Kosovo trip 2025! Photodump and thoughts!

A while ago I got back from this amazing second visit to Kosovo. I first went out to Kosovo to speak at the Software Freedom Kosovo conference in 2019 when I was working for Libre Space Foundation. It’s been lovely to stay in touch with the team there, help out organise this years conference, and then attend and do a few talks, lectures and workshops. Of course it's also very fun to socialise and hang with a global cross section of the open source culture scene.

The SFK conference was held over 2 days, but I don’t like to travel/fly without maximising my usefulness these days so we extended my program with some days giving lectures and visiting local tech companies. I gave a general lecture about my work and opensource at FIEK to a group of ICT undergraduates, I gave more specific lectures on designing for opensource and OSHWA certification to UBT Mechatronics undergraduates as well as a similar lecture to some Masters students in Computer Sciences.

Over the conference I gave a long workshop each day with Saturday being an “Introduction to FreeCAD for CAD beginners” and on the Sunday a run through “Designing a PCB for fabrication with KiCad.” Also on the Sunday I gave a keynote address “Outside the Locked Box, Why opensource IS innovation”. 

 

Between all of this I got to hang with brilliant friends old and new. Lis and the crew at Prishtina hackerspace know not only how to do hospitality, but also how to brew amazing beers and distil amazing raki. Conversation flows, in Kosovo you are never far away from a friendly but passionate talk about politics and history. I made some amazing new friends and contacts whilst here. In particular a couple of young volunteers at the Hackerspace, Jona and Jora who were so great to hang out with. 

As I write this my attention is slightly pulled to the next conference, FOSDEM, on which I am doing a little voluntary work as a dev room manager, but I look forward to picking up with the FSK team as and when to support next years conference. Oh and if you are into opensource or open culture… get out to Kosovo for this. It’s a fabulous event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE ISSUE 3 Out Now! Open Hardware theme!

 

Indeed! It's that time again, I'm incredibly pleased to say that SOURCE issue 3 is out now. This issue's theme is Opensource Hardware and there are tutorials on FreeCAD and KiCad, two giants in the open hardware development world! Rounded out with an Inkscape tutorial that complements the KiCad and a tutorial on how to get your project certified as opensource by OSHWA you have everything you need to make some cool open hardware! 

 As ever SOURCE is pay as you feel, there are donation links peppered through the PDF, please do donate if you can, each issue represents many many days of work. However, if you aren't in a position to donate, much love and solidarity to you, I hope you enjoy reading SOURCE. You can download the PDF either via the Github repository, or it's on a Google Drive here. 

Enjoyed appearing on the OSHWA Monthly Show and Tell

 

 

Last week I was invited to take part in the Open Source Hard Ware Association (OSHWA) monthly Show and Tell Livestream. The monthly show and tell tends to gather a few people from the previous months batch of OSHWA certified projects to chat about the project and more. I'd certified my Magnetic PCB Clamps design which is a small tool I designed which, as well as being a handy and versatile tool, is also a beginners FreeCAD tutorial in the upcoming SOURCE issue 3 magazine. 

Anyhoo, I had a fab time with Sid, lot's of laughter but also lots of heart warming discussion of why open hardware is the true way :) Thanks again to Sid and the team for having me.

A Wonderful Opensource Controller, for TOUV and more!

 

 

After building and testing the Tiny Opensource Underwater Vehicle (TOUV) one of the first real life opportunities to show it off was the excellent Liverpool Makefest. Held on July 5th this was the 8^th Makefest, but due to Covid, was celebrating 10 years of Makefest. It, as ever, was an excellent day. If you have no clue what I am on about, TOUV is available on a repo here, there is a video of it in underwater action on this post, and there's an article about it in the current issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.

Back to Makefest, as a solo maker it’s hard to get around these events but close to my stand of rockets, robots, and of course, submarines, was the excellent DoEsLiverpool stand. In turn on that stand were the fabulous Chris Huffee and Snoof Kakkekop from Steam Engineers. Steam Engineers work tirelessly to make making and learning fun and accessible with a focus and specialism in working with neuro divergent young people. Chris and Snoof looked at TOUV and we reminisced a little about the early Makefest workshops with Lego Submarines. At the end of the day it seemed fitting to slip Steam Engineers a couple of TOUV kits I’d brought in case anyone was interested. What follows is a testament to the power of opensource!

A few weeks ago I got some messages that Steam Engineers were working on an opensource control board for TOUV that also could be used for all manner of different projects. I then met up with Chris and Snoof at another maker event in North Wales and Chris placed the amazing controller design in my hands! Chris has used KiCad to create a large custom PCB with a Raspberry Pi RP2350 powering the device, there’s a “Cheap Yellow Display” equivalent board plugged in and a couple of joysticks on board, with a neat FreeCAD design for large easy to grab 3D printed handles. Two Toshiba TB6612FNG motor driver IC’s are also included giving 4 channels of motor control. There’s a large LiPo on the back and it can be programmed and charge the LiPo via the USB C. Best of all Chris and Snoof have created a custom prototype firmware, booting the device, it not only shows a lovely playful display, it also provides differential thrust to the thrusters allowing for a much finer piloting experience.

 It's such a lovely thing when people build something in response to or as an addition to something you've made and it always, none more so than in this case, creates something greater than the sum of it's parts. Fab. 

FreeCAD Tetrapods!

I've seen a lot of Tetrapods recently... they seem perhaps to be the next Blåhaj having been spotted all over the #why25 hashtag. I'm imagining they'll be spotted out at FOSDEM and EMF camp next year... on searching though I couldn't find anyone explaining how to draw one up in your favourite opensource CAD FreeCAD! So, instead of concentrating on earning a decent living, I've spend some time this afternoon making this little video above about how to whip one up! 

Do give me a follow over on Makertube, it's a an excellent platform and I'm committed to putting content there in the future. Also feel free to hit that KoFi button to support my never ending nonsense (most of which doesnt pay!)

Parachute Manufacture with Opensource Toolchains - Ballute Design

 

A while ago I had the great pleasure of an online call/meeting with Mads Stenfatt from Copenhagen Suborbitals. I've been interested in Ballute parachute designs for a while and was interested to hear about Mads approaches. He was incredibly kind and shared lot's of really interesting practice and tips from his projects. As an aside it's the only video call I can remember where both people sat with their hard copies of the TK Knacke recovery systems book discussing content! Supergeeky and validating. Anyway, during the call I kept thinking about how FreeCAD and Inkscape could be tremendously useful to Ballute and Parachute design and construction and have been wanting to put together this little video ever since.

Magnet PCB Clamps.

 

I've been tinkering with this idea for a little while and designing and printing a few iterations. It's my take on magnetic clamp posts for, primarily PCB's, but also super useful as a helping hand for many items. There's not a huge amount to them, designed in FreeCAD, there are 3 small parts to print. The base has a captive M4 nut and a captive 12mm diameter x 2mm thick Neodymium magnet. Above that a 40mm machine screw/bolt has a compression spring under a floating clamp section and an upper clamp section at the top. They work, even if this sounds like blowing my own trumpet, incredibly well!

For a base there are lots of options. I've used mine stuck to a random piece of invar steel that's been lurking in my shed for an age, but also they can clamp to say a small tobacco tin, or a really  nice option can be a small whiteboard. 

I may well make up a few sets to put on my Tindie store, and I'm also going to chuck the repository (where you can download all the files) in for OSHWA certification.