that's the same with software, too - not everyone can build Linux. Doesn't mean it's not open.
Re: (Score:2)
http://downloads.openmoko.org/schematics/ [openmoko.org]
http://downloads.openmoko.org/CAD/ [openmoko.org]
There isn't much point, in the case of a device loaded with fiddly SMD parts of dubious hobbyist availability, to assembling one yourself; but they don't seem to have any interest in stopping you. Beagleboard is in a similar position. If you want one, it'll be loads cheaper to just buy one from somebody who builds them in bulk; but they won't stop you from producing them, if you feel like it.
Re: (Score:2)
Its quite interesting from a educational standpoint anyway to see how a complex gadget like that works.
Great Read (Score:2, Funny)
I can't wait for the 4th annual 'State of Open Source Hardware 2008'!
Better Headline: (Score:2, Informative)
"The state of Arduino hardware in 2008"
Re: (Score:2)
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...
Re: (Score:2)
Let's have the basics first (Score:2)
I am waiting for the time we'll have a near perfect Open Source Printer...fully functional with drivers and everything.
If this ever materialize, I will be happy not to have to dole out money firms like HP, DELL and Lexmark that only cater for their bottom line and nothing else.
Am I reasonable to expect this?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Am I reasonable to expect this?
Not if you expect to buy a complex bit of hardware like a colour laser printer for a few hundred bucks.
These things are subsidized by the sale of cartridges (which is why a new, consumer, laser printer often costs less than a set of cartridges) - hard to do if your design is "open source" - and rely on the economies of scale of mass production and custom-made parts (very expensive to tool up, but low marginal costs). Even so, the store that sells it to you probably only makes a profit if you buy a $20 USB
MiniMig (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
minimig is towards the end.. pending/others section.
open source hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
I read this exact same article the other day. Only at that time, it only listed the Arduino and it's progeny along with a couple of related projects.
In particular, I'm happy to see the x0xb0x [ladyada.net] make it to the list. The x0x is one piece of open hardware that doesn't nearly get enough attention. It's a perfect clone of the Roland TB-303 analog synthesizer which spawned an entire musical genre and left its impression on electronica in general. The parts list, build instructions, schematics, and board layouts are all open and free and there's an active community [ladyada.net] supporting and hacking it.
I consider the x0xb0x to be the perfect example of how to successfully translate the ideals of open source software to hardware hacking.
Re: (Score:2)
Ill just leave this here.... [ladyada.net]
RepRap (Score:3, Interesting)
The RepRap [reprap.org] is interesting here - not just as an open source hardware project in itself, but in that the ability to easily reproduce arbitrary shaped plastic widgets could make other "open source" hardware a bit less clunky.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't forget Opencores & FPGA (Score:2)
Probably not as practicable, but isn't http://opencores.org/ [opencores.org] kinda missing from this list.
Also, a lot of fun to be had with FPGA-based boards (http://www.fpga4fun.com/ [fpga4fun.com], http://hackaday.com/2008/05/22/fpga-projects-roundup/ [hackaday.com])
Re: (Score:2)
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.
ARM7 JTAG (Score:3, Interesting)
I've done ARM7 development in the past. I've just started a new ARM7 project after a four year hiatus. What seems to have changed the most is the availability of cheap hardware debug tools such as cheap FTDI FT2232 based JTAG pods.
I'm also interested to see what comes of Eclipse's DSDP initiative.
http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/dsdp-charter.php [eclipse.org]
I've always thought the Balkanization of the debug hardware was one of the major barriers in the wider circulation of open hardware.
Concerning the Adweebo, I've programmed this chip before using the free download (for Windows) AVR Studio. What an amazing tool. Despite the AVR having a dedicated hardware call stack, this thing can't even display a call stack.
Nor can it display local variables for call frames up the stack. The upshot of this is that if you have a complicated protocol subroutine that calls get_byte() which blocks waiting for the next byte of input from USART or SPI/TWI (as slave), then whenever you break the program (yes, you must break the program for AVR Studio to display *anything*) you'll inevitably end up looking at the local variables of get_byte() which won't be interesting, while all the variables you wish to inspect in the calling routine are unwatchable.
In another nod to genius, whenever you break execution under AVR Studio, it changes focus to the source code tab where the execution happens to break. Even if you just had your cursor on the variable you wished to watch, or the line of code where you wished to add a break point, neither of which can be done while the program is running. Breaking the program changes your view, and then you have to find it again among twenty or so tabs you might have open.
I've never managed to develop much proficiency with GDB. I expect my new project will finally cure that. Generally I write my code so that I don't spend time debugging at that level.
It's nice to see prebuilt packages such as Yagarto where the GDB to random JTAG-of-the-month debug interface is pre-configured, and you're not forced to invest $700 in a "professional" level debug pod to get debug features that we really ought to take for granted in this day and age.
Also, I can't sign off without coughing up a hairball to describe the modalities of the Atmel debugWire interface. Bluuurp. There, that feels better.
Patent Encumberance (Score:2, Interesting)
Is open-source hardware ever going to be a reality outside of circuit designs and/or designs for odd gizmos that are either in the public domain due to expired patents or have flown under the radar of patent trolls? Can you, for example, apply something like the GPL to "meatspace" hardware, such as an efficient solar heater? I had an idea for a solar heater that could heat water, or potentially other fluids, to temperatures in excess of 1500C, and I had wanted to create a development community for it by ope
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That is a good question. Have you checked with EFF [eff.org]? They have a lot of IP talent that might be of use for you, and this sort of thing at least sounds right up their alley.
It seems to me that at least in this type of situation, patent law as it stands prevents any number of good (and bad) ideas from being tested, tried, and released... which is to the detriment of society as a whole. We can learn from the bad ideas just as well - sometimes better - as we can from the good. Often an inventor misses something
I don't need open source hardware (Score:2)
My interest is in merely open hardware. That is, I want hardware I can use with my open source software. If the hardware is sealed, that's probably fine by me. But all OS components need to be open source (that means drivers and loadable blobs). This would apply to both attachable devices as well as whole systems (such as a phone).
That said, open source hardware is a plus, since that means there can be competition in the manufacturing processes.
Practicality first (Score:2)
Stuff like the Open Moko... It's expensive, not well designed and horribly lacking in features. I can't even build it myself. When Windows mobile and Android have a lot of leeway with software development, there's little reason for the handset.
Likewise stuff like MP3 players. I can buy a 1gig player from T
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
opencores is at the bottom in the pending/others section (it's being added, this is not a static list).
Re: (Score:2)
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 questio
Re: (Score:2)
It never seems like a project is really "open source" if you need a $1000+ piece of software to open up the design files.
I can say that two of the kits in that list (which I designed) *were* designed with gEDA and have the pcb design files released. I don't know for certain if any of the others are.
I *really* wish that there were good open source CAD tools for mechanical applications as well-- it would make a lot of other projects easier to release as fully open source.
Re: (Score:2)
this is pretty cool, can you send me an email about this / might be a nice little article for MAKE if you're up for it.