Sparkfun open-sources hardware kits

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By Gareth Branwyn
Posted 2009/07/01 @ 9:34 pm
Category Open Source Hardware, Tools

Our friends over at Sparkfun have announced their decision to officially make some of their kits open source. Nathan and company have always been supporters of OSH, but now they’re going to be putting links to the engineering files up to at least some of their kits. The first is the ClockIt kit, an alarm clock kit built around the ATMega168. The listing for the kit ends with links to the Eagle files (licensed under CC v3.0 Share-Alike), the schematic, the source code, and a link to an “Improve Source Code” forum posting. Nice. “One of the great things about open source is the ability to say ‘Hey, I’m pretty sure this works, but it may not be the best way to do it. Can you help me out?,’” says Nathan Seidle.

ClockIt

In the Maker Shed

6 Responses to Sparkfun open-sources hardware kits

Phillip Torrone on July 1st, 2009 at 10:08 pm said:

this is great news, nice work sparkfun!

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Volkemon on July 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 am said:

YEAH SPARKFUN!!!

Hopefully they put the Port-O-Rotary into this open source bin too…. Jo the engineer wont have work so hard!

(See my thread at the Sparkfun site, under forum, wireless,and search “POR” or “port-o-rotary”)Link in next post.

@PT- Welcome Back!

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Michael C on July 2nd, 2009 at 3:03 am said:

Nice move. They’ve generally been fairly good about making schematics available for things they sell, but it’s even better if they’re now being clear about the licensing. I hope they will have a good mechanism to roll improvements by customers back into their product – that’s a key part of the value of open source.

I have noticed a disturbing trend at Sparkfun, though: they’re selling more modules and breakout boards without selling the components used for them. I guess that means that there isn’t a good market for the components, or perhaps that they’re too much hassle for Sparkfun to sell. Either way, it means that people who want to do something themselves need to look elsewhere. It’s less maker oriented, and more consumer oriented.

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- A. Designer on July 2nd, 2009 at 4:26 am said:
  
  I’ve noticed that too. My other problem with SF lately is that they change parts without changing the part#, link, or even making a note on the web page. One example is the microSD card socket. Very annoying for an engineering company. How can I recommend them as a source if the next person to buy the same part# gets an SD card holder that won’t fit the PCB? Grrr.
  
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scott on July 12th, 2009 at 8:13 pm said:

you guys misspelled Nathan’s last name.

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Gareth Branwyn on July 12th, 2009 at 8:49 pm said:

Oops. Fixed. Thanks! (And sorry Nathan)

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