Open Source Hardware Projects: The Coolest Ideas

When you hear the term "Open Source" you probably think of software such as Linux or LibreOffice. However, there's no rule that says the culture and philosophy of the Open Source movement can't be applied to hardware as well. Which is why there's a flourishing world of Open Source Hardware Projects.

Obliviously it's not as easy for anyone to create hardware as it is to sit down and write code. Likewise, you still have to pay someone to make the hardware for you, but this openly-licensed hardware still comes without the costs of royalties. Anyone can take the design and use if for anything they want. There are plenty of worthy Open Source hardware projects, but these are the ones (in my opinion) that are the coolest of them all.

Project Ara

Sadly, Project Ara is no more. Ending in 2016. It is, however, one of the coolest ideas for a phone I have ever seen. While companies like LG have put some ill-fated modular phone experiments on the market, Ara phones went the whole hog. The idea was to create a phone platform that was more like a PC than the custom, monolithic mobile device we are used to today.

Every part of an Ara phone is like a piece of Lego. If a new SoC launches, you can buy that module and swap out what you have. Don't care about a fancy camera? Put in a smaller, simpler unit and make space for a bigger battery. That was the dream. It would be an open standard so that anyone could develop modules without having to pay a license fee to Google. Unfortunately, economics never quite worked out. Despite Ara being undoubtedly cool, the technology just wasn't right yet. Perhaps we'll see a truly modular phone one day, but for now it's all or nothing when buying your new brick.

Arduino

The Arduino single-board microcontroller may not be all that cool by itself, but almost every cool project you read about on the internet has one of these little open hardware boards stuck somewhere in its guts.

People have built all sorts of crazy things using an Arduino. There are GameBoy clones, drones, music instruments and even small cube satellites that make use of Arduino to make it all work!

Arducopter

Drones are becoming a bigger deal by the day, but they are still pretty expensive. So wouldn't it be great if there was an open drone platform that anyone could get into? That's ArduCopter, an open drone platform project that uses another open hardware hero as its brain: the Arduino.

It might not be the result of a big private corporation's effort, but the Arducopter is absolutely packed with advanced features. As you might expect, the Arducopter uses Open Source software to work its magic. ArduPilot is an Open Source AutoPilot package that lets ArduCopter users plan sophisticated missions for just about any purpose. Pretty impressive for something no one officially owns!

Air Quality Egg

Pollution is a major global issue. People are sick or dying thanks to all the toxic substances human industry pumps into the air.

The Air Quality Egg is an Open Hardware platform that allows you to check your local air quality and see if there are serious levels of the worst offending substances.

The real value of the eggs comes from data aggregation. Owners can upload their location and readings to a central database so that air quality can be tracked on a global scale. It's a brilliant idea and is actually pretty much the only pollution monitor that a regular Joe or Jane can buy.

RepRap

If you've only started paying attention to 3D printers recently, you'd be forgiven for thinking of these technological marvels as polished, factory-made machines like a copier or washing machine. The truth is that 3D printers started out as hobbyist machines made in a garage. Of course, that's exactly how companies like Apple got their start, so it's not a bad thing.

While there were a great many players in the 3D printer revolution, the RepRap is unarguably one of the biggest reasons you can now buy a 3D printer from Amazon with just a click.

Once you have one RepRap, you can use it to print the components for more RepRaps. Combines with a few off-the-shelf parts and this was very nearly a self-replicating machine!

Opening Up Innovation with Open Source Hardware Projects

Open hardware isn't just about letting people make indie projects or learn the ins and outs of electronics. Sure, those are important aspects as well, but open hardware can be found in products that you buy off the shelf as well. They make some devices cheaper or enable their existence in the first place. They also make small runs of niche devices possible and help inventors prototype products that will eventually become a big-ticket proprietary tech. So it's not just a curious branch of computer technology, but a vital part of the overall ecosystem.

What's your favorite open hardware project? Let us know down below in the comments. Lastly, we’d like to ask you to share this article online. And don’t forget that you can follow TechNadu on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks!