

Ask HN: Why hasn't there been open source hardware? - werber

Why hasn&#x27;t there been a viable open source hardware project?
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anigbrowl
There is. [http://www.oshwa.org/](http://www.oshwa.org/)

There are quite a few synthesizer projects that are totally open.
[http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/open-source-hardware-
synths/](http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/open-source-hardware-synths/) lists 5, I
think this one is OS too (or is that just the firmware? I forget)
[http://www.sonic-potions.com/lxr](http://www.sonic-potions.com/lxr)

Also look around on Hackaday and related sites. There's a lot of them in the
synth community because audio nerds are sort of obsessive and like tinkering,
plus synthesizers are relatively easy to build. I think the first of these
projects was the X0Xbox 303 clone, though I don't know if that was
'officially' under oshwa.

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twunde
Additionally there is
[http://www.opencompute.org/](http://www.opencompute.org/), which was
initially created by facebook. I also think arduino may have some open
hardware as well.

As for why they're rarer? Hardware is expensive, has a smaller margin of error
and has had good vendors for a long time. Few companies build their own
hardware, and many that do consider it a competitive advantage (Google
certainly does)

~~~
twunde
Better yet: [https://www.tindie.com/](https://www.tindie.com/)

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dragonwriter
> Why hasn't there been a viable open source hardware project?

Because hardware isn't like software, its got longer cycle times, higher
capital investments to work with it, etc., which means:

(1) You can't get lots of contributors, (2) Even once the design's done,
you've got to get someone to build it -- which takes a substantial capital
investment, and the people making those investments are more able to recoup
them when there is a barrier keeping other people out from identical
replacements, which doesn't exist with open source.

If automated manufacturing ever gets to the point where a fabricating device
that takes in cheap raw materials and prints out computers is something that
is no further out of reach that a decent development PC is now -- or even, was
in the 1990s -- then open source hardware will be a lot more common.

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mallin
Well, there is [http://www.ohwr.org/](http://www.ohwr.org/)

~~~
werber
no, when I said viable, I meant, buy on Amazon. cheap.

~~~
Mz
Probably because, for all that we complain endlessly about the evils of
capitalism, if someone isn't making enough money off of it, there is no
motivation to make it available.

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daviross
[http://blink1.thingm.com/](http://blink1.thingm.com/) Blink(1) fits your
requirements.

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chrisBob
By hardware do you mean open at the chip level? Most of the stuff at Sparkfun
is open.

