The virtual Open Hardware Summit starts today at 10:00am US EDT, this is 5 hours behind Central European Time (CET):
2020.oshwa.org
And you join the Discord server right now to chat!
Join the virtual Open Hardware Summit today!
Month: March 2020
How to join the virtual Open Hardware Summit tomorrow
Due to the COVID-19 virus, the Open Hardware Summit has been moved from NYC to cyberspace!
2020.oshwa.org
- The livestream link will be updated here on the day of the Summit (13th March 2020). The event will be running in EST (New York) time zone.
- For Q&A/discussions, please join the OHS discord server: https://discord.gg/38C57Uf
- Follow OHSummit on Twitter and use hashtag #ohs2020Virtual
- The link to sign up for OSHWA email updates: http://eepurl.com/gVRYVz
- The link for the open hardware survey: https://nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGDMjnMBVtDqHXL
- The link to 2021 tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-hardware-summit-2021-tickets-99408361084
ChickTech Turtle Robot Workshop 2020
From Ken Olsen of the Makers Box:
ChickTech Turtle Robot Workshop 2020
It is hard for me to believe that it has been seven years since my first ChichTech.org workshop, and five years since I started with the Turtle Robot workshop. The Open Source Turtle Robot I designed specifically for this workshop has gotten better and better. My workshops leader skills have gotten better and better. And this workshop was the best so far. It was designed to introduce high school age girls to engineering, mainly electrical, mechanical, and firmware. I tell them that engineering is all about problem solving. The trick is figuring out which problems you like solving!
The high-light of these events is when the parents and siblings come in for a “tech show” and you get to hear the girls explain how they built and programmed the robot. It is an amazing feat to accomplish in just a few hours. I predict great success for these girls in what ever they decide to pursue in their lives!
Debugging PCBs with Augmented Reality
The idea of InspectAR is to use augmented reality to help work with and debug electronics. It’s a powerful suite of tools that enable the live overlay of graphics on a video feed of a circuit board, enabling the user to quickly and effectively trace signals, identify components, and get an idea of what’s what. Usable with a smartphone or a webcam, the aim is to improve collaboration and communication between engineers by giving everyone a tool that can easily show them what’s going on, without requiring everyone involved to run a fully-fledged and expensive electronics design package.
The Supercon talk served to demonstrate some of the capabilities of InspectAR with an Arduino Uno. With a few clicks, different pins and signals can be highlighted on the board as Mihir twirls it between his fingers. Using ground as an example, Mihir first highlights the entire signal. This looks a little messy, with the large ground plane making it difficult to see exactly what’s going on. Using an example of needing a point to attach to for an oscilloscope probe, [Mihir] instead switches to pad-only mode, clearly revealing places where the user can find the signal on bare pads on the PCB. This kind of attention to detail shows the strong usability ethos behind the development of InspectAR, and we can already imagine finding it invaluable when working with unfamiliar boards. There’s also the possibility to highlight different components and display metadata — which should make finding assembly errors a cinch. It could also be useful for quickly bringing up datasheets on relevant chips where necessary.
The 2020 Open Hardware Summit is Going Virtual
IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM OSHWA:
In our last update we promised to continue to monitor the coronavirus situation and to update the community as things evolved. Today we are announcing that things have evolved, and explaining what that means for the community and the Summit.
- We are switching to an all-virtual summit for 2020. We are coordinating with speakers to move all presentations to streaming online video. You can expect a schedule similar to the one we have already announced, as well as a robust set of online chat options for the community to discuss the day’s events.
- We also still plan on holding the pre-party happy hour the evening of March 12 for community members who are in NYC. The happy hour is free to anyone who is able to attend. If you are in the area we look forward to seeing you there. However, we do not recommend traveling to NYC just for the happy hour.
- We continue to offer full refunds on tickets to anyone who has purchased tickets to the Summit. Contact [email protected] for more details.
- We will be sending full swag bags to all ticket holders.
- Next year’s summit will be in NYC again on April 9, 2021. Mark your calendars!
While we are sorry to have to make this change, we are still excited about this year’s Summit. We have a fantastic lineup of speakers and even more OSHWA announcements planned. While we know that many members of our community will be disappointed not to be able to see each other in person this year, we look forward to seeing all of you virtually on Friday and in person in 2021.
Thank you all again for being part of the open source hardware community!
Take the Plunge into PCB Design
Jeremy S Cook writes about the experience of designing their first PCB:
Take the Plunge into PCB Design
While I’ve been experimenting with circuits for years, decades even, my projects tend to be filled with a rat’s nest of wires. These snake about with the constant possibility of disconnection or other problems. They are a pain both to assemble and troubleshoot. Breadboards and perfboards are one possible solution, but I don’t particularly enjoy working with them, and they also tend to be quite messy in my case.
