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Everything about Open-source hardware

Hardware whose design source files are made available

Open-source hardware is hardware whose design source files — schematics, CAD files, bill of materials — are made publicly available, allowing anyone to study, modify, make and distribute the hardware. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and apply a similar concept to a variety of components. It is sometimes, thus, referred to as free and open-source hardware (FOSH), meaning that the design is easily available ("open") and that it can be used, modified and shared freely ("free"). The term usually means that information about the hardware is easily discerned so that others can make it – coupling it closely to the maker movement. Hardware design, in addition to the software that drives the hardware, are all released under free/libre terms. The original sharer gains feedback and potentially improvements on the design from the FOSH community. There is now significant evidence that such sharing can drive a high return on investment for the scientific community. Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: Open-source hardwareA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Agilicious: Open-source and open-hardware agile quadrotor for vision-based flightInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: Practical ArduinoThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: Building Research Equipment with Free, Open-Source HardwareCited 494 times
  5. Go sideways: Open-design movementA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: Journal of Open HardwareA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. History
  2. Forms of open-source hardware
  3. Licenses
  4. Development
  5. Open-source labs
  6. Business models
  7. Reception and impact

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics