Building Open Source Hardware A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 1 14/11/14 1:52 PM This page intentionally left blank Building Open Source Hardware DIY Manufacturing for Hackers and Makers Alicia Gibb with Steven Abadie Ed Baafi Matt Bolton Kipp Bradford Gabriella Levine David A. Mellis Catarina Mota Joshua Pearce Becky Stern Tiffany Tseng Addie Wagenknecht Michael Weinberg Amanda Wozniak Lars Zimmerman Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 3 14/11/14 1:52 PM Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. The authors and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. For information about buying this title in bulk quantities, or for special sales opportunities (which may include electronic versions; custom cover designs; and content particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, or branding interests), please contact our corporate sales department at [email protected] or (800) 382-3419. For government sales inquiries, please contact [email protected]. For questions about sales outside the U.S., please contact [email protected]. Visit us on the Web: informit.com/aw Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952506 Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to (201) 236-3290. Chapters 3, 5, 6, 8, and 15 of this book are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-​­ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. All rights to the anecdotes, appendixes, and Chapter 11 are held by the authors. ISBN-​­13: 978-0-321-90604-5 ISBN-​­10: 0-321-90604-7 Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana. First printing, December 2014 A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 4 14/11/14 1:52 PM ❖ Dedicated to Aaron Swartz, a friend, a mentor, and the greatest teacher of open source. ❖ A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 5 14/11/14 1:52 PM This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction xiii Acknowledgments xxiii About the Authors xxv Part I: Open Source Hardware Theory 1 1 History of the Open Hardware Movement 3 The First Programs, Organizations, and Definitions 4 TAPR OHL 6 OHANDA 6 OSHW Definition, Summit, and Logo 7 CERN OHL 8 Forking of Open Hardware and Open Source Hardware 9 Creation of OSHWA 9 References 11 2 OSHW Definition and Best Practices 13 Open Source Hardware Definition 13 Best Practices 16 Summary 30 3 Licensing Open Source Hardware 31 Licensing 31 Open Licenses in the Context of OSHW 32 Copyright, Patent, and Trademark: Rights That You Might Be Able to License 33 Actually Licensing a Copyright, Patent, or Trademark 36 What to Do Now 39 Summary 40 Resources 41 4 Standardization of Open Source Hardware 43 Firming up the Soft Parts: Making Software Firmer 44 Softening up the Hard Parts: Making Hardware More Flexible 47 Other Standardization and Regulation 49 Summary 51 A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 7 14/11/14 1:52 PM viii Contents Part II: Hands On! 53 5 The Design Process: How to Get from Nothing to Something 55 The Phase of Projects 56 Iterative Design and Concept Refinement 58 Setting up Your Workflow 60 Managing Constant Iteration 61 Every Master Plan Has an Exit Strategy 61 Preparing for Manufacturing 62 Summary 63 Resources 63 6 Making a Derivative 65 Derivatives and Open Source Hardware 65 Blinky Buildings Project 69 Summary 81 7 Modifying the Shape of an Arduino 83 Shapes of an Arduino Derivative 83 Before You Begin 84 Determining Your Board Outline 87 Lay Out Your Arduino Derivative in Eagle 89 Manufacturing Your Board 91 Summary 93 Resources 94 8 Remix a 3D Print(er) 95 Dawn of the Desktop 3D Printer 95 Open Hardware Design for 3D Printing 98 Next Steps 107 Summary 108 Resources 109 9 Wearables 111 History of Wearables 111 Conductive Textiles 117 Sewable Microcontrollers and Components 118 EL Wire/Tape/Panel 119 Tools and Techniques 120 A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 8 14/11/14 1:52 PM Contents ix Managing Expectations 125 Future of Wearables 126 Summary 127 Resources 127 10 Physical Materials 129 Centralized Online Hub for Information Sharing 129 Benefits for the Designers and Customers 130 Flexing the Open Source Hardware Definition to Fit Other Physical Objects and Products That Require Multiple Types of Manufacturing 130 A Range of Products and Industries 134 Summary 150 Part III: Production Bits 151 11 Personal Manufacturing in the Digital Age 153 Personal Fabrication, Processes, Parts, and Materials 154 Case Studies 157 Questions for the Future 165 Summary 166 12 Accelerate from Making to Manufacturing 167 Manufacturing Partner Decision 168 How SparkFun Electronics Grew to Scale 170 Kitting 174 Design for Manufacturability 174 Equipment Selection and Implementation 177 Supply Chain/Purchasing 182 Resource Planning and Scheduling 184 Testing and Quality Control 185 Future of Open Source, Small-Scale Manufacturing 189 Summary 194 13 Troubleshooting from Your Design to Your Manufacturer 197 Manufacturable Designs 198 Selecting Manufacturers 205 The Manufacturing Handoff 206 What Could Really Go Wrong? 