Awesome Open Hardware

🛠 Helpful items for making and learning about open-source hardware projects.

Contents

• Projects
• Design Tools
• Talks
• Papers
• Conferences
• Platforms
• Podcasts
• Books
• Training Programs
• Further Readings
• Related Awesome

Projects

Automation, Manufacturing, and Robotics

• FarmBot - Automated gardening machine to grow vegetables.
• Gearotons M17 - Integrated servomotor with the motor, driver, motion controller and encoder in one NEMA 17 body.
• Hacker Fab - Nanofabrication tools for making integrated circuits.
• JPL Open Source Rover - A six wheeled, build-it-yourself, open-source rover.
• Mekanika - Tools and machines for makers.
• Millennium Machines - A project dedicated to designing desktop CNC mills.
• Open Source Ecology - Industrial machines made open.
• Opulo - Project that develops a pick and place machine.
• Precious Plastic - Tools to make plastic recycling as simple as possible.
• Prusa3D - 3D printer manufacturer who shares their work open online.
• RepRap - Humanity's first general-purpose, self-replicating manufacturing machine.
• SO-ARM 102 - 3D-printable leader-follower robotic arm with a parallel gripper, open CAD files, a bill of materials, and assembly instructions.
• VORON Design - No-compromise 3D printer designs.
• WikiHouse - Digital designed open housing.

Consumer Devices

• freeDSP - A family of audio digital signal processors.
• Input Labs - Video game controllers featuring gyroscopic sensors.
• Mutable Instruments - Eurorack classics.
• PiKVM - Inexpensive DIY IP-KVM based on Raspberry Pi.
• PiSpot Show - Raspberry Pi appliance that drives HDMI displays as self-updating Wi-Fi voucher kiosks with live weather.
• PiSpot Watch - Wrist-wearable Raspberry Pi Zero smartwatch with e-ink display that generates Wi-Fi voucher codes on demand.
• Ploopy - 3D-printable peripherals running the QMK firmware.
• SlimeVR - Full-body tracking sensors for virtual reality and motion capture.
• Tiny Film Camera - Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W digital camera with physical controls, three selectable image filters, and a 3D-printable enclosure.
• Winterbloom - Eurorack modules; Thea has some stellar design write-ups on her blog.

Development Boards

• Arduino - Arduino is an electronics platform.
• iCEBreaker - Low-cost FPGA development board based around the Lattice iCE40.
• Icepi Zero - A Lattice ECP5-based FPGA development board in the form factor of the Raspberry Pi Zero.
• nRF52840 ProMicro - A Nordic nRF52840-based development board in the form factor of the Arduino Pro Micro.
• OpenMV - Low-cost machine vision platform.
• pic0rick - A Raspberry Pi Pico platform for pulse-echo ultrasound imaging hardware.

Scientific Instruments

• Biohack Academy - Biotechnological hardware such as an incubator, thermocycler, centrifuge, microscope, etc.
• GaudiLab - Hardware projects for biology laboratories.
• HackRF Pro - Upgraded version of the HackRF One, a low-cost software-defined radio.
• LibreVNA - A vector network analyzer capable of measurements up to 6 GHz.
• mesoSPIM - Light-sheet microscopes for imaging in cleared tissue.
• Open Gamma Detector - Hackable, low-cost gamma-ray spectrometer.
• OpenBCI - Brain-computer interface.
• OpenFlexure - 3D-printed microscope with a precise mechanical stage.
• OpenSPIM - Open-access platform for three-dimensional (3D) microscopy.
• openUC2 - Modular microscopy toolbox.
• SafeCast - Environmental measurements for the public domain.

Design Tools

Mechanical and Electrical

• Elmer - A software suite for running finite element method simulations.
• FreeCAD - A mechanical computer-aided design program for designing 3D parametric parts.
• Jumpstarter - Open source hardware-in-the-loop testing framework for automated testing on real and virtual hardware with CI/CD integration.
• KiCad - An electronic design automation program for designing printed circuit boards.
• KiCad StepUp - A mechanical collaboration tool for moving projects between KiCad and FreeCAD.
• Ngspice - A mixed-signal electronic circuit simulator.

Integrated Circuit

• KLayout - A tool for viewing and editing integrated circuit layouts.
• LibreLane - An infrastructure library for creating integrated circuit design flows.
• Magic - A VLSI layout tool, primarily used for analog layout.
• OpenRAM - A framework for creating SRAM netlists, layouts, and more.
• OpenROAD - An application that implements an RTL-to-GDSII flow.
• SkyWater PDK - A process design kit for SkyWater's 130 nm process node.
• Surfer - An extensible and snappy waveform viewer.
• Verilator - A program for simulating HDL code.
• Yosys - A framework for RTL synthesis.

Talks

• How Open Hardware will Take Over the World - TEDx talk by Nathan Seidle.
• Revolution of the open hardware - TEDx talk by Bram Geenen.
• Why do open hardware - Talk by Limor Fried (ladyada).
• Get your open hardware manufactured - Tips by Ian of Dangerous Prototypes.
• Open Hardware Projects to Fight COVID-19 - Collection video from N-O-D-E.
• Designing Open Hardware for 21st century science - Presentation by Andre Maia Chagas.
• Why open source hardware is(n't) working - Presentation by David Cuartielles.
• Open source and the future of hardware - Talk by Neil Gershenfeld.
• On behalf of mankind: thank you for sharing! - TEDx talk by Jerry de Vos.

