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Open-Source Lab, 1st Edition: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs

Open-source Lab

• written by Appropedia user J.M. Pearce
• J.M. Pearce, Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs, Elsevier, 2013.
• ISBN: 9780124104624
• http://store.elsevier.com/Open-Source-Lab/Joshua-Pearce/isbn-9780124104624/
• 2016 Open source lab equipment interview on Radio New Zealand - Ogg,MP3
• Elsevier has made this chapter freely available for one year, until November 20, 2020: Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs.

Free content[edit | edit source]

FREE access to select content from Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs.

This guide details the development of the free and open-source hardware revolution and provides you with step-by-step instructions on building your own laboratory hardware.

In the first two chapters displayed here, the author defines the basic terms of open-source software and discusses the rise of the open-source hardware revolution and how it impacts science before exploring five pragmatic advantages to joining the open-source scientific community for both your research in general, and most importantly, your equipment and instrumentation.

Key Features[edit | edit source]

• Numerous examples of technologies and the open-source user and developer communities that support them
• Instructions on how to take advantage of digital design sharing
• Explanations of Arduinos and RepRaps for scientific use
• A detailed guide to open-source hardware licenses and basic principles of intellectual property

Description[edit | edit source]

Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Scientific Research Costs details the development of the free and open-source hardware revolution. The combination of open-source 3D printing and open-source microcontrollers running on free software enables scientists, engineers, and lab personnel in every discipline to develop powerful research tools at unprecedented low costs.

After reading Open-Source Lab, you will be able to:

• Lower equipment costs by making your own hardware
• Build open-source hardware for scientific research
• Actively participate in a community in which scientific results are more easily replicated and cited

Examples[edit | edit source]

See also graphical abstract gallery of HardwareX

• DSTat - OS potentiostat

Table of Contents[edit | edit source]

Open-source 3D Printing for Scientific Equipment

Preface

1. Introduction to Open-Source Hardware for Science
2. The Benefits of Sharing - Nice Guys and Girls Do Finish First
3. Open Licensing - Advanced Sharing
4. Open-Source Microcontrollers for Science: How to Use, Design Automated Equipment with, and Troubleshoot
5. RepRap for Science: How to Use, Design, and Troubleshoot the Self-Replicating 3-D Printer
6. Digital Designs and Scientific Hardware
   1. OpenSCAD, RepRap, and Arduino Microcontrollers
   2. Physics: Open-Source Optics
   3. Engineering: Open-Source Laser Welder, Radiation Detection, and Oscilloscopes
   4. Environmental Science: Open-Source Colorimeter and pH Meter
   5. Biology: OpenPCR, Open-Source Centrifuges and More
   6. Chemistry: Open-Source Spectrometers and Other Chemical Research Tools
7. The Future of Open-Source Hardware and Science

See also[edit | edit source]

• Quantifying the Value of Open Source Hardware Development
• Return on Investment for Open Source Hardware Development
• Building research equipment with free, open-source hardware
• Open-source colorimeter
• Open-source 3D-printable optics equipment
• Open source science
• Open source 3-D printing of OSAT
• Category:Open source optics
• Free and open-source automated 3-D microscope
• Open-source hardware
• Belt-Driven Open Source Circuit Mill Using Low-Cost 3-D Printer Components
• Open-source hardware for science in Ecuador
• The Rise of Platinum Open Access Journals with both Impact Factors and Zero Article Processing Charges
• Professors Want to Share: Preliminary Survey Results on Establishing Open Source Endowed Professorships
• Canadian professors' views on establishing open source endowed professorships
• Equitable Research Capacity Towards the Sustainable Development Goals: The Case for Open Science Hardware
• Towards open source patents: Semi-automated open hardware certification from MediaWiki websites
• Overcoming Chip Shortages: Low-cost Open-source Parametric 3-D Printable Solderless SOIC to DIP Breakout Adapters
• Open-source 3-D printing materials database generator

Will you 3D print your next lab?

External Links with Open Hardware for Science[edit | edit source]

• Open Source Toolkit Channel on PLOS One
• Tekla Labs - Tekla Labs is creating a library of open source DIY (do-it-yourself) documents that guide in the construction of quality lab equipment.
• Open Source Physiology Lab - this site is devoted to the collaboration and development of 3D printing physiology equipment
• Open Lab Tools - U. of Cambridge - created open source microscope prototype that cost around US$800, whereas conventional microscopes cost between US$15,000 and US$80,000^[1]
• Open Neuroscience
• Backyard Brains micromanipulator
• MyMiniFactory 3D printable Lab Equipment
• Sensorica
• Hackteria and more specific on Generic Laboratory Infrastructure
• Gnome X Scanning Microscopy
• Open Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM)
• 3D printed scientific equipment in Africa- "TReND in Africa" (Teaching and Research in Neuroscience for Development) is a higher education charity dedicated to improving university level science education and research in sub-Saharan Africa.
• DIYBioprinter
• 50 Cent origami microscope
• open-ephys - open-source electrophysiology
• smart phone to microscope with inexpensive lens
• Nature Methods editorial on OSH
• Labrigger - Labrigger is a source for open solutions for research. Their goal is to accelerate and enable research by reducing the duplication of effort by multiple labs, and offering alternatives to expensive lab equipment.
• Klavins lab open-source mixture controlled turbidostat - University of Washington synthetic biology
• From Jim Haseloff lab:
  • http://www.haseloff-lab.org/
  • http://www.openplant.org/
  • http://synbio.org.uk/
• SafeCast