209 A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 9 14/11/14 1:52 PM x Contents Quality Control 212 Creative Fixes 213 Summary 216 14 Taxonomy of Hardware Documentation 219 README.txt 220 Product Webpage 221 Hardware Source Files 223 Making the Pieces Visible: Bill of Materials 225 Tutorials 226 Creating Community 229 Summary 230 Resources 231 15 Business 233 A Natural Business Model 233 The Brand 234 The Open Source Hardware and Open Design Business Model Matrix 235 Summary 251 16 Building Open Source Hardware in Academia 253 Life in the Ivory Tower: An Overview 254 Benefits of OSHW for the Academic 255 Increased Visibility, Citations, and Public Relations 263 Increased Funding Opportunities and Student Recruitment 264 Virtuous Cycle 265 OSHW Teaching and Service 268 Summary 275 References 275 Conclusion 279 Changing Incentives 279 Maturity of the Open Source Hardware Movement 280 Looking to the Future 281 A Open Source Hardware Checklist 283 OSHW Musts and Mays 284 A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 10 14/11/14 1:52 PM Contents xi B Open Source Hardware Security Do’s and Don’ts 285 Resources 286 C Design Process Checklist 289 Concept Refinement 289 Managing Iteration 289 Preparing to Manufacture 290 D Design for Manufacture Checklists 291 Finding the Right Contract Manufacturer 291 SparkFun’s Core Design for Manufacturability Standards 292 SparkFun’s Ancillary Design for Manufacturability Standards 293 Troubleshooting 294 E Mach 30’s Documentation Ground Rules 297 F Blinky Buildings Source Files 301 README 301 About This Kit 301 Materials and Tools 301 Attribution 302 Licensing 302 Source Files 302 Glossary 311 Index 317 A01_GIBB6045_01_SE_FM.indd 11 14/11/14 1:52 PM This page intentionally left blank Introduction Building Open Source Hardware is an anthology written to get users and makers of open source hardware to the next step of developing for the masses and manufacturing. This book involves a hands-​­on approach, providing guides for developing and manufacturing open source hardware. Although many books have been published on specific pieces of open source hardware, to date there has not been a book published on the community or the steps to work all the way through designing and manufacturing a piece of open source hardware. There has been a burst of activity around making and do-​­it-​­yourself (DIY) proj- ects, but the DIY and maker movements are growing to a new stage, wanting to produce on larger scales and move projects to products. If you have been hacking on some hard- ware in your basement and want to start building multiples of it and selling them on your website as open source, this book is for you. This book covers both the theoretical side of open source hardware and the practices and methods necessary to create a piece of open source hardware. It is intended to be a holistic experience, moving from developing to manufacturing of open source hardware, while explaining the benefits, standards, and incentives found at the various stages of this process. This book includes beginner-​­ to intermediate-​­level technical concepts and is coupled with an open source hardware kit that can be purchased separately to foster experimentation. The intended audience of this book includes people from a multitude of fields, all of whom are interested in creating open source hardware and would like a guide for the theory, standards, and hands-​­on advice. Individuals and companies, large and small, that are already interested in the DIY and maker movement, but still need some help on how to create, document, and think about licensing, manufacturing, and selling open source hard- ware will also benefit from this book. I chose not to self-​­publish for a number of reasons. The major one, however, was that without a publisher inviting me to write a book on this topic, the thought would have never occurred to me.