Start with a video clip

Jonathan Carterco-organizer of the Amsterdam IoT metup group “sensemakers”

co-founder of Glimworm and Glimworm Beacons

initiator of the Amsterdam iBeacon and IoT Living Lab “The beacon mile”

IoT mentor at Startup Bootcamp

“Open Hardware”

Together we will cover• Electric Imp

• Kickstarter

• Arduino

• Raspberry pi

• 3d printing

• meetup.com

• The maker movement

• Bluetooth Low Energy

• Air quality Egg

• LoRaWAN

• KEY TIMELINE EVENTS

The Electric imp

c.2011

The Genius of Arduino

? ?

? ?

Standardisation

Standardised format, voltage,

peripheral connections, and

programming language

1

Integrated environmentEasy to develop, Easy to manage

libraries, Same code works on

ALL arduinos

2

Completely open source

Which leads to many specialised

clones being made and sold. This

example is of wearable projects

3

ExtendableBy stacking “sheields” on to the

standard arduino you can add

features missing from the

original

4

Arduino Clone

Name : Sparc Core

* Much Smaller

* Integrated WIFI

* funded on Kickstarter

Arduino Clone

Name : Digispark

* Tiny!

* cheap

* funded on Kickstarter

Arduino Clone

Name : RFDUINO

Tiny!

Wireless

funded on Kickstarter

• My favourite - the SODAQ

• Built in SOLAR, Battery, RTC and all possible communications via a BEE slot

Arduino Clone

Name : SODAQ

* Integrated SOLAR +

Rechargable battery

* plug and play connectors

* plug and play

communications (WIFI,3G,

LoRa, more)

* funded on Kickstarter

* 100% Dutch

What does this all mean?

— well, it’s all about the free market principle of Supply and Demand —

First, lets roll back the clock to 2009/2010

iPhone

Fast, affordable

mobile bandwidth

An audience for

your work

Result

Explosion in

talented ‘home’

developers

expanding their

skills and selling

independently

+

+

=

BOOM!!

Are there similar factors driving Open

Hardware?

What do you need to make a product?

A nicely designed and produced

casing , appealing to the eye yet

durable

1

Answer - 3D printing

There is CHEAP and EXPENSIVE 3d printing.

* CHEAP melts plastics and adds them in layers

* EXPENSIVE uses powder and lasers

* Design software can be free

* Professional services like ShapeWays can print

the expensive way for you

* 3D hubs can connect supply and demand

* can also be found at FABLABS

Laser Cutting, CNC milling, Vacuforming

3d Printing is only for small volumes, therefore

most people also use :

* Laser cutting - cut out blocks of material

* CNC milling - to form larger wood structures

* Vacuforming - to vacuum over a mould

* Found at FABLABS

What do you need to make a product?

A circuit board - “The guts”2

Step 1 - Arduino or Single board computer

You can prototype all the electronics you need

using either an Arduino (or clone) for simpler

solutions or a Single Board Computer , such as a

raspberry pi or Beaglebone.

All these habe “GPIO” which means holes you

can plugg in sensors and actuators (sensors

read input, actuators do something)

Step 2 - Design your own hardware

You can use a “breadboard” , or

“large thing with lots of holes” to

start with and then design a

custom board using Open Source

software like “Eagle”

Send this off to any one of

dozens of companies and receive

it back in a few days

Step 2 - Make your own hardware

When you have made small

volumes you can ask a

professional service to

manufacture it for you

components can be sourced from

the exploding number of

electronics webshops - or from

China via DealExtreme

What do you need to make a product?

Add communication protocols -

mostly these have to be licensed

3

Answer - use readymade components

For communications you normally need to use

an existing components. We saw the Electric

imp at the start of the presentation but we need

more open components - here is a selection

which are easy to use

Bluetooth Low Energy $6.00

WIFI - $3.50

RF - $1.50 LoRaWAN - $18.00

What do you need to make a product?

You need to get some capital

together to make a few hundred

4

Answer - Kickstarter

Kickstarter allows you to sell your first few

hundred items without using your own capital

It is also a great platform for publicity

SparcCore : goal 10k, raised 567k

Digispark : goal 5k, raised 315k

RFDuino : goal 5k, raised 352k

Air Quality Egg : goal 39k, raised 145k

TTN : goal 140k, raised 210k

2012 2013 2014 2015

BOOM!!2001

2009

2005

cortex m0+

ConclusionSince 2012 the conditions have been right for the open

hardware movement to explode and it has

Key challenges still remain in terms of low power operation and security - however most other barriers

have been removed

If you want to learn , find you nearest FAB LAB, subscribe to MAKE magazine, join a meetup group and

GO!