The JPL Open Source Rover is an open source, build it yourself, scaled down version of the 6 wheel rover design that JPL uses to explore the surface of Mars. The Open Source Rover is designed entirely out of consumer off the shelf (COTS) parts. This project is intended to be a teaching and learning experience for those who want to get involved in mechanical engineering, software, electronics, robotics but is also an excellent research platform for rugged terrain. No prior skills or knowledge is required.
The OSR has been around since 2017 and has undergone many iterations. It is a premium and robust robot with a unique look, high customizability, and powerful abilities. The hardware and electronics were designed with expansions like a head display and robot arm in mind.
A professional's article about picking and using the right cable for RF use in the right circumstances. Discusses the use cases (aerospace, defense, transportation, telecom, broadcast, medicine), frequency ranges, connectors, assemblies, and specifics.
Full tech manuals for every model sold by System76.
An interactive visualization (with simple explanations) of how large language models work.
LibrePCB is a free, cross-platform, easy-to-use electronic design automation suite to draw schematics and design printed circuit boards – for makers, students and professionals, from beginners to experts.
This software just lets you develop electronics the right way. No costs. No restrictions. No online account. No unnecessary complexity.
LibrePCB is developed with portability in mind to make it running on virtually any computer – including Windows, Linux and macOS. It’s available in 16 different languages, and it doesn’t cost any money. Simple, intuitive, well-known user-interface concepts help to get started with LibrePCB very quickly. No need to study the documentation for days – just start working with it. All files created by LibrePCB are human-readable, canonical and conceived very carefully. This allows to use version control systems on libraries and projects without struggling with unintended or obfuscated diffs. Installing libraries and ordering PCBs has never been easier than with LibrePCB. The integrated library manager and PCB fabrication service can save you a lot of time and frustration. But of course LibrePCB can also be used fully offline.
OpenWetWare is an effort to promote the sharing of information, know-how, and wisdom among researchers and groups who are working in biology & biological engineering.
If you would like edit access, would be interested in helping out, or want your lab website hosted on OpenWetWare, please join us. OpenWetWare is managed by the BioBricks Foundation.
Web browsers are ubiquitous, but how do they work? This book explains, building a basic but complete web browser, from networking to JavaScript, in a thousand lines of Python.
An online textbook about designing applications at scale.
I don’t want this to be Vega’s Opinionated Big Ass Book To Give You An All-In-One Education, both because VegaOpBABTGYAAIOEdu is far less catchy, and because I don’t even think it’s possible. The more I write on this the more I value input of others and other resources I find, and the more happy I am that I called this project Opinionated Guides.
A Guide. That’s what I want this to be. I want OpGuides to be a resource that’s like your friend you can come back to for advice on where to go next, and I think that’s something the internet really needs. Search engines are were awesome for finding information, but only when you know what to look for, so I figure OpGuides can be a sort of curated information source, with the crappy results filtered out, the best resources I know of included, and a healthy mix of entertainment in the education so that it’s not a chore to read.
An updated and curated list of readings to illustrate best practices and patterns in building scalable, available, stable, performant, and intelligent large-scale systems. Concepts are explained in the articles of prominent engineers and credible references. Case studies are taken from battle-tested systems that serve millions to billions of users.
A website with lots of different conversion utilities. Plug in the values, get the answers, and get on with your life.
A site that tells you why keeping a changelog is important and how to keep an informative changelog.
Download a PDF, print it out, instant graph paper.
David MacKay has put the textbook he wrote online for everyone to download in a variety of formats. If you find it useful, consider buying a copy.
Not as mysterious as you might think..
A suite of open source electronic design tools. Uses a GUI for schematic capture. Also capable of analog and digital simulation, generation of parts lists and export of PCB designs for fabrication.
A user-created database of chip and component pinouts. Faster than reading data sheets!
A publisher reprinting rare, forgotten, and unusual texts. Download them as .pdfs or purchase them online. Many categories are represented, from epic sagas to classical fiction, drama to architecture, history to technology.
A wiki full of information pertaining to the construction of sustainable communities, from engineering to water purification, construction, and agriculture.
A pair of books licensed in the Creative Commons (BY) which talk about the architecture of open source software. The core developers of four dozen projects talk about how their software is structured, and most importantly why. They were written so that F/OSS developers wouldn't have to learn by reinventing the wheel, instead there would be a reference.
There are two books, which you can read online and download for free. Or you can buy them as Kindle editions (the proceeds go to Amnesty International).