{"id":4286,"date":"2021-08-19T09:57:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T09:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newproductioninstitute.de\/?page_id=4286"},"modified":"2022-10-04T09:12:43","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T09:12:43","slug":"open-source-hardware-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/newproductioninstitute.de\/en\/open-source-hardware-2","title":{"rendered":"Open Source Hardware"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Open Source<\/strong>
Hardware<\/strong> (OSH)<\/strong><\/span>

Open source, low-threshold and customizable instructions for designing and manufacturing machines, furniture and products make open source hardware a fixed term of the future.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Open Source Hardware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The term open source<\/strong> originates from the software sector and means that the source code of a project is publicly available and may be adapted. This is done by a global community<\/strong>. It views the source code or the program, and uses and optimizes it. The source code or the program are available to the users mostly free of charge<\/strong>, in order to make low-threshold access possible. The fast and simple adaptation options make shorter development times and improved products possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The best-known open source software projects include the user-based online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the Linux operating system, MySQL, the computer programs OpenOffice, GIMP, and Audacity, and the 3D model program Blender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open Source Hardware (OSHW), on the other hand, is about tangible objects such as machines, devices, or other physical artifacts. Their source codes or design files are made openly available so that anyone:r can study, modify, distribute, build, and even sell the design or the hardware based on it. The hardware design includes mechanical drawings, CAD files, schematics, bills of materials, PCB layout data of printed circuit boards, HDL source codes, and integrated circuit layouts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Initiative of the community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A growing community of companies, individuals, and groups is developing and manufacturing a variety of OSHW products. Some examples include microcontroller development platforms, satellites, and 3D printers. Crowdfunding and the Maker movement are also related to OSHW. But while electrical and mechanical design are often the first associations with OSHW, the field is much broader these days. OSHW can now encompass a wide range of products, from fashion and furniture to musical instruments, agricultural machinery, bioengineering, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, OSHW has been based on collaborative and public innovation. For example, its precursors include the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement, the Homebrew Computer Club, and the hacking culture, upon whose achievements many of OSHW’s principles are based. These movements flourished when companies sold early computers as kits or shipped them with schematics in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This development contributed significantly to the emergence of OSHW in the 1990s. Despite the deep roots of this heritage, OSHW only became popular as such in the last decade. This was made possible by the advent of the Internet, which enabled the exchange of hardware designs, the commercial success of open source software, and the declining cost of production tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Milestone Fab Labs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the production of physical products, a publicly accessible technical infrastructure is necessary. The New Production Institute <\/strong>supports this access via publicly usable production technologies with its own so-called Fab Lab or Open Lab<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Open Lab<\/a><\/u><\/strong> at Helmut-Schmidt University in Hamburg was opened back in December 2016. Inspired by the Fab Lab movement from the USA, Open Lab Hamburg has since created a public access point to 3D printers, laser cutters, milling machines, and other production technologies in Hamburg-Wandsbek.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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