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Lasersaur on kickstarter.com wants $10k to develop an open source laser cutter
by Bryan Bishop 31 May '10

31 May '10

Lasersaur http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/405545346/lasersaur-open-source-laser-c… """ The idea is simple: Design a laser cutter and make the building process repeatable for others. Here's the thing. Laser cutters are traditionally expensive ($30,000 to as much as you can spend) and there are a lot of artist, hackers, architects, designers, DIYers who could do great things with them- if they could afford one, or even get regular access to one. Pretty much anybody who is a maker could benefit from a laser cutter. Unfortunately, turnkey systems are expensive, and there isn't really a clear and simple way to build one. We can change this: with roughly six month of R&D time we can develop a laser cutter which anyone can build, use, and maintain. Most importantly this system will be open source which means anyone can improve and modify the design. Everyone should be able to have a laser cutter! Our goal is to design a 100W machine which is capable of cutting 1/2" (12.5mm) acrylic, wood, multiple layers of fabric or thin sheet metal. Why Laser cutters are a key technology for making things. Remember when people couldn't make their own videos, CDs or print out photos? Me neither (at least we try to forget). In many areas of media, the last century was quite the read-only culture where a few gatekeepers would sit on the means to produce everything. Not the best situation for creativity or for people with lots of cool ideas but no cash. When you look at robotics and fabrication this is still the case. In 2010, a reasonable laser cutter is still well over 30k and therefore outside the budget of most of us. However, we are at a point where this can change. We believe we are able to design a laser cutter that can be built for under 5k (a 100W version) and a budget version (25W) for under 3k. It would be completely open source and repeatable. How this will go down First of all, we need your support! Your pledge is what makes this project possible. Once our funding goal is reached, the first prototype will be formulated. With material testing and debugging underway we can make a solid alpha system in about 6 months. At this point, start checking your snail mail box for the alpha kit (see pledges on how to get one). Once our alpha testers have had a chance to geek out for a few months, we will launch into beta with the beta testers. Then collaborators. Our goal is to launch publicly within a few months thereafter, releasing the project, documentation and schematics to the greater good. We will offer the Lasersaur open source system as kits available to the public as well as offer documentation online for anyone wishing to build their system from scratch. Who we are We (addie and stefan) are alumi from NYU's ITP and more recently fellows at Eyebeam in New York City. Both are institutions dedicated to open source culture and experimentation with cutting edge technology. As individuals, and as collaborators, we have been designing open source software since 2002, hardware since 2006, and like sharing our ideas with the bigger community. Our first open source hardware system was launched in 2007 (CUBIT: the multitouch system, as well as the later Touchkit, 2008). These systems were covered internationally and nationally by media such as MIT Technology Review, The Economist, Der Standard and even CNN. Over the last half a decade, our open source hardware has been built and used by hundreds of people, labs and research universities or institutions. We believe that people should think globally and act locally and the open source movement has been instrumental for this. """ I was kicking around the same idea with a fellow in Austin, TX a while back but we had a sub-$1000 price target. I wonder if these eyebeam fellows will be wise enough to use EMC2? I hope so. - Bryan http://heybryan.org/ 1 512 203 0507

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Thursday's meeting.
by Andrew Back 25 May '10

25 May '10

Hello, Just a quick note to remind people that if they are planning to come along on Thursday and have as yet not registered, to please do so as we are almost at capacity. http://oshugsust.eventbrite.com/ Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Back mailto:andrew@osmosoft.com http://carrierdetect.com

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Defensive Patent License
by Bryan Bishop 19 May '10

19 May '10

(I'll be currating responses at the openmanufacturing.org group, if anyone is interested in hearing all the responses..) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: shazzner <shazzner(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, May 19, 2010 at 10:29 AM Subject: [austin-hacker-space] Defensive Patent License To: Austin Hackerspace <austin-hacker-space(a)googlegroups.com> There is some new scuttlebutt over Defensive Patent Licenses as a way out for open-source software companies to avoid patent litigation against producing entities. I think this might be work for hardware along with software too, so we might see a Hackerspace defensive patent pool. Discuss. http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/05/will-defensive-patent-license-be-ab… http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/05/dpl-and-fair-troll-business-model-m… -- - Bryan http://heybryan.org/ 1 512 203 0507

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Open Hardware Licensing and Models for Sustainability, 27th May.
by Andrew Back 09 May '10

09 May '10

Hello, For our second meeting we've presentations from Andrew Katz on licensing Open Source Hardware projects and a representative from Pay It Forward on Altruistic 3D printing using RepRap. - Free and open source software is mainstream. Free and open hardware isn't. Andrew is increasingly involved in open hardware, and considers what, if anything, is different about hardware which makes open projects a challenge, and whether it is possible to construct a licence, like the GPL, which has a copyleft element applicable to hardware. Andrew Katz is a partner at Moorcrofts LLP, a boutique law firm in England's Thames Valley and advises a wide range of businesses on free and open source related issues. He has lectured and published widely on the subject and is a founder editor of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review. Before becoming a solicitor, he trained as a barrister, and moonlighted as a programmer during his studies at Bar School, programming in Turbo Pascal. He has released software under the GPL. - Pay It Forward — Alturistic 3D Printing Pay It Forward is a movement to bootstrap the thingiverse using RepStrap machines to print parts to help other people get started with RepRap machines. Please register to attend via http://oshugsust.eventbrite.com and share via http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5849274/ . And thanks to Paul for further updates to http://oshug.org, including a shiny new logo! Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Back mailto:andrew@osmosoft.com http://carrierdetect.com

