EE Times came by and interviewed Windell in advance of his upcoming Maker Faire talk about best practices for Open Source Hardware.
…Big semiconductor companies are jumping on the bandwagon of open source reference boards. But their chips’ intellectual property remains carefully guarded corporate crown jewels. …
How about a two pen set-up and different grades of disappearing ink for the minute and hour hands? Or you’ve already heard that one.
One of the big problems is getting people interested in electronics at an early age. The problem is the pin spacing on many parts is so small that it’s very hard for somebody new to the hobby to make a PC board or even solder the parts on the board. When I started I could etch my own board at home and assemble it with cheap tools. Having a prebuilt module would help but if you want to try something custom, your talking big bucks for tools and a board house. One possible solution would be to offer pre mounted parts on a board with more user friendly spacing. Designs that use lower density parts for home builders would provide good projects for the first timer. Unless this problem is addressed, you may have to be in college before you make your first electronic project.