Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
prove or customize the tools and build. As more scientists take up this methodology and share
back with the open-source scientific community, the time for another group to build their own
high-quality instruments will continue to decline along with the cost, as the quality increases.
These open-source tools can also be used as building blocks in tangential disciplines. So for
example, the time for other research groups to create an open-source colorimeter following
the details in
Chapter 6
is also reduced for other applications beyond COD such as: measuring
the concentration of some chemicals in a solution, quantifying observations of biological spe-
cimens, growth cultures, food science, quality control in manufacturing, diagnosis of diseases,
testing the concentration of hemoglobin in blood, determining the efficacy of sun protection
products, nephelometry for water quality, visibility, and global warming studies to measure
made available, making it easy to redesign the case to test, for example, alternative sizes or
geometries of vials. In the same way, the Arduino software is easily altered, for example, to
adjust integration time, light intensity or sensor sensitivity for another application.
For the example of the colorimeter, more work is necessary for this design to realize the full
potential of the tool for all the applications discussed above. As scientists need these function-
alities, they will build them and hopefully share them to provide the positive-feedback loop
that will make it easier to do the next application. In addition, there is the potential to improve
the functioning of the open-source colorimeter by making it portable, such as the incorpora-
than one type of experiment using the same Arduino and control logic and simply adding ad-
ditional LEDs and inexpensive sensors for different types of tests is already being developed
and should be available when this topic goes to press. Open-source wireless communication
devices exist, making possible wireless communication between the instrument and a smart-
phone or tablet, thus augmenting data recording and analysis capabilities. Eventually, the cap-
abilities can simply be built into a custom case for the smartphone or become integral to it.
Modiication of the OpenSCAD design may also permit the device to be used in-line for pro-
cess control or quality assurance/quality control in industry itself. Again, this is but one small
example, when in all likelihood, there will be thousands of such research tools developed in
the near future.
As additional research groups begin to freely share the designs of their own open-source
research tools, not only can the greater scientific community enjoy the same discounts on
equipment, but following the FOSS approach, the equipment will evolve, becoming technic-
ally more advanced, easier to use and more useful. It is also likely that the price pressure from
ment, resulting in a decrease in overall research costs for everyone, even those that continue to
rely on proprietary devices. For example, as discussed in
Chapter 5
, rapid advancement in 3-D
printing technology has already produced plug-and-play 3-D printers at a price point equi-
valent to or lower than the cost of a good computer. These low prices made available by the
avoidance of intellectual property lock down discussed in
Chapter 2
has created an explosion
of 3-D printer companies, that currently number approximately a hundred companies.
The expense of sophisticated research-related equipment and tools has often limited their
adoption to a select, well-funded few. This topic has provided a methodology for applying the
free and open-source hardware approach to the design and development of scientific equip-
ment, a methodology that eliminates cost as a barrier to adoption and makes the tools avail-
able to the broadest possible audience. The performance of research equipment produced by
this methodology has been successfully demonstrated against much more costly commercial
products in a wide range of disciplines from biology to physics and chemistry to environment-
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