Papers

• What is the “Source” of Open Source Hardware? - Paper by Jérémy Bonvoisin, Robert Mies, Jean-François Boujut, Rainer Stark.
• Emerging Business Models for Open Source Hardware - Paper by Joshua M. Pearce.
• Towards national policy for open source hardware research: The case of Finland - Paper by I. T. S. Heikkinen, H. Savin, J. Partanen, J. SeppäläJ, M. Pearce.
• Open-Source Hardware in Education: A Systematic Mapping Study - Paper by Ruben Heradio, Jesus Chacon, Hector Vargas, Daniel Galan, Jacobo Saenz, Luis De La Torre, Sebastian Dormido.
• Haves and have nots must find a better way: The case for open scientific hardware - Paper by Andre Maia Chagas
• Open Labware: 3-D Printing Your Own Lab Equipment - Paper by Tom Baden, Andre Maia Chagas, Greg Gage, Timothy Marzullo, Lucia L. Prieto-Godino, Thomas Euler

Conferences

• FOSDEM - Annual open source event in Brussels.
• Open Hardware Summit - Annual conference on open hardware.
• Open Sauce - Annual convention focused on science and technology on on 17-19 July
• Maker Faire - A celebration of the Maker Movement, locally organized.
• Hackaday Supercon - Annual conference on hardware hacking and deep-dive technical workshops
• KiCon - Annual conferences about KiCad open source EDA organized in different regions
• RISC-V Summits - Annual summits organized by RISC-V International in different regions
• World RISC-V Days - Synchronized global events voluntarily organized by RISC-V communities worldwide
• Latch-Up - A three-day conference dedicated to free and open source silicon. Hosted in North America every spring.
• ORConf - Another three-day conference dedicated to free and open source silicon. Hosted in Europe every autumn.

Platforms

• Open Hardware Repository - For electronics designers at experimental physics facilities to collaborate on open hardware designs.
• Open Hardware Observatory - Free blueprints for sustainable open hardware.
• Instructables - Instructables is a place that lets you explore, document, and share your creations.
• Hackaday.io - Hackaday.io is the world's largest collaborative hardware development community.
• Hackster.io - Connecting developers where exploring tomorrow starts today.
• Openhardware.io - Tracking amazing open hardware projects.
• Openhardware.science - Make open science hardware ubiquitous by 2025.
• Openlifescience - Program to make Open Science ambassadors in research.
• Thingiverse - A platform for sharing and contributing to design hardware for 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC milling.
• Kitspace.org - A place to build and share electronics projects.
• BoardRepo - Share KiCad and Altium projects as a link, with schematics, PCB views, BOM, and gerbers rendered in the browser.
• ICBOMS - Open electronic component search engine, BOM management platform, and semiconductor distribution database.
• RoboPartPicker - Compiles bills of materials from open robotics projects and tracks parts sourcing, keeping unresolved and unpriced lines visible instead of dropping them.

Podcasts

• Road to Open Science - Episode on open hardware in the Netherlands.
• Physics Worlds - Episode on the global impact of open hardware.
• Command Line Heroes - Episode Makers unite.
• A-podcast - Open source hardware is the future.
• Amp hour - Open Hardware and The Creative Economy.
• Semiconductor Insiders - Open Hardware Diversity Alliance.
• Open source hardware podcast - By the Programming Electronics Academy.

Books

• Building open source hardware - Book by Alicia Gibb, on building open source hardware from 2014.
• Open-source Lab - Book by Josua M. Pearce, how to build your own hardware and reduce costs.
• Free to Make - Book by Dale Dougherty, how the maker movement is changing our schools, our jobs, and our minds.
• The bridge - Issue of the national academy of engineering on open source hardware.
• The Hardware Hacker - Book by Andrew "bunnie" Huang, how to design and manufacture open hardware products.

Training Programs

• Open Hardware Makers
• Open Hardware Academy

Further Readings

• Open Source Guide - A website created by GitHub to help people work on open source projects.
• Wikipedia - General information about open-source hardware.
• Open Collective - Enables groups to quickly set up a collective, raise funds and manage them transparently.
• The Journal of Open Hardware - (JOH) is a peer reviewed open access publication for open hardware research and development.
• OSHWA Certification - Provides an easy and straightforward way for producers to indicate that their products meet a uniform and well-defined standard for open-source compliance.
• HardwareX Journal - An open-access scientific hardware journal.

Related Awesome

• Awesome Open Electronics - List with resources for Electronics Enthusiasts.
• Awesome Open - A list of open companies and communities.
• Awesome Electronics - A curated list of awesome resources for electronic engineers and hobbyists.
• Awesome KiCad Projects - Curated list of open source hardware projects whose PCBs are designed in KiCad.

Contributing

Additional suggestions are welcomed! Check out contributing.md for guidelines. If you ever want to reference us, find us at delftopenhardware.nl. But you are in no way required to do so. (NOTE: If you're a maintainer listed on here who would like to be removed, just open an issue.)