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Archive: Open source hardware

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August 6, 2007

Open source hardware kit project donates $500 to the EFF

Remember that open source hardware "Digg button"? It's a simple kit to teach soldering and basic electronics (I co-developed it with Adafruit and Digg)... and part of the goal was to donate proceeds to the EFF, the first $500 was just sent off, this might be the first time an open source hardware project sent money to someone! - Link.

• Digg button kit - Link.
• Digg the Digg button video - Link.
• Hacking a Digg button with a removable interface cable - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Aug 6, 2007 12:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 5, 2007

Defcon 15 round up

Some Defcon posts from around the web, mostly Hack a day - Joe Grand MAKE author and tech advisory board member out did himself again with this year's badges - photos and files ahead...

Defcon badge (open source hardware):

• Defcon badge hacking (Wired, photos from Dave) - Link.
• The Defcon Badge - Link.

Defcon badge files here (Make your own) - Link.

More coverage:

• Exploiting authentication systems - Link.
• Hacking EVDO - Link.
• WiCrawl from Midnight Research Labs - Link.
• Robot challenge - Link.
• Beer cooling - Link.
• Black Hat 2007 other wireless - Link.
• Black Hat 2007 AJAX - Link.
• Black Hat 2007 No-Tech Hacking with Johnny Long - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Aug 5, 2007 08:00 PM
Events, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 31, 2007

Bug labs

Bug Labs is making the blog rounds (my RSS reader has lots of "open source hardware" mentions today)... We haven't met with them and I'm not sure what they're doing or shipping yet, but if/when we do we'll post up a full report, here's a snippet from their blog about what they're up to (open source hardware maybe)...

Bug Labs is developing BUG, an open, modular, consumer electronics web services + hardware platform. Designed for the general audience, not just the technically inclined, BUG is intended to bring to the world of hardware gadgets what the Internet, open source, XML and web services have brought to the world of software and media.

...We see ourselves, our company and our product as a "bug" in the system of traditional CE; an agent for change. We want to put more power in the hands of the individual to decide what gadgets they want and what features they should include. We envision a world where CE stands for community electronics, where the long-tail of devices profitably exists and hardware mashups are as prevalent as their software counterparts.

So what is BUG exactly? It's Legos meets Web services & APIs. Imagine being able to build any gadget you wanted by simply connecting simple, functional components together. Now imagine being able to easily program, share and connect these gadgets in interesting ways. In essence, we're building an open source-based platform for programmers to build not only the applications they want but the hardware to run it on. Over the coming weeks and months I will update this blog with our latest progress. And while I used wooden blocks at the dinner last night (easier to get thru airport security!) I will show pictures of the actual products soon.

Bug Blogger - Link & site.

Sounds interesting.

For now, if you're interested in what open source hardware is, examples and some thoughts on all this we have a start here... It's all very new, very open and it's so early it's actually a lot of fun :)

• Open source hardware slides from OSCON - Link.
• Open source hardware video from OSCON - Link.
• Open source hardware ... article - Link.
• Open source hardware archive @ MAKE - Link.
• The MAKE store is one of the only places to actually buy open source hardware and support OSH - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jul 31, 2007 02:00 PM
Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 30, 2007

Open source hardware (slides)

Brian posted up the video from the OSCON (open source convention) on open source hardware so here are the slides too - Link (ZIP, Keynote slides, HTML and PDF).http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/osh/osh.zip or just the PDF here - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jul 30, 2007 04:00 PM
Events, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (7)

Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried at OSCON 2007

Click To Play

Last week, Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried presented the closing keynote, "Open Source Hardware: A Start..." at O'Reilly Media's Open Source Convention. Open source hardware is a term slowly working its way into many new projects and efforts, but what is it? There are a few definitions, some of which come from "open source software," which is usually considered software's "source code under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form." So how does this translate to hardware? This session will focus on electronic hardware, the layers they can be divided into, different document types, licensing concerns, and a show-n-tell of hardware. Video Link

Update: The slides are now available

Related

• Open source hardware, what is it? Here's a start... - Link
  
• MAKE: Blog: Open source hardware Archives - Link
  
• More OSCON videos - Link
  

Posted by Brian Jepson | Jul 30, 2007 03:00 PM
Events, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (4)

July 8, 2007

Barebones Arduino on a breadboard

Here is a truly barebones Arduino setup. Just the Arduino chip and a few support parts. This has to be close to the simplest and lowest cost way to play with microcontrollers. The only special parts are the resonator and the Mega168 programmed with the Arduino boot loader. Everything else you should already have as an electronics hobbyist.