Open-source Optical Microscope

• CamBridgeSens
• NIH's 3d printable category for custom scientific labware
• Smoky Mountain Scientific - develops and sells modular, Low cost, open-source instrumentation for electrochemistry, fluidics, and datalogging
• From Gongkai to Open Source - Bunnie studios blog on Chinese views of IP
• Experimenting with open science: Open source in the field and in the lab - Free E-book at Opensource.com
• Open Neuroscience
• openMicroanalysis is a community-driven open source project quantitative electron microanalysis. See: discussion forum. Its goals are to:
  • centralize physical quantity databases and algorithms used for quantification
  • encourage collaborative work
  • provide the necessary building blocks for new projects in microanalysis
• https://open.nasa.gov/ (only software now)
• OS Rodent Operant Bucket
• PLOS Blog - with good list of OS toolkits
• Open and Collaborative Science in Development
• The Cave Pearl Project -uses easy to build Arduino data loggers for hydrology research
• Warwick Open Source Microscope: http://wosmic.org/
• Baden and Chagas' collection at PLOS: http://collections.plos.org/open-source-toolkit-hardware
• OpenFlexure Microscope documented at http://docubricks.com/
• Institute for Development of Advanced Applied Systems and https://github.com/IRNAS/OpenSourceLabEquipment
• Metafluidics - Metafluidics was built to provide a home for digital design files and all of the other information necessary to reproduce or remix a microfluidic device.
• UBORA - The Biomedical engineering open design platform
• Lab on the Cheap
• Australian Centre of Excellence - clip on smartphone 3DP microscope [2]
• Our Sci

Supporting publications and examples in the peer-reviewed literature[edit | edit source]

Making Open Hardware the New Standard in Science @ 2015 Open Source Hardware Summit

Now there are even journals fully dedicated to open hardware:

• HardwareX - Elsevier (started 2016). See HardwareX Gallery on Appropedia
• Journal of Open Hardware- Ubiquity Press starting 2017

MOST Group[edit | edit source]

• Pearce, Joshua M. 2012. Building Research Equipment with Free, Open-Source Hardware. Science 337 (6100): 1303–1304. DOI: 10.1126/science.1228183
• Pearce, J.M. (2015) Quantifying the Value of Open Source Hardware Development. Modern Economy, 6, 1-11. doi: 10.4236/me.2015.61001.Free open access to the full text
• Joshua M. Pearce. (2015) Return on Investment for Open Source Hardware Development. Science and Public Policy. DOI:10.1093/scipol/scv034 open access
  • audio summary
• Pearce, Joshua M. 2013. Free Innovation Accelerator, Analytical Scientist, Issue #1113, Article #303, December 17th, 2013.
• Pearce, J.M., 2014. Laboratory equipment: Cut costs with open-source hardware. Nature 505, 618. doi:10.1038/505618d
• Joshua M. Pearce "Bone replacements and heart monitors spur health revolution in open source 3D printing" The Conversation, Feb 28, 2014. Reprinted: Live Science
• Joshua Pearce Benjamin Franklin would be proud: hundreds of open-source hardware designs for scientific equipment proliferate - SciTech Connect, June 9, 2014.
• J.M. Pearce, "Commentary: Open-source hardware for research and education", Physics Today 66(11), 8 (2013); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.2160
• J.M. Pearce, 3D-printing your lab equipment—it's cheaper than you think - Elsevier Connect, 2013.
• Zhang C, Anzalone NC, Faria RP, Pearce JM (2013) Open-Source 3D-Printable Optics Equipment. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59840. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059840 open access
• Anzalone GC, Glover AG, Pearce JM. Open-Source Colorimeter. Sensors. 2013; 13(4):5338-5346. doi:10.3390/s130405338 open access
• Joshua M. Pearce, Share, and We All Grow Richer, The Analytical Scientist, Issue #0213, Article #301 (2013).
• Bas Wijnen, Emily J. Hunt, Gerald C. Anzalone, Joshua M. Pearce, 2014. Open-source Syringe Pump Library, PLoS ONE 9(9): e107216. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107216 open access
• Joshua Pearce, Guest Blog: Circumventing Science Lab Budget Cuts with Open-Source Hardware. Sparkfun Education Blog. January 23, 2015. Joshua Pearce on Open Hardware for Education --Oomlout
• Joshua M. Pearce. Buckle up for fast-tracked science thanks to open-source hardware. Engineering for Change. June 8, 2015.
• Joshua M. Pearce. Science for All: How to Make Free, Open Source Laboratory Hardware, Scientific American Blog. Dec. 4, 2015.
• Karankumar C. Dhankani, Joshua M. Pearce. Open Source Laboratory Sample Rotator Mixer and Shaker. HardwareX 1, pp.1-12 (2017). doi:j.ohx.2016.07.001 open access
• Oberloier, S. and Pearce, J.M. General Design Procedure for Free and Open-Source Hardware for Scientific Equipment. Designs 2018, 2(1), 2; doi:10.3390/designs2010002 open access