More Cool Free Open Hardware

Since my recent blog post on the best free & open hardware projects I have found additional projects that are are worth sharing. Each of these projects are currently crowd funding for money to get their projects off the ground. This is a great way to build a successful open source project and respective community.

At the time of writing this post, all of these projects are live in Kickstarter and still accepting contributions. For your convenience I have included both the video and the widget…

Howler Open Source Arcade Controller

If you are a true geek then you will either have or at least want your own arcade machine. The Howler Arcade Controller is designed for so you can add controls for 4 people with more than enough button, all with RGB lighting. This is ideal if you have loads of games so you know which buttons can be used. It also has an accelerometer built in so you can nudge the machine when playing pinball games. I will be definitely making a full size 2 player arcade machine for the Derby Maker Space at the Silk Mill of which I will publish the CNC designs for the cabinet. Both the drivers, code and hardware. I think he is only creating the driver software in M$ Windoze, but as it is open source, I am sure someone will be able to port it across to linux…

1Sheeld: Replace your Arduino shields with your smart phone!

This is a great product for testing your arduino ideas and code, without having to have all the electronics on you. This also allow 2 way communication to your arduino, so you can control your project from your phone and visa versa. I have ordered mine and will adding it to one of my LED Clocks as soon as it arrives.

QuickStack: Let’s make it easy!

This is set to be a great alternative to the Arduino, but without the pin limitations. It also looks easier to code when requiring multiple operations at the same time.

Lenzhound Wireless Lens Motor Control System

This wireless lens remote has so many applications when recording video. I think that at the moment it is only the code that is open source, as is based upon Arduino. Would be great if they open source the hardware, but we will see if they do…

Pedal Power — Human Scale Energy For Everyday Tasks

I love this project. While I don’t this pedal power is a practical energy source for many operations, but I do think there will be many that is. If everyone had something in their house that was pedalled powered then I think we would think a little more about the power we use. I do think that it is sometimes a little too easy to just switch something on.