Ardunio Breadboard - [Via] Link

Related:

• HOW TO - Arduino breadboard shield - $10 & 10 mins - Link
• Arduino ProtoShield assembly + use - Link
• HOW TO - Control your Mac from Arduino, the easy way - Link
• Arduino variant - Bare-Bones Board - Link

Posted by Gareth Branwyn | Jul 8, 2007 12:18 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (4)

July 2, 2007

Paparazzi - open source pilot system

This is interesting, an open source software/hareware autopilot project... -

Paparazzi is a free and open-source hardware and software project intended to create an exceptionally powerful and versatile autopilot system by allowing and encouraging input from the community. The project includes not only the airborne hardware and software, from voltage regulators and GPS receivers to Kalman filtering code, but also a powerful and ever-expanding array of ground hardware and software including modems, antennas, and a highly evolved user-friendly ground control software interface.

All hardware and software is open-source and freely available to anyone under the GNU licencing agreement. Efforts are currently underway to organize production and retail sales of the autopilot and popular accessories, making the system much easier and more affordable for all.

The key feature of the paparazzi autopilot is its unique combination of infrared thermopiles and inertial measurement for attitude sensing, providing a robust and accurate attitude estimate that requires no ground calibration and can recover from any launch attitude.

Main Page - Paparazzi - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jul 2, 2007 08:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 22, 2007

DMX LED dimmer

The site is in German, but it looks like there's enough to make your own LED dimmer, source and schematic included... Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jun 22, 2007 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 7, 2007

AVR Butterfly MP3 player

Update to the open source AVR Butterfly MP3 player -

A basic MP3 player using a NOKIA 3310 LCD and AVR Butterfly. Currently supports both graphical display and the original butterfly screen. Basic FAT16 support on MMC cards.

This is an open source project so contributions are most welcome. Hardware designs in Protel 2004, Protel 99 and Eagle 4.1 format. All code is compiled using GCC with avrlibc 1.2.

New firmware version 0.6. - Accurate Battery usage indication, Full FAT16 Directory Support, Serial Remote control interface.

AVR Butterfly MP3 player - Link & more.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jun 7, 2007 12:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 31, 2007

CMUcam3 - open source programmable embedded color vision platform

CMUcam3 is an open source programmable embedded color vision platform, you can get a CMUcam is a few places (listed on the site)... Including Seattle robotics...

The goal of the CMUcam project is to provide simple vision capabilities to small embedded systems in the form of an intelligent sensor. The CMUcam3 extends upon this idea by providing a flexible and easy to use open source development environment that complements a low cost hardware platform. The CMUcam3 is an ARM7TDMI based fully programmable embedded computer vision sensor. The main processor is the NXP LPC2106 connected to an Omnivision CMOS camera sensor module. Custom C code can be developed for the CMUcam3 using a port of the GNU toolchain along with a set of open source libraries and example programs. Executables can be flashed onto the board using the serial port with no external downloading hardware required.

Software - CMUcam - Trac - [via] Link & more.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | May 31, 2007 02:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 9, 2007

Open Source hardware development tool

If any makers know about this OSH dev tool, post up in the comments --

The PLAICE is a powerful open source in-circuit development tool that combines the features of: FLASH Programmer + Emulator + High Speed Multi-Channel Logic Analyzer .... All Into One Device!

flash-plaice » home - [via] Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | May 9, 2007 01:00 AM
Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 8, 2007

Building an embedded Asterisk PBX

David is doing a lot of great work with open source hardware telephony, check out the embedded Asterisk he's working on... -

The IP04 is a Four Port Embedded IP PBX that runs Asterisk. The hardware design is 100% open. I just built the first IP04 prototype (really built, as in soldered), and would like to tell you about it. This post talks about the IP04 hardware, the bring up, an explosion (!), and compares the IP04 with the Digium Asterisk Appliance.

