A gentle intro to Open Source Hardware with some pointers and ideas. Talk given in the Taipei Hackerspace.

1. Introduction to
Open Source Hardware
Taipei Hackerspace - 2016 February 19
Gergely Imreh
https://gergely.imreh.net

2. Open Sources

3. Only something that’
s transformed before
use can be “open
source”. (duh)

4. Some Notable
Open Source
Hardware
Projects

5. Arduino
Check Eagle for source code!

6. RepRap 3D printer

7. Olimex

8. BeagleBone Black

9. Novena (Bunnie Huang)
https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena

10. Thinking behind
OSHW

11. Why to do open source hardware?
● User trust, mindshare
● Community support
● Getting good developers
● Building an ecosystem
● Maintainability, sustainability
● ….

12. Why NOT to do open source hardware?
● Protecting IP
● Hiding imperfections in design
● Not caring or not know about the possibility
● Not liking to be held to a high standard
● ….

13. The tools and
ecosystem

14. Open Tools (some)
Electronics:
KiCad http://kicad-pcb.org/
Mechanical:
FreeCAD http://www.freecadweb.org/
OpenSCAD http://www.openscad.org/

15. Project Sharing
● Hackster.io https://www.hackster.io/
● Hackaday.io http://hackaday.io/
● Seeed Studio Recipe http://www.
seeedstudio.com/recipe/
● Thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/

16. PCB / Electronics Making
● OSH Park http://oshpark.com/
● Seeed Studio FusionPCB http://www.
seeedstudio.com/service/index.php?r=pcb
● Dirt Cheap PCBs http://dirtypcbs.com/
● Circuithub https://circuithub.com/
● Marcofab http://macrofb.net/

17. Commercial
Tindie https://www.tindie.com/
Sparkfun http://sparkfun.com/
Adafruit https://www.adafruit.com/

18. Some
practicalities

19. Licenses to Consider
Creative Commons (CC-BY)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
CERN Open Hardware License
http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cernohl/wiki
…

20. A Usual Development Process
● Put all code in version control, e.g git
● Bill of Materials (BOM)
● Create Plenty of Documentation
○ Hackpad, Wiki, nice PDF…
● Start building a project community

21. Q&A

22. Open Source Hardware around the World
Mostly EU/US thing?
China: every hardware is “open” source
shanzhai spirit 山寨
Spreading with the maker movement

23. How to contribute if not technical?
● Feedback, lots of feedback
● Contribute design
● Use, learn, develop
● Do other creative projects to create culture
of openness