Open hardware you can verify

How to use the files

Six steps from a board record to a board you can build, each shown with a real file and its real output. The commands need Git, Python 3 and, for the last two, Node.js.

A 45-second how-to, without sound, captioned.

1. Step 1

   Find a board

   Every board has one record: the exact board, revision and MCU, each format marked true, false or unknown, and the licence. Ask the database by format, licence or vendor.

   python3 tools/devboard_cad/query.py with-formats step
   python3 tools/devboard_cad/query.py commercial-reuse

   

2. Step 2

   Fetch one board, not the whole mirror

   A partial clone downloads only the folder you name. The SparkFun IoT RedBoard RP2350, its whole KiCad project and Gerbers in 33 files, took 9 seconds and 101 MB, against 4.36 GB for every board, and shasum gives the same SHA-256 as its ATTRIBUTION.md.

   git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse --depth 1 https://github.com/embeddedos-org/eCAD-Hardware-Products.git
   cd eCAD-Hardware-Products
   git sparse-checkout set --no-cone /boards/cad/sparkfun/iot-redboard-rp2350/
   shasum -a 256 boards/cad/sparkfun/iot-redboard-rp2350/cad/Hardware/*.kicad_sch

   

3. Step 3

   Open the design in KiCad

   The RedBoard's .kicad_pcb and .kicad_sch were saved by KiCad 8, so KiCad 8 or later opens them as they are. Its folder holds the whole project: the project file, the PCB, the root sheet and its three sub-sheets. The Eagle .brd and .sch files, 748 of the 4,022, go through KiCad's EAGLE importer.

   

4. Step 4

   Send the Gerbers to a board house

   A Gerber set is what a fab asks for: copper, solder mask, silkscreen and paste for each side, the board outline and the Excellon drill file. Zip the folder and upload it. Here the open-source whats-that-gerber library names each layer of the SparkFun Edge set.

   cd boards/cad/sparkfun/edge/cad/Hardware/SparkFun_TensorFlow_Ambiq_Apollo3-Gerbers
   ls | xargs node gerber-layers.mjs

   

5. Step 5

   Design the enclosure around the STEP model

   Import the STEP into FreeCAD, Fusion or SolidWorks and model the case around it. Measured from the geometry with OpenCASCADE, the BeagleBone AI-64 is 102.5 × 82.6 × 36.6 mm with its heatsink and connectors, and the PocketBeagle is 56.4 × 35.0 mm.

   cd boards/cad
   for f in beagleboard/beaglebone-ai-64/cad/hw/*.stp beagleboard/pocketbeagle/cad/models/*.step; do node measure-step.mjs "$f"; done

   

6. Step 6

   Keep the credit and the licence

   These are the manufacturers' designs, copied unmodified so they can be checked against the originals. Each board folder carries an ATTRIBUTION.md naming the maker, the licence, every file's official source and SHA-256, and what was left out. The 80 boards without a confirmed redistribution licence are linked, never copied.

   CC BY-SA · 225 boards

   Credit the maker, and share your changed design under the same licence.

   CC BY 4.0 · 21 boards

   Credit the maker.

   MIT, BSD or Apache-2.0 · 7 boards

   Keep the licence text with every copy. Each of these boards' ATTRIBUTION.md carries it, verbatim.

   Raspberry Pi's grant in 0BSD wording · 1 board

   Nothing: use, copy, modify and distribute the Pico designs for any purpose.

   

import { createRequire } from "node:module";
const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
const whatsThatGerber = require("whats-that-gerber");
const names = process.argv.slice(2);
const types = whatsThatGerber(names);
for (const n of names) {
  const t = types[n];
  console.log(`${n.padEnd(42)} ${t.side ?? "-"} ${t.type ?? "unknown"}`);
}

import { createRequire } from "node:module";
import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
const occt = await require("occt-import-js")();
for (const path of process.argv.slice(2)) {
  const r = occt.ReadStepFile(new Uint8Array(readFileSync(path)), null);
  const lo = [Infinity, Infinity, Infinity], hi = [-Infinity, -Infinity, -Infinity];
  let tris = 0;
  for (const m of r.meshes) {
    const p = m.attributes.position.array;
    for (let i = 0; i < p.length; i += 3) for (let k = 0; k < 3; k++) { lo[k] = Math.min(lo[k], p[i + k]); hi[k] = Math.max(hi[k], p[i + k]); }
    tris += m.index.array.length / 3;
  }
  const d = hi.map((h, k) => (h - lo[k]).toFixed(1));
  console.log(`${path.split("/").pop()}: ${r.success ? "ok" : "failed"}, ${r.meshes.length} parts, ${tris} triangles, ${d.join(" x ")} mm`);
}

KiCad boards and schematics

Rendered with KiCanvas straight from the manufacturers' .kicad_pcb and .kicad_sch files: copper on four layers, pads, vias, silkscreen and the full schematic sheet.

Eagle boards

748 of the mirrored files are Eagle sources. These were drawn from the board XML itself: top copper in red, bottom copper in blue, pads, vias, silkscreen and the board outline.

Gerber fabrication files

What a board house receives: ten Gerber and drill layers from the SparkFun Edge archive, stacked into the top and bottom of the finished board.

3D models

25 boards have a verified STEP model. Each of these was tessellated with OpenCASCADE and lit in three.js. The shapes and positions are the manufacturer's model; the shading colours are the renderer's and can differ from the colours in the file.

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