### WTF is Open Hardware


> Open-source hardware (OSH, OSHW) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and apply a like concept to a variety of components. It is sometimes, thus, referred to as free and open-source hardware (FOSH)

Wikipedia

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### WTF is Open Hardware

> Open hardware (often called open-source hardware) is physical technology whose complete design files—such as schematics, PCB layouts, mechanical drawings, firmware, and bills of materials—are released to the public in a modifiable, accessible format under an open license. This lets *anyone* freely study, build, modify, distribute, and even sell the hardware (or derivatives) so long as they preserve the same openness in the resulting works.

[ChatGPT o3](https://chatgpt.com/share/680a34fe-ddf8-800a-952d-bc4e23e981f4)

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### WTF is Open Hardware / Examples

# Arduino 

<img width="30%" data-src="/images/03-what-is/arduino-uno-board-tutorial-beginners2-800x618.jpg">

Launched in 2010 and still OSHWA-certified, every rev of the Uno ships with complete CAD schematics, PCB Gerbers, bill-of-materials and firmware under CC-BY-SA/GPL licences. Thousands of compatibles exist precisely because anyone can legally build, modify and sell their own versions.

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### WTF is Open Hardware / Examples

# BeagleBone Black – single-board Linux computer 

<img width="30%" data-src="/images/03-what-is/DSC00505-scaled.webp">

An ARM-based board aimed at industrial and maker use. Its reference design (Altium + KiCad files, PRU firmware, cape interface specs) is published by the BeagleBoard.org Foundation under CC-BY-SA, allowing third parties to clone or extend the hardware (e.g., industrial “Black Industrial” editions).

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### WTF is Open Hardware / Examples

# Cyton Biosensing Board

<img width="30%" data-src="/images/03-what-is/openbci.png">

Created after a 2013 Kickstarter, the Cyton board and its 3-D-printed Ultracortex headset target research‐grade brain-computer-interface work. Texas-Instruments ADS1299 analog front-end, KiCad files, enclosure STLs and all firmware are released under CERN-OHL v2 and GPL licences, enabling labs and hackerspaces to build or customize low-cost neuro-tech.