New open-source hardware, from the Adafruit Jobs boards!

Rockhopper Zoom

Devlin writes-

Your jobs board helped me find work at a company that is about to release some really cool open source hardware! The attached picture is part of what I worked on in Eagle. Named Rockhopper, It is an eight-layer PCB that breaks out nearly all of an OMAP’s I/O, easing the layout requirements for applications needing a computer at its core. For instance, the demonstration, Beagleboard-like, carrier board is only four layers. We have plans to release another demonstration board that can handle up to 9 axis of simultaneous stepper motor control. In discussions with customers its greatest appeal is that it is open source: if we, the company, go out of business or somehow ceased to exist, customers would be able to find another source of the board without having to redesign their entire product line. Of course, margins are pretty slim when it comes to hardware like this that will be integrated into other hardware, so what we are really selling is support and engineering.

So, I guess this is my thanks to Adafruit for helping bring a new OSHW project to completion and helping me find a place that pays me to design OSHW. I hope to see Adafruit at the OSHW Summit.


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1 Comment

  1. Great success story!
    Good luck to you and the future projects at your new employer.

    The future as I would like to see it is a world were patents is a thing of a barbaric past and the everyday business is in custom projects.

    You choose the company based on their competence, their support reputation and other factors (availabilty, cost, if they are local or not etc..) and say “here build this “thingamajigg” for me to fix Problem A with features B, C, and D.

    I honestly think that we will have a rise in the number of modern craftsmen, working locally solving problems and helping with unemployment and showing young people of today the value of science and knowledge.

    Have fun at your new job!

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