Learn to code KiCad at FOSDEM 2020

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020 fustinibelgium, brussels, conference, FOSDEM, kicadLeave a comment

FOSDEM 2020 is a free event on Februrary 1st and 2nd for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. Every year, thousands of developers of free and open source software from all over the world gather at the event in Brussels:

The Friday before FOSDEM, January 31st, will be an event for those that want to learn about KiCad development from project leaders like Wayne Stambaugh and Seth Hillbrand:

Learn to Code KiCad at FOSDEM 2020

Are you looking to write code that improves KiCad?

On Friday, Jan 31 (the day before FOSDEM), we’ll be hosting a Learn to Code KiCad session in Brussels, BE. I will be there as will Wayne and possibly a few other of the lead development team. We’ll help you understand how the various KiCad components fit together and work with you to get your favorite feature from idea to committed code.

What you need:

1) An identified bug report (or multiple) that you’d like to address. This can be either a legitimate bug or a wishlist feature that is triaged in our system.
2) A laptop with your development environment
3) A launchpad account
4) A compiling version of KiCad
5) A working knowledge of C++ coding

What we’ll provide:

1) Space, power outlet, wifi
2) Coffee
3) A short introduction to the structure of KiCad and how the parts work together
4) Up to 8 hours of development time with others who share your interests
5) Clarifying insights to your KiCad coding questions

At the end of the day, you should be able to get at least 1 and possibly multiple bug report fixes under your belt and into the code base!

If you’re coming to FOSDEM 2020 and would like to participate, please e-mail me directly (off-list to preserve people’s inboxes). Send me your name/contact info and the list of 1 or more launchpad bugs you’d like to work on during the day. I’ll add you to our shared sheet (to deconflict bugs people are addressing) and get you all of the relevant information for the meeting

Here is a talk that Seth gave at KiCon 2019 which talks about their development community:

and also the KiCad developer panel:

Bunnie at 36C3: Open Source is Insufficient to Solve Trust Problems in Hardware

January 1, 2020 fustini36c3, hackadayLeave a comment

On his talk this year at the 36C3, [bunnie] showed a detailed insight of several attack vectors we could face during manufacturing. Skipping the obvious ones like adding or substituting components, he’s focusing on highly ambitious and hard to detect modifications inside an IC’s package with wirebonded or through-silicon via (TSV) implants, down to modifying the netlist or mask of the integrated circuit itself. And these aren’t any theoretical or “what if” scenarios, but actual possible options — of course, some of them come with a certain price tag, but in the end, with the right motivation, money is only a detail.

Sure, none of this is particularly feasible or even much of interest at all for a blinking LED project, but considering how more and more open source hardware projects emerge to replace fully proprietary components, especially with a major focus on privacy, a lack of trust in the hardware involved along the way is surely worrying to say the least. At this point, there is no perfect solution in sight, but FPGAs might just be the next best thing, and the next part of the talk is presenting the Betrusted prototype that [bunnie] is working on together with [xobs] and [Tom Marble]. That alone makes the talk worth watching, in our view.

via 36C3: Open Source is Insufficient to Solve Trust Problems in Hardware — Hackaday

Open Hardware Summit: Ada Lovelace Fellowship deadline Dec. 15th

December 13, 2019December 13, 2019 fustiniLeave a comment

Want to attend the Open Hardware Summit in New York City on March 13th?

The application deadline for the Ada Lovelace Fellowship is Sunday, December 15th. Apply Here!

The Ada Lovelace Fellowship was founded in 2013 prior to the annual Open Hardware Summit at MIT by Summit Chair Addie Wagenknecht and OSHWA Director Alicia Gibb as a way to encourage women, LGTBQ+ and/or other minorities in open technology and culture to actively participate and foster a more diverse community within open source.

For the sixth year, we are excited to offer up to ten Open Hardware Fellowships to members of the community which includes a $500 travel stipend and entrance to the Open Hardware Summit.

By offering the annual travel and summit conference assistance to community members, the Open Source Hardware Association hopes we as a community can encourage more women, LGBTQA+ and/or people of color to participate in open source. We have many strong leaders and speakers in our field and we personally want to continue the trend upward.

New Hackaday Contest: Tell Time!

December 11, 2019December 11, 2019 fustinihackadayLeave a comment

Clocks. You love ’em, we certainly love ’em. So you hardly need a reason to take on a new clock build, but it makes it much sweeter when you know there’s a horde of people waiting to fawn over your creation. Hackaday’s Tell Time Contest is a celebration of interesting timepieces. Show off a clever way to mark the passage of time and gain the adoration of your peers, and maybe even score a prize!

The Rotating Moon Clock is an interesting take on a timepiece

From now until January 24th, you can enter your Hackaday.io project by using the “Submit project to…” menu on the left sidebar of your project page. There is only one main constraint: it needs to somehow represent time. Microseconds or millennia, minutes until the next bus arrival or centuries until Pluto completes its next orbit, we don’t care as long as you find it interesting.

Document your timepiece with pictures, a description, and all of the technical details. Three outstanding entries will each receive a $100 cash prize, based on craftsmanship, function, and creativity.

