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Open Source Hardware Projects For A Better Tomorrow!
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Here's a list of five major open source hardware projects that carry the potential to change the tech world.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2012:
Alongside the software domain, the open source community seems to be fast spreading its wings across the hardware world too. The move is getting appreciative response from tech giants, as Facebook has reportedly released the plans for energy-efficient data centre technology via Open Compute. Open Source website The H lists down five major open source hardware projects that carry the potential to change the tech world.
RepRap
A manufacturing process called Rapid Prototyping (RP) has been around since late 1980s. It is effectively used for manufacturing and later joining various components together to form a gadget with the help of a 3D computer model that is fed into the machine. But, on the downside, the machines that use this process come at an expensive price tag starting from tens of thousands of pounds.
Addressing the cost issue, in 2004, Bath University's Adrian Bowyer composed an essay titled Wealth without Money where he proposed an RP machine that would “self-copy, but not self-assemble”. But it was only in early 2007 that the first replicating rapid prototyper, (RepRap) came into existence. With parts printed using a commercial RP machine, it was only a matter of months before a second RepRap had been assembled from parts printed using the first.
The total expenditure for the materials required to build a RepRap comes somewhere around €350. It must also be ascertained that the current generation RepRap is only capable of printing plastics, but most of the non-printed components used in its build are commonly available items such as steel threaded rod, bearings and stepper motors. RepRap's open source design carried forward the foundations for a vibrant community developing modifications, enhancements and derivative machines.
Sites such as Thingiverse host a mind-boggling selection of user-contributed 3D designs for everything from anime figures and sculpture, to the body for a quadracopter and a case for an Arduino.
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OpenCores
As much as to the level of chip designs, efforts from engineers are needed to extend open source to circuit boards as well. Modelling digital integrated circuits using hardware description languages (HDL), members of the OpenCores community are designing everything from RISC microprocessors and Gigabit Ethernet controllers, to multimedia and cryptographic hardware.
Start-up costs associated with having your own chip manufactured are so high, but designs are mostly implemented using off-the-shelf reconfigurable devices called field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These contain logic blocks that can be configured to provide something as simple as an AND gate, or as complex as the combinational logic used in an ALU, along with reconfigurable interconnects that are used to wire the blocks together.
The price/performance of a general purpose computer built using FPGAs wouldn't be great when compared with commodity gear, but the technology excels in many niche and specialist applications, such as in areas of computing that make use of dedicated hardware to bring high performance to tasks such as signal processing, encryption and networking.
OpenRISC is heralded as being the flagship project of the OpenCores community and is developing a family of 32- and 64-bit processors with optional floating-point and vector processing support. While much end use of these processors will be via FPGA, the project has seen them employed by Samsung in custom chips manufactured for digital televisions, and has raised over $20,000 towards the cost of having its own system-on-a-chip manufactured.
OpenPCR
It has nothing to do with the PCRs of the newsrooms but rather; it deals with genetics. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a key technique employed in genetics whereby small pieces of DNA are amplified by several orders of magnitude. This goes in sync with processes such as DNA cloning and sequencing, the analysis of genes for hereditary and infectious diseases, and to identify genetic fingerprints.
The reaction requires a piece of specialist laboratory apparatus that can accurately control and cycle the temperature of DNA samples. However, they come with an expensive price tag. But addressing this price issue, OpenPCR, under the GPL v3 licence, is available as a kit for $599. Assembling the kit is said to take around five hours, small hex wrenches are included and the only additional tools required are screwdrivers and pliers. The machine's enclosure is made from laser cut wood and snaps together, with brackets, nuts, bolts and various other simple fittings being provided.
Just as with other good open source projects, OpenPCR stands on the shoulders of giants, and makes use of an Arduino for control and to provide a USB interface. This plugs into a custom Arduino shield which provides connections for the power supply, Peltier, temperature sensors and an LCD display.
The completed OpenPCR machine can hold up to 16 sample tubes and the temperature of these can be cycled from 10°C to 100°C, with a ramp rate of 1°C/second and an accuracy of 0.5°C. Since control is via an attached PC complex, “thermocycler protocols” can be programmed, with a virtually unlimited memory for storing the configuration of temperature steps and their cycling.
Global Village Construction Set
Apart from manufacturing machines and genetics, open source is all set to venture into farming as well. A network of farmers, engineers and supporters, jointly associated with the Open Source Ecology (OSE) have come forward with the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). It is a collection of open source designs for 50 industrial machines that are low cost, simple to construct and user-serviceable.
The GVCS is categorised into sections of habitat, agriculture, industry, energy, materials and transportation, with designs ranging in complexity forms. The set is built into 'product ecologies' that showcase how the 50 tools will work together. For instance, the Power Cube can be used as the energy source for the Car or Tractor, and the CNC Circuit Mill can produce circuit boards for any machines that have electronics.
OSE has set itself the ambitious target of releasing all 50 designs by the end of 2012 and within a modest budget of $2.4 million. At the time of writing, advance orders were being accepted for four machines: the Soil Pulverizer, Compressed Earth Block Press, Power Cube and Tractor. Apart from this, one of the most promising GVCS notions comes from product ecologies where there is a clear symbiotic relationship between tools. This is something that is also evident in projects such as RepRap, where one machine can print the parts for another, and an Arduino can be used for the RepRap control electronics which can in turn print an enclosure for an Arduino.
Arduino
An open source computer designed for prototyping and embedding in larger projects. Arduino takes the form of a compact circuit board providing easily programmed hardware that enables control of all manners of inputs and outputs, such as sensors and actuators and buttons and displays, and is low cost and extremely versatile.
The key to Arduino's success lies not in the choice of processor but in its £20 (for a basic board) price point, and adding to it comes the ease of access.
Upon installing the IDE, you can be up and running in no time and receiving almost instant gratification as you compile example code and have the Arduino perform simple actions such as blink an LED or read an input. An Arduino can be connected directly, or with minimal support components, to a wide variety of devices. These include light sensors, buttons, dials, LEDs, LCD displays and buzzers.
The language used is Wiring-based and is essentially a simplified version of C++ with bundled libraries that provide a selection of easy-to-use functions for things such as maths, communications and I/O. On the other hand, drop-in libraries comprise many shields to provide generic capabilities such as networking and add new functions which bring ease of use to the additional hardware.
Priy Pandit, EFYTIMES News Network
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