Here’s a look at the first month of 2021 in Open Source Hardware! In January we had 139 pieces of hardware certified as open source, 119 of those were from SparkFun Electronics. A total of 9 different countries were represented in this month’s certifications. Categories represented were Electronics, Wearables, IOT, Sound, Environmental, and Science. Overall January was all about derivatives – the true way to know if the source is sufficiently open!
In the same month the ProMicro (US001008) was certified from SparkFun Electronics, so was a derivative product, the ProMicro_Boost (DE000102). The ProMicro acts as an Arduino derivative with a smaller footprint, and the ProMicro_Boost adds a feature of charging an externally powered the BOOST battery, which removes the cable the device keeps running on battery.
The Arduino Pro was also certified this month (US001043), which was one of the very first official Arduino supported derivatives created in 2008. Also certified is several pieces within the Lilypad ecosystem, which was the first Arduino derivative as a wearable device, originally created in 2007.
Another Arudino derivative certified this month is the Skinnerduino (MX000026). The Skinnerduino is an Arduino UNO shield controller for operant conditioning chamber (AKA Skinner Box).
The PMOD to Qwiic Adapter (SE000011) was certified this month, which is a derivative of two products from two different companies. The two prior products this derivative marries are the Qwiic system was invented at SparkFun in 2017 and the Stemma QT system as a derivative of SparkFun’s i2c system created in 2019. This board breaks out I2C PMOD boards with the Qwiic and Stemma QT ecosystems of boards.
A derivative is the best compliment a piece of open source hardware can receive. So congrats to the derivative creators and the original hardware inventors! In addition to the derivatives, there were a couple projects that were beautifully designed and deserve a shout out. The Winterbloom Sol (US001030) is a sound project with a lovely design. Watchy (US000936), a wearable, is another beautifully project certified this month.
It was exciting to see the OSHWA suggested “IP facts label” on one of the projects as well and a great way to launch into 2021. The ESP32-Touchdown (NL000004) posted the IP facts label in their source, making it easy to see which licenses were used for various parts of the project.
You can easily include an Open Hardware Facts label in your source, packaging or website as well: https://github.com/oshwa/certification-mark-generator
Finally, the Open Hardware Summit is coming on April 9th 2021! The Summit is the annual conference organized by the Open Source Hardware Association a 501(c)(3) not for profit charity. It is the world’s first comprehensive conference on open hardware; a venue and community in which we discuss and draw attention to the rapidly growing Open Source Hardware movement.
Tickets are available and for sale on Eventbrite. Standard and Backer tickets must be purchased by March 25 to help ensure your goodie bag arrives before the summit and We invite talk proposals from individuals and groups. Submissions are due by Thursday 2021-02-11 at 11 PM EDT. Apply Here and get more info here.
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