Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Summary
One of the major problems with many open hardware projects is that the documentation
and bill ofmaterials are developed over time and, with many users, organically.This means
the project lacks any real organization or reasoning to its structure. What happens when the
primary developer is ready to walk away? Contributors and founders often leave, and other
people come; some are replaced, but others never are. The documentation is what keeps
the project alive and the community thriving. In a way, the documentation is a good place
where past or current contributors can share with future ones. Think of the project docu-
mentation as a kind of asynchronous communication channel.
Resources
Here are a few good resources for tutorials, the open source hardware logo repository, and
guides for documentation:
Good tutorial examples and platforms:
Aleph Objects (
www.ohai-kit.alephobjects.com
)
SparkFun (
www.learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials
)
Adafruit (
www.learn.adafruit.com
)
Instructables (
www.instructables.com
)
Ifixit (
www.ifixit.com
)
Open source hardware logos:
Logo repository (
www.oshwa.org/open-source-hardware-logo
)
Guides for documenting:
What to Write
by Jacob Kaplan-Moss (
www.jacobian.org/writing/what-to-write
)
How to Make an Awesome Guide
by Ifixit (
www.ifixit.com/Info/Writing_Guides
)
