Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing
With open access to online information, high-speed communication, and rapid transport of
goods and tools, machining and manufacturing capabilities have penetrated the household,
personal studios, educational facilities, corporate offices, and public spaces. The following
are examples of open source hardware fabrication tools whose crowd-sourced designs, ac-
cessible materials, and inexpensive replacement parts are allowing hackers, artists, entre-
preneurs, and even children to have access to sophisticated machines for prototyping and
manufacturing.
Laser Cutting
to provide an inexpensive DIY laser cutter that can be produced using modular parts that
can be sourced directly or bought locally by referencing the bill of materials (which can be
viewed in
Chapter 14
,
Taxonomy of Hardware Documentation
). Lasersaur relies on distri-
bution through its BOM, meaning costumers are intended to build a laser cutter for them-
selves from locally sourced parts. A free and thorough document outlines the resources
needed for building and maintaining the Lasersaur, including hardware/software specifica-
tions, the source code and a software application with a GUI, a bill of materials, the build-
ing process, and instruction on how to run and operate the laser cutter. There is also a com-
munity mailing list, a map of users, and a Flickr group.
The benefit of using open source hardware during the development process is that the
Nortd Labs team was able to release the design sooner to the public. The hope was that
open collaboration would help its design improve over time as people used it, contributed
to the development, and documented improvements. Instead of putting years of effort and
money into R&D, Nortd Labs shared the designs with the public at an early stage in the
development. In turn, hackerspaces and universities participated in the collective research
and development. This crowd-sourced R&D enabled tools that were typically created in a
hierarchical development cycle to be developed by an international online network com-
posed of academics, hobbyists, artists, and scientists.
