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The process
To visualize it better, we’ve divided all projects into 4 stages, depending on how ready the designs are for experiments.
- Stage 0 – idea / initial concept / work in progress – on this stage there is no working design and no practical experiments has been conducted; some projects might contain theoretical explanation of the process used
- Stage 1 – working prototype – a working prototype of a design is built and is providing some roughly relevant data; it should be possible to copy the design for your own experiments; designs might go through multiple improvements and iterations while on this stage
- Stage 2 – integrated solution
- Stage 3 – optimized / tuned design
All projects start with stage 0 – essentially an idea or theoretical description. All changes will be announced through changelog.
Tenets
OSH & FOSS
All designs files, software source will be available for each design (and all iterations) for everyone, at no cost. File formats supported by OSS will be used whenever possible.
Hackable
Even best designs are worthless if you can’t modify it. We prefer simple protocols over proprietary ones and known building blocks over perfect fit. Which means that most of the design will be based on Arduino-like platforms, and strive to use generic, widely available ICs.
Solderable by hand
Most hackers can’t afford (or don’t have space for) fully professional soldering stations. Therefore no BGA or .1mm pitch packages (unless a widely available module with breakout pins exist). If you have a basic soldering skills and tools, you should be able to reproduce the experiment at your own risk.
Inexpensive
The main purpose is to learn by experimenting, and part of it is breaking things. We’re not a company with R&D budget in M$ (it’s more like 50$), so we want to be frugal with components. This means that in some designs we will have to trade of speed/throughput/precision for lower overall complexity.
Working out-of-the-box
Ever built a project only to spend more time making it work? We did as well, and it’s no fun! Designs should just work, nothing more and nothing less. This includes compatibility with existing cables, connectors and accessories whenever possible.
Overengineered
As hobbyists, we don’t own a clean room or high-precision measuring equipment. And we’re not manufacturers. As such, we can’t provide reliability through tight control over manufacturing process or precision and attention to detail. The only other way is to overbuild – make designs reliable by widening the safety margins and tolerances, which is the way we’ll go forward. The up side – the experimentation designs should still work 40 years from now.
Projects list
Below you’ll find a list of projects we’re working on (or thinking about), together with stage they are on (see above for more details) and direct links to resources (if present). The project selection mostly refers to diagnostics equipment that is based on some measurable physical phenomena; another criteria is that it has to be legal and safe to experiment with (no home-made MRI or X-Ray machines here).
Structure
Each project is divided into few sections:
- Description – the goal of project, information on potential applicability of similar devices and it’s use
- Theory – the theory behind the way a device operates, including working parameters and safety limits
- References – some relevant books, patents, websites and projects that deal with the same issue
- World out there – notable (or very popular) designs, both in terms of devices itself but also accessories (connectors, cables, adapters etc)
- Design – starting with constraints, assumptions and intended omissions, through high level block diagram to mechanical and circuit-level details
- Summary – an assessment of performance, experimentation data and things to improve in next iterations
Project | Description | Stage |
---|---|---|
Column 0 Value | Column 1 Value | Column 2 Value |