The State of Open Source Hardware In 2008 88
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.
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]
Better Headline: (Score:2, Informative)
"The state of Arduino hardware in 2008"
Re:no USRP? is this a joke? (Score:3, Informative)
opencores is at the bottom in the pending/others section (it's being added, this is not a static list).
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.
Re:Patent Encumberance (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 important, but if it's publicized well, others might not make the same mistake. We call this "learning."
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.