A list of our open source designs

Using the Pioreactor
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:wave: We put all our available 3D printing files and designs on Printables.

We recently add a blank vial cap you can use to start designing your own caps: blank vial cap

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IMG_41961920Ă—2640 327 KB

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Added the complete set of printable parts for the Pioreactor 20ml: Printables

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Also added our heater PCB: hardware/heater_20ml/Heater_Jan_0824_Public at master · Pioreactor/hardware · GitHub

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I thought it would be a fun project to try and build the heater PCB by hand, but I ran into some problems. Even without a BOM, I was able to procure most of the components by looking at the schematic, apart from the two metal spacers. I tried to measure them (3mm height, 4.8mm diameter, M2.5 thread?) but I’m not sure where to buy them?

As the gerbers are available it was easy to make the PCB, but as there’s no CPL file (Component Placement List), and the silkscreen does not have the component references either, I’m not entirely sure where each component should be placed. I guess I could try to reverse-engineer it from the gerbers and the schematic, but thought I’d ask first! :slight_smile:

I was wondering whether you had considered publishing the source files? That would make it easier to contribute improvements to the designs, whereas with just a PDF of the schematic and the gerbers we would mostly just be able to manufacture the design.

I was also not sure what the intended open-source license is, as the schematic PDF only says “OPEN SOURCE - FREE TO DISTRIBUTE” and I couldn’t find any license files in the repo.

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Ah good points, thanks @gendor for asking about this. We clearly need to fill in these details (especially the missing license!) Let me talk to the team and report back early next week.

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Hi Cam!

Any feedback on the heater PCB:

  • Hints on where to buy the two metal spacers?
  • Where should the components be placed?
  • What is the intended open-source license?

Also, I’ve been wondering if you’ve been able to make progress towards open sourcing the HAT PCB?

One last thing: Would you be willing to open source your GL45 cap design? I looked on your Printables profile but couldn’t find it.

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Hi @gendor,

  1. Digikey has them: 9774027151R WĂĽrth Elektronik | Hardware, Fasteners, Accessories | DigiKey
  2. yes that’s still missing =( I’ll ping my cofounder to update this.
  3. We’ve licensed the currently shared designs under CC BY-SA 4.0, GitHub - Pioreactor/hardware

Some updates: We’re still developing our open-source strategy. To be transparent: we are (likely) moving our PCB development from Altium to KiCAD, and we’ll feel more confident open sourcing designs from KiCAD.

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That’s great news, thanks Cam! My two cents: I’ve worked with both KiCAD and Altium, and KiCAD is my preferred tool for electronics development.

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I’ve been using it for a new board design, and have found it comparable or better to Fusion 360’s electronic tool (I don’t use Altium, only my partner).

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