Open-source hardware suits kitchen-table start-up

Seeed Studio noticed an untapped need in the United States from engineers who have good ideas but lack the know-how and capital to start a production line. Seeed Studio’s first partner is Ian Lesnet, whose protocol debugger, Bus Pirate, became the first product of his new company, Dangerous Prototypes.

Interview conducted and edited by Margery Conner, Technical Editor -- EDN, June 23, 2011

OSS [open-source software] is a familiar concept, but what is OSH [open-source hardware]?

A: OSS [describes a scenario in which] you release source code and allow people to reuse it. OSH isn’t much different: You release the design files for the PCBs [printed-circuit boards] as well as the code that runs on the circuit’s microcontroller—if it has one. With OSH, you’re giving people permission to use your design.

What’s the appeal of OSH to a hardware start-up? Is there a problem with losing your IP [intellectual property]— your design? Why would you want to expose that IP?

A: We take as much as we give. We build on work that others have done, and it gives us a jump-start on our design. For example, for Dangerous Prototypes’ [new] logic analyzer, someone has put hundreds of hours of work into its code. All I did was design a PCB for it. The original code was written for a generic development platform. We wondered about the cheapest piece of hardware that could run this code. We ended up using a PIC microcontroller and Xilinx FPGAs and PLDs. They’re programmed with software that’s available for free—not necessarily open source, but free—so anyone can compile our source code. There’s no barrier for anyone else to do it.

If someone wants to take the time, energy, and money to make my things and sell them and, in doing so, publicize my company, why should I stop them? Even if we wanted to, we’re too small. I’m not going to hire a lawyer to go after someone; I don’t even have the time to write a nasty letter.

How did you and Seeed Studio find each other?

A: For fun, I wrote some protocol-debugging code that I posted on my blog while I was employed full-time elsewhere. Pan knows how frustrating it can be to debug communication protocols, so, when he found the blog post online, he suggested that I design hardware that would work in tandem with the software to make a more powerful debugging tool. I had several ideas for what types of hardware would assist in debugging and hacking hardware but hadn’t considered producing a product because of my lack of production and marketing experience. Seeed Studio had access to both.


A: Our goal is to make the hardware available from Seeed the day we publish the design. When we started, we were a shoestring operation, [and I worked] on my kitchen table by myself. We would do presales; people would order the project ahead of time; when we reached a critical mass of orders, we would go ahead with the manufacturing. [Seeed Studio requires a minimum order of 100 pieces.]

How do you handle customer support?

A: We have a forum and encourage people to post within the forum. I try to answer all questions within an hour, but we have such a great community that someone will usually jump in and answer a question if I don’t get to it right away. I couldn’t do it without the community.

Do you think there’s a future in this approach for other US engineers?

A: Yes! It’s worked great for Dangerous Prototypes.