Digital Designs and Scientific Hardware - Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs - page 168

in OpenSCAD on a computer running only open-source Linux software. These models can be
customized for a given optical setup using OpenSCAD and printed.
FIGURE 6.4 An open-source self-replicating rapid prototyper (a) printing a 3-D optical com-
ponent—filter bracket and (b) printing a pie-slice of the filter wheel with the entire assembly
displayed in OpenSCAD on a computer running the open-source Linux operating system.
6.1.3 Open-source microcontrollers
The majority of the current versions of the RepRap are controlled by an Arduino microcon-
troller board (or a spin-off microcontroller board), which is prototyping platform based on the
ATMEL ATmega328, a high-performance, low-power AVR 8-Bit microcontroller. Arduino mi-
crocontroller boards 13 are a family of open-source, low-cost integrated circuits that contain a
core processor, memory and analog and digital input/output (I/O) peripherals. As shown in
Chapter 4 , Arduino microcontroller boards are relatively easy to use. Thus, they have been ap-
plied in a vast number of science and engineering areas including, for example, optical tools