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[on:]

Please help us spread the word.  WyoLum.com is awarding $2000 December 10th to the two coolest open hardware projects!  Entry deadline is December 3rd.  See http://wyolum.com/blog/?p=439 for details.

Justin

[Reply #1 on:]

What happens if a projects submitted but didn't win? Then the project stays open source? For $1,000 USD right, some serious work is involved so opening the source is a hard decision.

[Reply #2 on:]

Only open source projects would qualify to win the grants.

[Reply #3 on:]

What happens if a projects submitted but didn't win? Then the project stays open source? For $1,000 USD right, some serious work is involved so opening the source is a hard decision.

If the only incentive to make a project open source is a cash prize, it shouldn't be entered (or considered.)

[Reply #4 on:]

Especially as USD 1000 is not very much for a development project. If cash is the only incentive then USD 1000 is only good for some very small project.

[Reply #5 on:]

If you had not planned to go OS in the first place then $1000 would not make you change your mind I think.

These guys seem to have some cred, and $1000 is all I need to get a small project off the ground, maybe I'll apply with (presumably) 10,000 others

_____
Rob

[Reply #6 on:]

Especially as USD 1000 is not very much for a development project. If cash is the only incentive then USD 1000 is only good for some very small project.

Not much for a company but enough for an individual or two to get a bunch of expensive toys and pizzas to make something fun.

My original point was, lots of people do projects but not many are willing to share everything for $1,000 considering if they already have a working prototype to get some venture capital or something. This won't convince them to compete I think. But anyway hope someone gets the money to make cool projects. I'd be willing to compete if I had to me to complete my flip box with flip locks or just a flop-knock music box. Here is a video:



It needs flashy case and a nice MP3 quality sound system.

[Reply #7 on:]

Lots of people do projects but not many are willing to share everything for $1,000

Hmm.  Looks to me like lots of people do projects that they're willing to share for nothing at all.  $1000 would buy "someone" enough blank boards and parts to make the difference between "well, I designed this on paper, but actually getting some boards made would be a pain" and actually building enough to sell a few bare boards and have as many as they'd ever want for themselves.  I don't see any that requires actual full productization.

(Of course, I don't see anything in the rules that would cause already-published open source hardware, like Crossroad's 1284 board (or even Arduino itself.)  An interesting conudrum!

considering if they already have a working prototype to get some venture capital or something.

Um.  Not venture funding.  VC is for projects that require millions of dollars of development and/or production costs before you sell tens of millions of dollars worth of stuff each year.

[Reply #8 on:]

"well, I designed this on paper, but actually getting some boards made would be a pain expense" and actually building enough to sell a few bare boards

Exactly where I am at with a couple of projects, and as it happens $1k is about what is needed to get to a stage where I can call for beta testers or even have a finished product. And before anyone mentions Kickstarter it's for Americans only

______
Rob

[Reply #9 on:]

I had an idea that I made into a working demo and demonstrated in my class around 2009, unaware that Sony was using the same hardware and even I bet same type of code and also made their stuff public in a tech show around the same time. I bet their orb controllers and games sell millions but my magic sword is still just a cutout from cereal cardboard box. Next time, Sony, I'll show you who's got the next great gaming ideas . This one really needs a venture capital or at least some serious dollars to prototype properly.

[Reply #10 on:]

There are a couple of levels that an open source hardware project might reach:

• I designed this, and here are the design files.
• ... and I built one with a home-etched PCB, and it works.  Here are the design files.
•   ... and I had X pcbs made, but I only need X-Y, so I'm selling the Y leftover pcbs.
• ... ... and if I sell them all, I'm willing to make some more and try to sell them too.
• ... ... ... and here's a partial kit that includes some of the hard-to-find parts.
• ... ... ... and here's a complete kit of parts.
• ... ... ... ... and here's a fully assembled version.
• ... ... and I've negotiated an equitable arrangement with <well-known-supplier> where they'll sell kits or finished boards, or a consumer-friendly fully manufactured version.
• ... ... I'm going to sell this thing to make <a small but significant profit>
• ... ... I'm going to quit my day job and do nothing but sell these things to everyone!
• ... ... ... and tour the world and do talks about how wonderful open source HW can be!

For a lot of these possibilities, $1000 is a pretty significant contribution.
(I remember when I was working on "Freeduino" with Tony Kim at NKC and a couple other people, and we had pretty much refined the 4 different designs as much as we could on "paper", and Tony said "Ok, I've ordered 100 of each PCB from my supplier."  OMG!  Real money being spent!  Probably ... pretty close to $1000.  I'm sure glad they all worked...)

[Reply #11 on:]

Can I skip straight to the last two options

It's a shame that OSHW actually requires hardware and therefore money. I always go straight to a PCB but 100 boards is real confidence. Although the price difference between 10 and 100 isn't that much so I suppose you may was well assume they will be right.

BTW westfw your avatar has been a broken link for some time.

______
Rob

[Reply #12 on:]

I have two types of hardware projects going, one type is just cool and fun to make, like that music box and car reverse obstacle sensor, beep, beep. Others are more of tools such as shields and serial LCDs. I'm pretty open to type one projects to share the fun. On the tool type or type two, I'm spending major time refining it over and over so not really ready to hand them out for free yet so I can sell them to get an incentive to spend more time, like from that sale I made that earned me a cheeseburger last week . I think more open source hardware can come from university projects since they are for student training not for profit most of the time. Arduino itself has that root.

[Reply #13 on:]

@liudr,

Maybe you can create a simplified - Liudr Creative Display (LCD) - board from your work, e.g. an LCD with a processor that just holds strings and those strings all have an index.

In command-mode you can add delete modify the string table, in runtime mode, you only need to send the index to get the string on the screen. Some strings need one or two parameters that can be send separately. So I can program something like

void loop()
{
  float t = readTemperature(A0) * FACTOR;
  Serial.print("$T$");   // string $T which might contain something like "Temperature : "  $ is start/stop marker
  Serial.println(t,2);
  delay(1000);
}

There can be 62 single letter strings and 62^2 = 3844 two letter identifiers for strings, that won't occupy much Arduino RAM. There are many stories that have less sentences

just an idea ...

[Reply #14 on:]

"well, I designed this on paper, but actually getting some boards made would be a pain expense" and actually building enough to sell a few bare boards

Exactly where I am at with a couple of projects, and as it happens $1k is about what is needed to get to a stage where I can call for beta testers or even have a finished product. And before anyone mentions Kickstarter it's for Americans only

______
Rob

  Sounds like you need a partner "not me". There are a few people on this forum that come to mind.