NeuroGig is committed to developing and distributing open-source hardware (OSH) for the neuroscience community. But why is OSH important? And what do we at NeuroGig contribute?
Frequently Asked Questions about Open-Source Hardware in Neuroscience
Q: What are the influences that’s made OSH development trendy?
- A series of complimentary platform-technologies have matured in recent years, and new entrants to the space are surfacing regularly. Availability of these platforms (e.g. Arduino circuits) save time, effort and money for small-scale developers, because these platform-components tend to be inexpensive with a bread field of application.
- Certain manufacturers of proprietary parts (e.g. Thorlabs) are aggressively developing modular components, widening the range of building blocks for developers.
- To support this, open-source and open-access design software (e.g. FreeCAD, KiCad) have matured to a level where it offers enough features for high-end designs, further reducing cost.
- Forums and communities on the web have made the learning curve much easier to navigate, both in terms of design problems and with troubleshooting during prototyping.
- Low volume manufacturing as an industry has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years due to reduced cost in implementing new techniques like 3D printing. Local, private engineering workshops have become more viable and have increased in number and skill sets available to the public. This was partly facilitated by logistics challenges during COVID lockdowns.
Q: What are the main benefits of OSH?
- Instruments tend to cost much less.
- It offers increased options for customization and flexibility.
- More environmentally friendly, since it’s easier to reuse parts compared to “closed-lid” (proprietary) hardware.
- New developments, improvements and customizations can be published as academic papers.
- Repairs are much cheaper, and can often be done in-house.
- A wider network of active users and developers improves the chances of someone finding and publishing a suitable alternative, should a part for replacement have become obsolete. This translates to a longer useful lifetime for open-source instruments.
- Since designs are shared, users can have a better understanding of their tools – understanding your tools often means better experiments.
Q: What are the disadvantages or problems with OSH in life science laboratories?
- The single-contributor problem: only a single contributor works on a project and is responsible for maintaining/improving it. Often with only initial incentives. This means many projects don’t go past the initial stage, and eventually age and get buried somewhere.
- End-users are concerned about warranty terms and conditions, compared to closed-lid instruments.
- Nobody takes responsibility for support, and you have to rely on the community. Sometimes, the community is not usefully active or skilled, and sometimes there is little incentive for them to support end-users.
- Many end-users don’t have the time, resources or motivation to benefit from OSH
Q: What are the benefits of a company like NeuroGig being committed to OSH?
With our new but expanding instrument portfolio, most of the downsides are circumvented. whilst our involvement amplifies the benefits:
- We’ll build your instrument for you, saving time, hassle and risk;
- We typically offer a warranty on our instruments, and offer full support.
- The company has an incentive to continue development on its projects, and to orchestrate further community involvement.
Q: What else does NeuroGig offer compared to closed-lid instrument manufacturers?
We just started building a library of videos and instruction sheets, which we will share as a paid-for service with some researchers (free to others) who are interested in open-source hardware.
This platform will share video’s of how to perform DIY upgrades and repairs (in the lab, so no need to return it to us unless you prefer to have our workshop do this) of instruments bought from NeuroGig. We’ll share supplier links where components in question can be bought from, and do a step-by-step video instructionals.
With NeuroGig’s platform, your instruments will stay at the cutting-edge.
What do you think of this video library project? Any other suggestions to make it more useful? Please comment below…
