3 ms·

Don't get me wrong, OSHW does have some value exactly as you said: it's a great learning tool for hobbyists and those new to field without the money to reverse

by krapht 13y ago

Don't get me wrong, OSHW does have some value exactly as you said: it's a great learning tool for hobbyists and those new to field without the money to reverse engineer a product. But that is not the buzz that is being written by journalists and Silicon Valley cheerleaders who foresee a future of boutique micro-manufacturing and bespoke designs for everyone. A game I like to play when this type of article comes up is to replace every instance of the word hardware with furniture. So when someone talks about open source hardware, pretend they are talking about open source furniture. The hyperbole used in this type of article will become quickly apparent.

drone 13y ago
I do see a lot of boutique micro-manufacturing in the future for electronics, just not for "everyone." In my mind, the trend is going towards enabling small-market, very "niche" products from fairly amateur inventors. This market still isn't being served well by the HMLV EMS houses. The size of an acceptable, affordable, EMS run should approach 1 in the not-so-distant future. But, yeah, this is people writing about a trend - at least the OSHW writing as a whole is still less exasperated than the 3D printing articles, which mostly seem to boil down to: "OMG, you'll be able to make anything in 30 seconds at home for free!"
Kliment 13y ago
Though open source furniture is not at all a bad idea. I built a very location-specific wardrobe recently[1] that has a pretty unusual design, and would have loved to have a library of similar stuff somewhere that I could grab ideas and subassemblies from. In this case, all components except the custom-printed ones are straight from the hardware store, anyone who feels like it can build it, and it costs less and performs better (given the unusual location) than anything you can buy. It's exactly what I would want OSHW to be. I'll be happy to scan in and share my design sketch for it and the BOM if anyone is interested. It's technically GPL licensed because the rollers are derived from a GPL-licensed 3d printer extruder design, but I can't very easily distribute the resulting product. [1] http://imgur.com/a/HLbWF http://imgur.com/a/HLbWF

by krapht 13y ago

drone 13y ago

I do see a lot of boutique micro-manufacturing in the future for electronics, just not for "everyone." In my mind, the trend is going towards enabling small-market, very "niche" products from fairly amateur inventors. This market still isn't being served well by the HMLV EMS houses. The size of an acceptable, affordable, EMS run should approach 1 in the not-so-distant future. But, yeah, this is people writing about a trend - at least the OSHW writing as a whole is still less exasperated than the 3D printing articles, which mostly seem to boil down to: "OMG, you'll be able to make anything in 30 seconds at home for free!"

Kliment 13y ago

Though open source furniture is not at all a bad idea. I built a very location-specific wardrobe recently[1] that has a pretty unusual design, and would have loved to have a library of similar stuff somewhere that I could grab ideas and subassemblies from. In this case, all components except the custom-printed ones are straight from the hardware store, anyone who feels like it can build it, and it costs less and performs better (given the unusual location) than anything you can buy. It's exactly what I would want OSHW to be. I'll be happy to scan in and share my design sketch for it and the BOM if anyone is interested. It's technically GPL licensed because the rollers are derived from a GPL-licensed 3d printer extruder design, but I can't very easily distribute the resulting product. [1] http://imgur.com/a/HLbWF http://imgur.com/a/HLbWF