Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Open Source Hardware Processes and Practices
Note
The processes and practices section designates further instruc-
tions for sharing your tools, materials and source. The first sec-
tion gives practical advice about making it easy to obtain the
hardware and files you've used. The second section covers
where source files can be stored. The third section discusses la-
beling your open hardware project and how others might pro-
cess a derivative, also known as licensing, and the forth section
covers distribution. Finally, the last section is a set of rules to
follow for creating derivatives when building on other people's
open source hardware.
Designing Your Hardware
If you're planning to open-source a particular piece of hardware, following cer-
tain best practices in its design will make it easier for others to make and modi-
fy the hardware:
Use free and open-source software design (CAD) tools where possible. If
that's not feasible, try to use low-cost and/or widely-used software packages.
Use standard and widely-available components, materials, and production
processes. Try to avoid parts that aren't available to individual customers or
processes that require expensive setup costs.
Hosting Your Design Files
A basic way of sharing your files is with a zip file on your website. While this
is a great start, it makes it difficult for others to follow your progress or to con-
tribute improvements.
We recommend using an online source-code repository (like GitHub, Gitori-
ous, or Google Code) to store your open-source hardware projects. All files
(design, bill of materials, assembly instructions, code, etc.) should be version
controlled where possible. If you want to develop your hardware publicly, on-
line repositories make it easy to publish changes to your files as you make
them. Or, you might publish updates in conjunction with releases of the hard-
ware.
