Lots Of Links

Here are a lot of links I think are relevant to open hardware. The first is that apparently RepRap has its own magazine now!

Zero Cost Modeling of Space Frames – Julian Edgar demonstrates how to predict the failure mode of a complex frame (in this case a recumbent bicycle) without FEA software. The process involves making a scale model by soldering together copper wire then pulling on it to see where it bends or breaks. It’s a quick and easy way to see where the structure is mathematically weak.

XYZ SpaceFrame Vehicles – This is a principle for building modular bicycles and a few functional real-world examples. Here’s a pdf describing how to make one of the bicycles.

Open Source Government & Engaged Citizens: The Death Star Inspiration – Matt Micene writes, “Innovation doesn’t always result in direct business value, but can improve business in general. Innovating in the open means you can garner additional expertise you need to transform a marginal value into a direct value.”

A Guide For 3D Printing With a RepRap – ArvidJense has put together an infographic to help makers build things, specifically musical instruments, but the ideas can be applied to anything.

Someone Needs To Buy Makerbot Already – Steve Symington is talking about financial investment stuffs, but the interesting thing is that Makerbot only seems to have attracted serious financial interest after (or based on the promise of) abandoning open source principles.

Party Robotics – They are a startup focused on making open source drink mixing machines.

Using OpenSCAD for 2D Machining – Matthew Venn gives a brief overview of his process for modeling a multi-piece part in OpenSCAD and then using the projection() function to export DXFs for CNC milling.

Designing For Laser Cutting In OpenSCAD – This is a similar (but more extensive) set of instructions from a Dutch FabLab.

Make Your Own Arduino – streetjerk shows you how to put together a thru-hole Arduino from raw materials. This is particularly useful if, like streetjerk, you want to incorporate additional components (like a motor driver) into the board itself rather than use I/O ports.

Prepper Movement Embracing 3D Printing – PosserteusMaximus has compiled a list of links on how the preppers/survivalist community is becoming aware of, using and contributing to open hardware and 3D printing.

Bunnie’s Factory Tour Part 1: How To Make A BOM

Bunnie Huang posted an extensive explanation of how you’re doing your Bill Of Materials (BOM) all wrong. Here’s a taste. For the whole 5-course meal head over to his blog.

Most Makers trying to scale up quickly realize the only practical path forward is to outsource production.

Every single assumption, down to the color of the soldermask, has to be spelled out unambiguously for a third party to faithfully reproduce a design. Missing or incomplete documentation is the lead cause of production delays, defects, and cost overruns.

Here’s some of the things missing from the [typical] BOM:

• Approved manufacturer for each component
• Tolerance, material composition, and voltage spec for passive components
• Package type information for all parts
• Extended part numbers specific to each manufacturer

A complete BOM for an LED flasher also needs to include the PCB, battery, plastic case pieces, lens, screws, any labeling (for example, a serial number), a manual, and packaging (plastic bag plus cardboard box, for example). There may also need to be a master carton as a single boxed LED flasher is too small to ship on its own.

 

iFixit Literally Opens Hardware

Part of the point of open hardware is, you know, the open part. If you can’t open it, then it’s not open. iFixit tears apart popular consumer products, then rates them 1-10 based on how easy they are to work with. Apple seems to get pretty low scores (go figure) while Google seems to get pretty high scores (clips are better than glue). They also have a huge user community uploading instructions for repairing all sorts of things.

The Featherweight Book Scanner – Open Hardware by Dany Qumsiyeh

This is an open source book scanner, which is cool. But you wanna know what the coolest part is?

Okay, I’ll tell you. The coolest part is that this is an open hardware project that actually makes it easy to access not only the design of the machine but also the rationale behind the design. It’s all written up in a very approachable manner in this *.pdf. Click here for the page Google hosted the file on.

The Raspberry Pi Super Computer (With Legos)

The Raspberry Pi is a $35 single board computer.

