Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Photos
Photos help people understand what your project is and how to put it together.
It's good to publish photographs from multiple viewpoints and at various stages
of assembly. If you don't have photos, posting 3D renderings of your design is a
good alternative. Either way, it's good to provide captions or text that explain
what's shown in each image and why's it's useful.
Instructions and Other Explanations
In addition to the design files themselves, there are a variety of explanations
that are invaluable in helping others to make or modify your hardware:
Making the hardware.
To help others make and modify your hardware
design, you should provide instructions for going from your design files
to the working physical hardware. As part of the instructions, it's helpful
to link to datasheets for the components/parts of your hardware and to
list the tools required to assemble it. If the design requires specialized
tools, tell people where to get them.
Using the hardware.
Once someone has made the hardware, they need
to know how to use it. Provide instructions that explain what it does,
how to set it up, and how to interact with it.
Design rationale.
If someone wants to modify your design, they'll want
to know why it is the way it is. Explain the overall plan of the hard-
ware's design and why you made the specific choices you did.
Keep in mind that these instructions may be read by someone whose expert-
ise or training is different from yours. As much as possible, try to write to a
general audience, and check your instructions for industry jargon, be explicit
about what you assume the user knows, etc.
The instructions could be in a variety of formats, like a wiki, text file,
Google Doc, or PDF. Remember, though, that others might want to modify your
instructions as they modify your hardware design, so it's good to provide the
original editable files for your documentation, not just output formats like PDF.