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Fwd: [GOSH] One week left to contribute to GOSH! publication
by Bryan Bishop 06 May '10

06 May '10

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Daniel Jolliffe <daniel(a)danieljolliffe.ca> Date: Wed, May 5, 2010 at 3:05 PM Subject: [GOSH] One week left to contribute to GOSH! publication To: GOSH! - Grounding Open Source Hardware <gosh(a)piksel.no> Hello all: here's the link to the provisional GOSH! publication. this version is pretty rough: we will begin text editing correcting typos in this version in the coming days. Layout stats in about 5 days, and we plan to be finished in eight. So, if you have something to contribute, now is the time! http://www.gosh2009.ca/wiki/index.php/Publication_Draft_May5 Daniel _______________________________________________ GOSH mailing list GOSH(a)piksel.no https://piksel.no/mailman/listinfo/gosh -- - Bryan http://heybryan.org/ 1 512 203 0507

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June.
by Andrew Back 04 May '10

04 May '10

Hello, As Paul suggested there appears to be interest in doing something Arduino related for June. A few ideas were discussed in the pub last Thursday and my mental notes for this are along the lines of (corrections and additions are welcome): - Plenty of people doing Arduino intros etc, and so little point in doing yet another - What's interesting about Arduino is why it succeeded - suggested success can be largely attributed to community practices etc, and not the tech - Arduino community has diversity and it continues to grow in this respect... So, one idea was that we might have someone (ideally close to tinker.it) talk about the core Arduino approach and perhaps with emphasis on community. And then have a few other folks talk about derived projects, either from the perspective of "end user" or project lead or contributor. E.g.: - LilyPad - concurrency.cc board I think there is a really interesting story here concerned with why Arduino has been so successful, and some valuable lessons for new open source hardware projects. As ever we'd also love to hear of any suggestions for alternative themes that folks may have, either for June or for subsequent months. Cheers, Andrew PS. Details for the May meeting should be up on the website later this week. -- Andrew Back mailto:andrew@osmosoft.com http://carrierdetect.com

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Flickr photos from last night
by Paul Downey 02 May '10

02 May '10

I uploaded some photos from last night, which I've added to a Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/oshug/pool/ and tagged them: "oshug", "oshug:event=1", "upcoming:event=5654428" which means they should show up on http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5654428 pages. Eventually! -- Paul (psd) http://blog.whatfettle.com

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Event #1
by hakan＠linebyte.co.uk 30 Apr '10

30 Apr '10

BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; }Hi all, Let me tell you a few words. Thank you very much such an amazing and friendly meeting happened in there. Cos it wasn't quite technical/boring style. Timing was reasonable and well organized. For first meeting, it was fairly good sessions thanks to David for his XCore introduction and principles of architecture. Also Alan shared to vision of Amino project. Hopefully It will be affordable price, customised System on Chip/Stamp design for application specific solutions! Why double L1(unreachable L2) still in my mind :) Thanks a lot Paul, Andrew and all of you to make it done! Unfortunately I left before pub session anyway next time! PS: It was urgent situation charging my phone to return home. Greatly appreciated! Hakan

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RepRap talk and other suggestions.
by Andrew Back 23 Apr '10

23 Apr '10

Hello, Does anyone know of anyone who might be up for doing a talk on RepRap in May? Provisionally looking at the evening of Thursday 27th for OSHUG #2. Also pinged a licensing expert to see if he might be up for presenting on legal challenges with open source hardware, e.g. copyleft ineffective for hardware. I think this would nice complement a RepRap talk. Suggestions for other speakers and topics welcome. Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Back mailto:andrew@osmosoft.com http://carrierdetect.com

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Scicomp Homebrew Club for scientific instruments
by Bryan Bishop 22 Apr '10

22 Apr '10

Hey all, here's a new one on the radars.. "Proposed special interest group for construction of low cost scientific devices, exploiting new components, open source hardware projects, with particular interest in the Arduino platform and interdisciplinary applications." .. from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/34667068/SCICOMP-HOMEBREW-CLUB or: http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/Haseloff/SciComp/intgrps/assets/SciComp_Homeb… And from the main site: http://www.scicomp.org.uk/ """ SciComp Homebrew Club New special interest group for construction of low cost scientific devices, exploiting new components, open source hardware projects, with particular interest in the Arduino platform and interdisciplinary applications. Interested in building stuff and DIY construction techniques? We are starting a group which will meet after the SciComp meetings - to talk about building low cost hardware and software devices and to show details of ongoing projects. If you are interested, contact Jim Haseloff at jh295(a)cam.ac.uk - or simply come along to the SciComp meeting on 12 Feb 2009. At the Feb 12 meeting, Vincent Rouilly and Tuur Van Balen will discuss the use of the arduino platform for DIY hardware construction. The Arduino platform is well suited to scientific work, where new sensors, optics detectors and computers can be linked. Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP). See www.arduino.cc For more news about Physical Computing and DIY construction, see www.synbio.org.uk/hardware/scientific-computing-news.html """ - Bryan http://heybryan.org/ 1 512 203 0507

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