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Schematics only contain a fraction of the information required to reproduce a design. It's like releasing a UML diagram of an app and calling it "open source."

by duped 5y ago

Schematics only contain a fraction of the information required to reproduce a design. It's like releasing a UML diagram of an app and calling it "open source." It doesn't matter if you use the same CAD tool or not, there are a variety of utilities for converting the design files. What matters is if you can reproduce and modify the design. That's simply not possible without the complete design files. You don't release the artifacts of your compiled code and call it open source. You release all the source required to generate those artifacts. Anything short of that is not open and fundamentally mistakes what it means for something to be "open source."

hulitu 5y ago
> Schematics only contain a fraction of the information required to reproduce a design. It's like releasing a UML diagram of an app and calling it "open source." A good schematics is all you need. (it must have components values). The rest (layout, analysis) you can do it yourself. > It doesn't matter if you use the same CAD tool or not, there are a variety of utilities for converting the design files. What matters is if you can reproduce and modify the design. That's simply not possible without the complete design files. Well, it's a bit different from SW. Schematics is some kind of source code and the layout is a kind of compiled code. Different layouters will produce different layouts. And when you modify the design you have to redo the circuit analysis and , maybe, the layout . > You don't release the artifacts of your compiled code and call it open source. You release all the source required to generate those artifacts. Anything short of that is not open and fundamentally mistakes what it means for something to be "open source." You release only your program, not the whole OS. Somedy who wants to "reproduce your design" still needs a compiler and an OS to run it.( and depending on the conpiler it may obtain different results :) )
- detaro 5y ago
  The "layout you can just do yourself" IMHO very much depends. For simple circuits, yes, for anything involving antennas, high-frequency signals, ... not. And as far as there are standards defining what Open Hardware is, they all consider design to be part of it.
- duped 5y ago
  I disagree, schematics are a form of documentation. They are not a design and they are incredibly leaky. As an example, it's common to group all the bypass caps together in a schematic. This doesn't reflect the reality that those bypass caps need to be physically close to the power pins on specific components. The value is not sufficient to reflect their use. It's no different from software engineering, the schematic is not the source code. It's a block diagram describing how the source works.

by duped 5y ago

hulitu 5y ago

> Schematics only contain a fraction of the information required to reproduce a design. It's like releasing a UML diagram of an app and calling it "open source." A good schematics is all you need. (it must have components values). The rest (layout, analysis) you can do it yourself. > It doesn't matter if you use the same CAD tool or not, there are a variety of utilities for converting the design files. What matters is if you can reproduce and modify the design. That's simply not possible without the complete design files. Well, it's a bit different from SW. Schematics is some kind of source code and the layout is a kind of compiled code. Different layouters will produce different layouts. And when you modify the design you have to redo the circuit analysis and , maybe, the layout . > You don't release the artifacts of your compiled code and call it open source. You release all the source required to generate those artifacts. Anything short of that is not open and fundamentally mistakes what it means for something to be "open source." You release only your program, not the whole OS. Somedy who wants to "reproduce your design" still needs a compiler and an OS to run it.( and depending on the conpiler it may obtain different results :) )

detaro 5y ago
The "layout you can just do yourself" IMHO very much depends. For simple circuits, yes, for anything involving antennas, high-frequency signals, ... not. And as far as there are standards defining what Open Hardware is, they all consider design to be part of it.
duped 5y ago
I disagree, schematics are a form of documentation. They are not a design and they are incredibly leaky. As an example, it's common to group all the bypass caps together in a schematic. This doesn't reflect the reality that those bypass caps need to be physically close to the power pins on specific components. The value is not sufficient to reflect their use. It's no different from software engineering, the schematic is not the source code. It's a block diagram describing how the source works.