Digital Commons Network^™

Free And Open Source 3-D Model Customizer For Websites To Democratize Design With Openscad, Yuenyong Nilsiam, Joshua M. Pearce

Joshua M. Pearce

3-D printing has entered the consumer market because of recent radical price declines. Consumers can save substantial money by offsetting purchases with DIY pre-designed 3-D printed products. However, even more value can be obtained with distributed manufacturing using mass customization. Unfortunately, the average consumer is not technically sophisticated enough to easily design their own products. One solution to this is the use of an overlay on OpenSCAD parametric code, although current solutions force users to relinquish all rights to their own designs. There is thus a substantial need in the open source design community for a libre 3-D model customizer, …

General Design Procedure For Free And Open-Source Hardware For Scientific Equipment, Shane W. Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce

Joshua M. Pearce

Distributed digital manufacturing of free and open-source scientific hardware (FOSH) used for scientific experiments has been shown to in general reduce the costs of scientific hardware by 90–99%. In part due to these cost savings, the manufacturing of scientific equipment is beginning to move away from a central paradigm of purchasing proprietary equipment to one in which scientists themselves download open-source designs, fabricate components with digital manufacturing technology, and then assemble the equipment themselves. This trend introduces a need for new formal design procedures that designers can follow when targeting this scientific audience. This study provides five steps in the …

Open-Source Development Of Solar Photovoltaic Technology, A. J. Buitenhuis, Joshua M. Pearce

Joshua M. Pearce

The rise of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology as a driver of rural electrification in the developing world and a contributor to climate change mitigation suggests that innovations enhancing PV efficiency and scalability could make considerable strides in reducing both poverty and greenhouse gas emissions. The nearly global access to the solar resource coupled to innovation-driven decreases in the costs of PV provides a path for a renewable energy source to accelerate sustainable development. Open-source software development has proven to produce reliable and innovative computer code at lower costs than proprietary software through sharing development responsibility with a large community of …

3-D Printing Of Open Source Appropriate Technologies For Self-Directed Sustainable Development, Joshua M. Pearce, Christine Morris Blair, Kristen J. Laciak, Rob Andrews, Amir Nosrat, Ivana Zelenika-Zovko

Joshua M. Pearce