▼Michigan Tech's Open Sustainability Technology Lab

Contact Dr. Joshua Pearce at Free Appropriate Sustainable Technology

MOST · Projects & Publications · Methods · Lit. reviews · People · Sponsors · News · Updates on Twitter · YouTube

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

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

• 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

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

See also graphical abstract gallery of HardwareX and https://www.openscienceshop.org/

From

Open source scientific hardware is open source hardware used by scientists to do research or for education. This gallery and associated sub-pages are an extension of the book the Open Source Lab, which is about how to make scientific equipment following open source principles.

• 
  The Open-source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs
• 
  Open Source Framework for a Broadly Expandable and Reconfigurable Data Acquisition and Automation Device (BREAD)
• 
  Moving the Open-Source Broadly Reconfigurable and Expandable Automation Device (BREAD) Towards a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System
• 
  Open Source Cold and Hot Scientific Sheet Press for Investigating Polymer-Based Material Properties
• 
  Open Source Inert Gas Glove Box
• 
  NIH 3D Print Exchange - 3D-printable Custom Labware
• 
  3D printable science equipment - 3D print your lab
• 
  3D printable science equipment page 2 - more 3D prints for your lab
• 
  3D printable science equipment page 3 - and even more
• 
  Open Source Optics Library - and your optics lab
• 
  Open Source Laboratory Sample Rotator Mixer and Shaker
• 
  Open Source Scientific Bottle Roller
• 
  Michigan Tech's Open Sustainability Technology Lab's efforts in open source hardware
• 
  Open-source syringe pump - Parametric library of web-controlled open-source syringe pumps
• 
  Open-source 3-D Platform for Low-cost Scientific Instrument Ecosystem
• 
  Free and open-source automated 3-D microscope
• 
  3-D printable open source dual axis gimbal system for optoelectronic measurements
• 
  Open Source 3-D Printed Nutating Mixer
• 
  Open source microscope accessories
• 
  Open Source test tube racks
• 
  Open source centrifuges
• 
  Open Source Raman Spectrometer
• 
  Ultrascope
• 
  The Unique Open-Source Quartz Crystal Microbalance
• 
  Low-cost Open-Source Voltage and Current Monitor for Gas Metal Arc Weld 3-D Printing
• 
  Flypi - Portable device for microscopy, thermo and optogenetic experiments
• 
  Open-Source Photometric System for Enzymatic Nitrate Quantification
• 
  GaudiLabs- Swiss Fab Lab making low cost lab instruments
• 
  OpenTrons - Open source fluid handling
• 
  Plasmatron - OpenTrons derivative for semi-automated culture of malaria parasites
• 
  Pax Instruments
• 
  PNNL Smartphone Microscope
• 
  Open-source Wax RepRap 3-D Printer for Rapid Prototyping Paper-Based Microfluidics
• 
  Open-Labware.net
• 
  OpenFlexure Microscope, WaterScope
• 
  nEMoS (nano Environmental Monitoring System)
• 
  LudusScope-Accessible Interactive Smartphone Microscopy
• 
  CheapStat OS DIY Potentiostat
• 
  BioHack Academy Kit
• 
  PLOS Open Source Toolkit
• 
  OpenIOLabs monitors and controls multiple devices with one unified programming interface
• 
  IOrodeo - company making open source science instruments
• 
  Cambridge JIC - 3D printable programmable digital microscope
• 
  freeLoader mechanical testing machine
• 
  Marchetto Lab - open source sensors and instrumentation
• 
  Open Source Imaging, NMR, MRI, EMF
• 
  EEZ OS Bench power supply
• 
  Open Behavior FOSH for animal behavior and cognition
• 
  Libre Space Foundation has both DIY satellite ground station and OS satellite UPSat
• 
  Openly Published Environmental Sensing Lab at OSU- rain catchment, wind vane, soil moisture, etc.
• 
  UPB Smartphone spectrometer
• 
  Plant tissue culture systems from U. of Guelph
• 
  ECHO Open - Echo stethescope
• 
  Open Biomedical
• 
  Arduino - a class of open source microcontrollers useful for automating equipment
• 
  Raspberry Pi - credit-card sized computer running Linux
• 
  Red Pitaya - open source measurement and control tool
• 
  OpenLabTools - University of Cambridge initiative in open source hardware for science
• 
  Tekla Lab - Berkley's initiative for a library of open source DIY quality scientific lab equipment
• 
  Sensorica - an Open Value Network providing sensing and automation solutions.
• 
  Hackteria - webplatform and collection of Open Source Biological Art Projects
• 
  Open Solar Outdoors Test Field - Solar photovoltaic testing
• 
  Open Source Physiology Lab- 3D printing physiology equipment
• 
  open ephys works on open-source electrophysiology
• 
  Backyard Brains - neuroscience experiment kits for DIY electrophysiology
• 
  Open source 3D-printed 1000 μL micropump
• 
  Approaches to Open Source 3-D Printable Probe Positioners and Micromanipulators for Probe Stations
• 
  Open Source Low-Cost Power Monitoring System
• 
  Open Source Digitally Replicable Lab-Grade Scales
• 
  Open Source Vacuum Oven Design for Low-Temperature Drying: Performance Evaluation for Recycled PET and Biomass
• 
  Open Source 3-D Printed ISO 8655 Compliant Multichannel Pipette
• 
  Modular Open-Source Design of Pyrolysis Reactor Monitoring and Control Electronics

• 
  Physics
• 
  Chemistry
• 
  Biology

• DSTat - OS potentiostat

Table of Contents

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

• Quantifying the Value of Open Source Hardware Development
• Return on Investment for Open Source Hardware Development
• Derisking the Finance of 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

• 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
• Our Sci

Supporting publications and examples in the peer-reviewed literature

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

Open Source Scientific Hardware Companies

References

See also

• Open-source Lab/External Publications