A final possibility is the printed circuit board, with precise connections from point-to-point made by a machine. This seems like a great solution, but to someone who has never made one, it also seems like a black art—something pursued by people much more competent than myself.
As someone that has recently designed two PCBs in the open-source KiCAD EDA platform, I know that this is not the case whatsoever. There is certainly a video tutorial out there somewhere to walk you through the process, this is what I recently used. I found these text instructions to be quite good, and going through it probably helped me remember things better.
The Open Hardware Summit Is Still On
An update from OSHWA on the Open Hardware Summit:
In light of ongoing news related to the coronavirus we want to provide the community with an update about the Summit scheduled for March 13 in NYC.
- The most important update is that the Summit is on and we intend to hold it as planned.
- The second most important update is that OSHWA is monitoring the situation.
The Summit is always an important event to open source hardware community. This year’s Summit is doubly special because it is the 10th anniversary of the Summit and we were forced to skip the Summit last year. In light of those factors OSHWA is committed to holding the Summit next week as long as it is viable to do so. Even a somewhat smaller Summit is an opportunity for the community to come together, discuss open source hardware, and connect in person.
We are aware of concerns related to the coronavirus and do not take them lightly. We also recognize that this is an evolving situation. We will continue to monitor the situation, as well as guidance provided by authorities, and may revisit our decision if it is warranted. That will be especially true if our host venue of NYU Law decides to suspend events – a decision they have given us no indication of making as of now. However, at this point we do not believe that the situation warrants the cancelation of the event.
We do recognize that many members of our community have purchased tickets to the Summit and now find themselves unable or unwilling to attend. We ask that you notify us if this is the case so we can accommodate and adjust accordingly. As always, we will stream the Summit live and invite all members of the community who are unable to attend for any reason to join us virtually the day of the Summit. We are also happy to provide refunds to those ticket holders who now feel unable to attend. If you would like a refund for your ticket, or have other questions about the Summit, please contact us at [email protected].
Finally, we look forward to seeing many of you next week. If you have been considering coming but haven’t purchased your ticket yet, now would be a great time to decide to join us!
Goodies for the Open Hardware Summit
The Open Hardware Summit is next week, March 13th!
Here’s a sneak peak at one of the items that everyone will receive in their conference goodie bags:
Thanks so much to Kevin Walseth at Digi-Key for making it happen! ⚡️
And thanks to our Dan (@tekdemo) for the beautiful “After Dark” PCB art 🦋
Thanks to Kyle at Digi-Key for showing what that board looks like in action!
Here is the GitHub repo with the KiCad design files: pdp7/gtb
If you can’t make it to the Open Hardware Summit, then the design is also available an OSH Park shared project:
Note: after adding the board to the cart, please click on the “After Dark (Black Substrate + Clear Mask)” option
Follow me on Twitter for updates on the Open Hardware Summit:
Open Source Hardware Camp 2020: call for talks and workshops
From the AB Open blog:
Call for Participation Opens for OSHCamp 2020 Talks, Workshops
The call for participation in the Open Source Hardware Camp (OSHCamp) 2020 has been placed – in the year which marks the Open Source Hardware User Group’s 10th anniversary.
Taking place on Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th of August in Hebden Bridge Town Hall, West Yorkshire, OSHCamp 2020 is looking for proposals for talks and workshops across a variety of themes including but in no way limited to: open source hardware projects, open development practices and principles, interesting projects built using open-source hardware, hardware and software tools, skills, and techniques, and technologies relevant to the open source hardware community.
OSHCamp 2020 takes place during the broader Wuthering Bytes 2020 celebration, for which the call for participation went out earlier this month. It also takes place in the tenth anniversary year of the Open Source Hardware User Group itself, making it a must-attend event in the open hardware calendar.
More information can be found on the oshug-announce mailing list, while those interested in giving a talk or running a workshop have until Monday the 20th of April to submit titles and abstracts via the official form.
All boards are manufactured in the United States
All OSH Park boards are manufactured in the United States, and we are operating on a normal schedule.
Shipping Information and Turnaround Times
There are two periods of time to think about when making your order:
- Fabrication time is the time between when you place your order and when we receive boards from the fab.
- Shipping time is the time between when we ship your order and when you receive it.
All PCBs ship from Lake Oswego, Oregon, and are fully manufactured in the United States.
Fabrication Times
Turnaround times range from 5 business days to 3-4 weeks, depending on which service you select.
Please see our services page for fabrication options.
OSH Park 