Awesome Open Hardware 
🛠 Helpful items for making and learning about open-source hardware projects.
Open Hardware
GitHub repository ↗ synced 2026/8/9
Awesome Open Hardware
Projects
Automation, Manufacturing, and Robotics
- FarmBot - Automated gardening machine to grow vegetables.
- Hacker Fab - Nanofabrication tools for making integrated circuits.
- JPL Open Source Rover - A six wheeled, build-it-yourself, open-source rover.
- Mekanika - Tools and machines for makers.
- Millennium Machines - A project dedicated to designing desktop CNC mills.
- Open Source Ecology - Industrial machines made open.
- Opulo - Project that develops a pick and place machine.
- Precious Plastic - Tools to make plastic recycling as simple as possible.
- Prusa3D - 3D printer manufacturer who shares their work open online.
- RepRap - Humanity's first general-purpose, self-replicating manufacturing machine.
- VORON Design - No-compromise 3D printer designs.
- WikiHouse - Digital designed open housing.
Consumer Devices
- freeDSP - A family of audio digital signal processors.
- Input Labs - Video game controllers featuring gyroscopic sensors.
- Mutable Instruments - Eurorack classics.
- PiKVM - Inexpensive DIY IP-KVM based on Raspberry Pi.
- PiSpot Show - Raspberry Pi appliance that drives HDMI displays as self-updating Wi-Fi voucher kiosks with live weather.
- PiSpot Watch - Wrist-wearable Raspberry Pi Zero smartwatch with e-ink display that generates Wi-Fi voucher codes on demand.
- SlimeVR - Full-body tracking sensors for virtual reality and motion capture.
- Winterbloom - Eurorack modules; Thea has some stellar design write-ups on her blog.
Development Boards
Scientific Instruments
- Biohack Academy - Biotechnological hardware such as an incubator, thermocycler, centrifuge, microscope, etc.
- GaudiLab - Hardware projects for biology laboratories.
- mesoSPIM - Light-sheet microscopes for imaging in cleared tissue.
- Open Gamma Detector - Hackable, low-cost gamma-ray spectrometer.
- OpenBCI - Brain-computer interface.
- OpenFlexure - 3D-printed microscope with a precise mechanical stage.
- OpenSPIM - Open-access platform for three-dimensional (3D) microscopy.
- openUC2 - Modular microscopy toolbox.
- SafeCast - Environmental measurements for the public domain.
Talks
- How Open Hardware will Take Over the World - TEDx talk by Nathan Seidle.
- Revolution of the open hardware - TEDx talk by Bram Geenen.
- Why do open hardware - Talk by Limor Fried (ladyada).
- Get your open hardware manufactured - Tips by Ian of Dangerous Prototypes.
- Open Hardware Projects to Fight COVID-19 - Collection video from N-O-D-E.
- Designing Open Hardware for 21st century science - Presentation by Andre Maia Chagas.
- Why open source hardware is(n't) working - Presentation by David Cuartielles.
- Open source and the future of hardware - Talk by Neil Gershenfeld.
- On behalf of mankind: thank you for sharing! - TEDx talk by Jerry de Vos.
Papers
- What is the “Source” of Open Source Hardware? - Paper by Jérémy Bonvoisin, Robert Mies, Jean-François Boujut, Rainer Stark.
- Emerging Business Models for Open Source Hardware - Paper by Joshua M. Pearce.
- Towards national policy for open source hardware research: The case of Finland - Paper by I. T. S. Heikkinen, H. Savin, J. Partanen, J. SeppäläJ, M. Pearce.
- Open-Source Hardware in Education: A Systematic Mapping Study - Paper by Ruben Heradio, Jesus Chacon, Hector Vargas, Daniel Galan, Jacobo Saenz, Luis De La Torre, Sebastian Dormido.
- Haves and have nots must find a better way: The case for open scientific hardware - Paper by Andre Maia Chagas
- Open Labware: 3-D Printing Your Own Lab Equipment - Paper by Tom Baden, Andre Maia Chagas, Greg Gage, Timothy Marzullo, Lucia L. Prieto-Godino, Thomas Euler
Conferences
- FOSDEM - Annual open source event in Brussels.
- Open Hardware Summit - Annual conference on open hardware.
- Open Sauce - Annual convention focused on science and technology on on 17-19 July
- Maker Faire - A celebration of the Maker Movement, locally organized.
- Hackaday Supercon - Annual conference on hardware hacking and deep-dive technical workshops
- KiCon - Annual conferences about KiCad open source EDA organized in different regions
- RISC-V Summits - Annual summits organized by RISC-V International in different regions
- World RISC-V Days - Synchronized global events voluntarily organized by RISC-V communities worldwide
- Latch-Up - A three-day conference dedicated to free and open source silicon. Hosted in North America every spring.
- ORConf - Another three-day conference dedicated to free and open source silicon. Hosted in Europe every autumn.
Platforms
- Open Hardware Repository - For electronics designers at experimental physics facilities to collaborate on open hardware designs.
- Open Hardware Observatory - Free blueprints for sustainable open hardware.
- Instructables - Instructables is a place that lets you explore, document, and share your creations.
- Hackaday.io - Hackaday.io is the world's largest collaborative hardware development community.
- Hackster.io - Connecting developers where exploring tomorrow starts today.
- Openhardware.io - Tracking amazing open hardware projects.
- Openhardware.science - Make open science hardware ubiquitous by 2025.
- Openlifescience - Program to make Open Science ambassadors in research.
- Thingiverse - A platform for sharing and contributing to design hardware for 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC milling.
- Kitspace.org - A place to build and share electronics projects.
Podcasts
- Road to Open Science - Episode on open hardware in the Netherlands.
- Physics Worlds - Episode on the global impact of open hardware.
- Command Line Heroes - Episode Makers unite.
- A-podcast - Open source hardware is the future.
- Amp hour - Open Hardware and The Creative Economy.
- Semiconductor Insiders - Open Hardware Diversity Alliance.
- Open source hardware podcast - By the Programming Electronics Academy.
Books
- Building open source hardware - Book by Alicia Gibb, on building open source hardware from 2014.
- Open-source Lab - Book by Josua M. Pearce, how to build your own hardware and reduce costs.
- Free to Make - Book by Dale Dougherty, how the maker movement is changing our schools, our jobs, and our minds.
- The bridge - Issue of the national academy of engineering on open source hardware.
- The Hardware Hacker - Book by Andrew "bunnie" Huang, how to design and manufacture open hardware products.
Training programs
Further Readings
- Open Source Guide - A website created by GitHub to help people work on open source projects.
- Wikipedia - General information about open-source hardware.
- Open Collective - Enables groups to quickly set up a collective, raise funds and manage them transparently.
- The Journal of Open Hardware - (JOH) is a peer reviewed open access publication for open hardware research and development.
- OSHWA Certification - Provides an easy and straightforward way for producers to indicate that their products meet a uniform and well-defined standard for open-source compliance.
- HardwareX Journal - An open-access scientific hardware journal.