If you network a lot of computers together you can use them like one giant computer. If you’re 6 you can hold them all together with Legos. Check out Professor Simon Cox’s group at Southampton University; they put Legos and Rasberry Pis together to form a supercomputer and documented the process so you can make one yourself (2-64+ nodes).

additional links

• liz. (12SEP2012). Wednesday grab bag. raspberrypi.org
• Simon Cox. (SEP2012). Steps to make a Raspberry Pi Supercomputer. University of Southampton
• Jon Fingas. (13SEP2012). Supercomputer built from Raspberry Pi and Lego managed by humans rather than Minifigs. engadget.com
• Tuan Mai. (21SEP2012). 64 Raspberry Pis + Legos = Supercomputer. Tom’s Hardware

 

Makerbot’s Lawyer Explains Thingiverse Terms Of Use

Apparently Makerbot’s in-house lawyer has more important things to do than explain legal jargon to the public.

In a concise and coherent post, Rich McCarthy explains how Makerbot has structured their legal relationship with Thingiverse contributors. The short of it is that they are using roughly the same terms as sites like Youtube.com, they make no claim of ownership on anything uploaded to Thingiverse, and whatever license you attach to your work (like Creative Commons) they respect.

Well…that’s it. I don’t like doing tiny posts, so here is Josef Prusa explaining how to use the “new” Makerware program with old “unsupported” Makerbot printers.

A Guide For Defeating Procrastination by Alex Vermeer

Open source revolves around The Project.

Without projects, there wouldn’t be an open source movement. If there’s no project then there’s nothing to be open about in the first place. Additionally, the projects are usually something new and interesting. That’s great for producing the motivation to finish, but a lot of the time “new and interesting” leads directly to the unknown. A learning curve, or a delay, can turn a promising project into something permanently on the back burner.

Alex Vermeer has put together a beautifully simple poster that is based on The Procrastination Equation. Basically, expectancy and value are good, impulsiveness and delay are bad, and the poster has a ton of different strategies for increasing the good and decreasing the bad.

Here’s what it looks like…

And here’s where you can download your own copy. Vermeer released it under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license for Canada.

You can also buy a physical poster here.

3D Printing Doesn’t Produce Toxic Fumes

It’s reasonable to wonder if heating up plastic until it melts releases fumes that aren’t safe to be around.

Taulman designed the 2BEIGH3, a 3D printer that converts into a 2D CNC machine. Part of his work involved printing in nylon, rather than ABS or PLA. One potential source of nylon filament are the cables that weed wackers use to chop down plants. When questioned about whether or not the process was safe to be around in an enclosed space, he designed a test procedure to find out how much, if any, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) was released by the 3D printing process.

The entire process is documented on Instructables. The short of it is that he tested several different types of ABS, and several different types of nylon, and found that the only plastic that produced any HCN was weed whacker line, and even that was only 0.1ppm (parts per million) which is significantly lower than the OSHA/NIOSH/ACGIH standard of 4.7ppm.

So, if you accept his results, there’s nothing to worry about. Taulman also has instructions for cold-rolling an oiler needle down to 0.32mm for high resolution extrusions, printable ball bearings races, and a permanent nylon coffee filter.

Science Enabled By Open Source Hardware

Science is a good match for the open source philosophy.

Because…

• it tries to do things for little-to-no money
• it doesn’t care if equipment is pretty
• it is only focused on results
• it needs things that are very specific that no one else in the world needs
• it is often motivated by something other than profit

Joshua Pearce of Michigan Tech’s Open Sustainability Technology Lab is an example of where the rubber meets the road. He has nearly two dozen Thingiverse things, and most of them are awesome tools for scientists. His work has been profiled in Mighigan Tech News and Popular Mechanics. You can also read the transcript of an interview with Science Magazine Podcast here (pdf). Pearce has a paper called Building Research Equipment with Free, Open-Source Hardware in Science Magazine, but it’s behind a paywall. The summary is here.

More after the jump.

A Survey of Open Hardware Debugging & Analysis Tools

One of the biggest brags of open source is that it reduces the cost of achieving a result to 1/5 or 1/10 of a commercial solution.

Of course, open hardware developers usually don’t include research & development costs. If someone wants to build their own project, the realization that development tools can cost far more than the small project they produce can come as a shock. Why would someone want to spend a thousand dollars on a tool to debug a ten dollar project?

Nathan Willis’ LinuxCon talk comes by way of LWN.net. Details of open source oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and more after the jump.