Curiously, hardware hacking is getting cheaper and easier. For example the tools for surface mount work are reasonably cheap (a soldering iron and stereo microscope), there is plenty of free CAD software, low cost PCB fabrication, and web based components stores like Digikey.

Building an Embedded Asterisk PBX Part 3 - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | May 8, 2007 06:00 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 4, 2007

OpenSourceQuadroCopter - Open source universal video platform

Wow, add this to the list of amazing open source projects - A source universal video platform!

We`re pleased to present a tri-national project of participiants from germany, austria and switzerland.

Since 01.15.07 about 75 developers are working to establish a stabilized camera / videoplatform.

The project is Open Source!

Aside from typical quadrocopter features as following: Wolferl PROFI-UFO V3.0 MW
- easy built up kit, despite of partial SMD assembly, for everybody, who knows , where´s the hot end of the soldering-iron
- 2 additional servo-exits to adress camera functionallity ( tilt, direction)
- 7 Hi-Power LED exits - each up to 500mA
- adjustable controller-timing , 50 to 400 Hz
- ADXRS300 Gyros (Sparkfun-modules)
- progammable via RS232 oder your RC-system
- optional : linear sensor (Sparkfun LIS3LV02DQ)
- optional : automatic paracute trigger to prevent crashing
- optional : detectionbeeper and acustic low voltage warning
- optional : GPS - support

OpenSourceQuadroCopter - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | May 4, 2007 02:00 AM
Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 2, 2007

HOW TO - Laying out printed circuit boards with open-source tools

Now we're talking, Windell @ Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has a great write up of laying out printed circuit boards with open-source tools, he writes -

There has historically been, and still is, a lack of good, free MacOS native EDA (electronic design automation) software. The situation has somewhat improved in the past few years because the X11 layer in Mac OS X allows graphical unix applications to run natively on the Mac, concurrently with other programs. I recently learned to use some of these tools in the gEDA suite to lay out printed circuit boards. These (loosely, if at all, organized) notes should be helpful to anyone that wants to get started making PCBs using a mac, linux, or other unix-like system.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Laying out printed circuit boards with open-source tools - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | May 2, 2007 04:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Transformation of Manufacturing in the 21st Century

This is a really interesting overview of a lot of what's going on (small and large scale) for some makers called The Transformation of Manufacturing in the 21st Century by Lawrence J. Rhoades - The new industrial revolution will enable people to live where they like and produce what they need locally.

From open source hardware projects, 3D printers, to kits to companies like ETSY - this is good stuff.

The design freedom enabled by constructing objects in thin layers from particles with dimensions in microns will significantly reduce a product's component-parts count. This, in turn, will reduce product weight by eliminating attachment features and fasteners and optimize functionality by eliminating excess material and wasted energy. The particles that are not needed for the part produced can be recycled to become the next--maybe very different--part. The metal in older, no longer useful products can be locally recycled to become metal powder feedstock for tomorrow's production. Thus, inventory carrying costs and risks and transportation costs can be dramatically reduced, increasing savings in energy, materials, and labor. Finally, because these processes are highly automated, the size of the workforce required to produce and deliver manufactured products to the customer will be greatly reduced. Consequently, low-cost, so-called touch labor will lose its competitive advantage in the production of physical objects.

The demand for innovative product designs will expand dramatically. And, because ideas will be delivered electronically, designers can be located anywhere. As design for manufacturing becomes less important, and because design superiority will be gained principally through understanding and responding to customers' tastes, designers might want to be located near their customers.

Even if products are designed remotely, however, production will be done locally. Physical objects will be produced "at home" or "in the neighborhood" from locally recycled materials. Thus, cities will lose their economic advantage, and urban populations will be dispersed.

The Transformation of Manufacturing in the 21st Century - Link.

Related:
What is open source hardware? - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | May 2, 2007 02:00 PM
News from the Future, Open source hardware | Permalink | Comments (3)

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