Tick-tock… don’t delay. Time’s slipping away to have your quirky clock immortalized on Hackaday.

via New Contest: Tell Time — Hackaday

Latch-Up 2020

December 9, 2019 fustiniconference, risc-vLeave a comment

The next Latch-Up Conference will be in Cambridge, MA (USA) on April 11th-12th, 2020.

The event is organized by the Free and Open Source Silicon (FOSSi) Foundation and is a weekend of presentations and networking for the open source digital design community, much like ORConf in Europe.

Follow @LatchUpConf on Twitter for updates.

Videos of the 2019 conference are in the Latch-Up 2019 playlist on the FOSSi Foundation’s YouTube channel:

Open Hardware Month hackchat today (October 23)

October 23, 2019 fustinihackchat, hackday, Open Hardware, oshwLeave a comment

Join Hackaday on Wednesday, October 23 at 12:00PM US Pacific time for the Open Hardware Month Hack Chat with Michael Weinberg!

It seems like everything and everyone has a special day set aside on the calendar. You know the drill – aheadline declaring it National Grilled Cheese Day (sorry, you missed it – April 12) or National Bundt Pan Day (not even kidding, November 15). It seems only fair with all these silly recognition days floating around that we in the hacking community should have a day of our own, too, or even a whole month. That’s why the Open Source Hardware Association declared the entire month of October to be Open Hardware Month.

Open hardware is all about accessible, collaborative processes that let everyone see and understand the hardware they’re using. The technological underpinnings of our lives are increasingly hidden from us, locked away as corporate secrets. Open hardware tries to turn that on its head and open up devices to everyone, giving them the freedom to not only use their devices but to truly understand what’s happening in them, and perhaps repair, extend, and even modify them to do something new and useful. Celebrating that and getting the message out to the general public is certainly something worth doing.

Michael Weinberg is a board member at OSHWA, and he’ll be joining the Hack Chat on October 23 (National Boston Cream Pie Day) to discuss Open Hardware Month and open-source hardware in general. We’ll learn about some of the events planned for Open Hardware Month, how open hardware is perceived beyond the hacker community, and what’s on tap for the 10th anniversary Open Hardware Summit in 2020.

Our Hack Chats are live community events in the Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, October 23 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have got you down, we have a handy time zone converter.

Click that speech bubble to the right, and you’ll be taken directly to the Hack Chat group on Hackaday.io. You don’t have to wait until Wednesday; join whenever you want and you can see what the community is talking about.

Hackaday Connected World Contest: Four Top Winners Announced

October 14, 2019 fustinihackadayLeave a comment

We love seeing the astonishing array of projects large and small entered into Hackaday contests which push the boundaries of what is possible. Our latest has been the Connected World contest which was announced back in June, and today we’re pleased to bring you its four top winners.

via Connected World Contest: Four Top Winners Announced — Hackaday

BadgeLove meetup in SF on October 18

October 12, 2019 fustinibadgelife, badgelove, hackster.io, meetup, san franciscoLeave a comment

Hackster.io is hosting a BadgeLove meetup in San Francisco on Friday, October 18th:

Have you ever created a badge? Are you currently working on a badge? You are invited as a guest of honor to Hackster’s BadgeLove! Meetup. We want to take an evening to appreciate the hardware heroes who do the often thankless and frequently futile task of creating PCB artwork, shitty add-ons, and PCB badges.

We are excited to toast the winners of last winter’s BadgeLove! contest on Hackster. Come in person, record a video or join via YouTube Live, and show us what you’ve built.

Introducing our “After Dark” black FR-4 service

October 10, 2019December 20, 2019 fustiniAfterDark, hackaday.io, PCB ArtLeave a comment

Our new 2 layer “After Dark” service features black FR-4 substrate with clear soldermask to show off all those beautiful copper traces.

Our “After Dark” service is the same cost as our 2 layer purple PCBs: $5 per square inch, which includes three copies of your design. For example, a 2 square inch board would cost $10 and you’d get three copies of your board. You can order as many copies as you want, as long as they’re in multiples of three.

ad-sdram — Note: click the “After Dark” checkbox if you want clear solder mask on black substrate

Aaron (@TwinkleTwinkie) wrote a nice post on Hackaday.io about making:

PCB Art with OSHPark After Dark

Here are some examples of “After Dark” from Twitter:

https://twitter.com/siddacious/status/1180656479566589954

https://twitter.com/mrtwinkletwink/status/1180254542421774337

http://twitter.com/mrtwinkletwink/status/1177259216442134529

This board shows this off pretty well. It's mostly the sheen/texture, rather than color. The masked substrate is shiny, and the cleared substrate is matte. pic.twitter.com/CnAe4T0wCi

— Dan Sheadel (@tekdemo) September 26, 2019

Last chance for the Flex PCB concept contest

May 28, 2019 fustiniflex, hackadayLeave a comment

Want free flexible circuit boards? Well this is your chance!

Enter your design idea by TOMORROW into the Flexible PCB Concept Contest on Hackaday.io!

OSH Park

Perfect Purple PCBs

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