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Lets make OSHW more successful!

Manufacture support for OSHW projects.

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I'm looking for promising OSHW projects which I want to support by offer free prototype and verification services to help launch, maintain and update their product. As an owner of a PCBA service provider I wish to keep supporting your OSHW project when it reaches production by offering you a great deal for PCBA and distribution services. Please send your request to fredrik@svenskelektronikproduktion.se or share your thoughts in the comment section.

Let me introduce myself
I got my eyes on technology 15 years ago when I was creating a website for my elementary school band. Without any prior knowledge I started looking at my favorite band website (Necrophagist at that time) and really wanted my own band website to look like that. Not long after, I found out that it was possible to see the underlying code for the design of any webpage. After a quick webdesign tutorial I started copying cool features from different webpages to finally build my own band website. This was my first tech project of many to come, without realizing it at the time that project introduced me to the hacking mentality of FOSS and OSHW which brings me to the thread topic...

Why FOSS is ahead of OSHW
In my introduction I gave you an example of how FOSS contributed to my fist tech project by the sharing of the source code and how I then contributed by the sharing my altered version of that code. My first FOSS project shares one shortcoming with many OSHW projects of today:  The inability to contribute back to the original project. I belive the success of FOSS is closely linked to the ability for many to work and contribute to a project.

The collaboration is easly done in software development by push and pull request and both the original auther and the contributor can easly verify the result by compiling the source code. We can already see the use of push pull request in OSHW development, but its failing because implementing the contribution to the master branch requires the original auther to verify the changes. The verification of hardware is done by producing a physical prototype of the new version and test it, this is both expensive and time consuming which is causing resistance to collaborate in OSHW.

Applying FOSS DNA to OSHW projects
I belive we need remove friction in the verification process of a push pull request in OSHW development. In order to remove this friction, I propose that the PCBA fabs and OSHW projects should cooperate more closely.

My offer to the OSHW community
I do run a PCBA factory www.svenskelektronikproduktion.se/en and we want to cooperate with OSHW projects that we find interesting by offering free prototype and verification services to help them launch,maintain and update their product. In return we want to produce the product for the original auther so that the original auther can sell the product for a profit. We can also assist with disribution of the product and ofcourse share the profit with the auther. Please send your request to fredrik@svenskelektronikproduktion.se .

Please provide suggestions start a discussion in this thread on how to increase the popularity of OSHW. What can the fabs, the community and OSHW projects authers improve on?

  • Hackaday Prize 2018

    Fredrik Högberg04/18/2018 at 11:57 0 comments

    We finally decided to submit this project to the Hackaday Prize 2018!

    From now on every like for this project will result in 1$ donation to great OSHW projects. If we manage to win any prize money they will also be put to use in OSHW development.

  • Numitron Hex Module

    Fredrik Högberg03/27/2018 at 10:36 0 comments

    We are happy to announce that we will help finish the Numitron Hex module in time for the The 2018 Hackaday Prize by providing PCB and assembly service!

    The prototyping manufacturing may have to wait a tad bit as Yann Guidon intend to add some extra features. But In the meantime have a look at this killing breadboard prototyp and if you like it don't forget to follow the project.

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Fredrik Högberg wrote 03/26/2018 at 18:06 point

Your point is valid, collaborating in any projects with physical dimensions is best done and most fun IRL. The recent rise of hackerspaces all around the globe will provide venues for collaborating and knowlege sharing in the true spirit of OSHW. You may meet me at my local hackerspace https://hackaday.io/hackerspace/831-chalmers-robotics.

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Vishnu Mohanan wrote 03/26/2018 at 05:40 point

I agree with what you just said above. It's easy to collaborate on an FOSS projects than an OSHW one. If we have a computer that just works and an internet connection, we can simply fork an FOSS project and start collaborating by sharing our ideas, skills and time. But for OSHW it is an entirely different scenario. Apart from contributing to the firmware of an OSHW, most of the times you'll need test and measure equipments which are mostly expensive, prototyping tools such as 3D printers, CNCs, and other such necessities to replicate, test and verify an OSHW project. While this is easy if the collaborators are geographically closer where they can gather and collaborate, such as a hackerspace, for individuals that are many borders apart, that's not the case. May be it's easier for hackerspaces with similar facilities to team up and work on a project while communicating over internet. So I think all such issues need to be addressed and worked out in order to bring out successful OSHW projects and thus cultivate a collaborative community for open source hardware. I have some plans in mind that I think would support collaborative and ope source projects that are socially benefiting and innovative, and I plan to execute them where I live, where we have a huge thriving community of makers. I've garnered some inspiration and some new ideas from your write up here and thanks for that. We can have a further discussion through email or chat :)

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