Open-source hardware
Careers, craft & community
212 episodes across 23 shows cover open-source hardware. The shows that cover it most are The Amp Hour, Embedded.fm and Hackaday Podcast. The most recent, from 7 Oct 2026, is “Seeed in Shenzhen with Eric Pan” from The Amp Hour.
Open hardware designs, licenses and communities, and businesses built on open source.
212 episodes from 23 shows, most relevant and most recent first.
212 episodes
Ep. 43 - Collaboration in Open Source
Thea Flowers and Lucy from Opulo discuss collaboration models in open source hardware, highlighting projects like the LumenPnP, Arduino, and QMK. They emphasize the importance of documentation, clear expectations, and empowering…
Ep. 21 - Incorporating Community Feedback
Steven Oz and Lucian Che Park of Opulo discuss strategies for managing community feedback in open source hardware projects, specifically focusing on the Opulo Lumen and Feeder. They emphasize the importance of creating accessible 'watering…
Ep. 16 - Open Hardware with Thea Flowers
Thea Flowers, president of OSHWA and founder of the open-source hardware synthesizer company Winter Bloom, discusses her journey from high school Linux contributions to working at Google and launching her own business. She details the…
#007: AI, Open Source, and the Future of Embedded Development: How Much Code Will We Actually Write?
François Baldassari, CEO of Memfault, and Thomas Sarlandie, Field CTO of Memfault, host a panel with Jonathan Beri, CEO of Golioth, and Dan Mangum, CTO of Golioth, to discuss the intersection of AI, open source, and embedded development…
Episode 109: Building robots at home - Dan Nicholson
Dan Nicholson, founder of MakerForge.tech, discusses his journey from a software engineer to building a large-scale open-source bipedal companion robot. He explains how he transitioned from a simple cube design to a complex, 3D-printable…
506: How Do I Fit a Whale Into an Apartment Building?
Dmitry Grinberg, a software engineer known for running Linux on extremely constrained hardware, explains his projects including 8-pin Linux and Linux on the Intel 4004. He details how he emulates a MIPS processor on small microcontrollers…
Benjamin Cabé Nose Zephyr
Benjamin Cabé, Developer Advocate for the Zephyr Project, explains that Zephyr is an open-source RTOS and ecosystem that provides hardware abstraction, device trees, and subsystems to simplify embedded development. He highlights how major…
Ceedling
Mark VanderVoord and Michael Karlesky, creators of the open-source testing tools Unity, CMock, and Ceedling, discuss the evolution of embedded software testing. They explain that while their tools lower the barrier to unit testing, the…
479: Make Your Voice Heard
Carles Cufí, an open source software engineer at Nordic Semiconductor, discusses the company's strategic shift to Zephyr and the development of the nRF Connect SDK. He explains the architectural decisions behind maintaining a downstream…
Open Source Mindset with Michael Gielda
Michael Gielda, co-founder of Antmicro, discusses the company's open source methodology and its application across FPGA, AI, and chip design. He details the development of the Kenning AI framework to abstract hardware differences and the…
Ep. 24 - Open Hardware Licenses ft. Thea Flowers
Thea Flowers, president of the Open Source Hardware Association, explains the spectrum of open hardware licensing, ranging from public domain to strongly reciprocal (copyleft) models. She details how copyright, patents, and specific…
Ep. 1 - The Benefits of Open Source
Stephen Hawes and Lucian Chepar of Opulo discuss the strategic advantages of making their LumenPnP pick-and-place machine open source. They explain how open source design fosters a community that acts as a built-in beta testing group…
Ep. 12 - Improving FreeCAD ft. Brad Collette from Ondsel
Brad Collette, cofounder and CTO of Ondsel, explains how his company uses an open-core model to fund and improve the open-source CAD software FreeCAD. He details the technical challenges of solving the topological naming problem and…
Altium File Parsing, AI Design Reviews & PCB Viz Tools
Eli Hughes, principal at Wavenumber LLC, demonstrates his open-source 'Altium Cruncher' toolset, which parses Altium project files to generate BOMs, net lists, and 3D HTML viewers without opening the CAD software. He explains how he feeds…
503: The Tiniest Laptops
Dr. Emily Lovell, Associate Director of the Open Source Program Office at UC Santa Cruz and luthier at Aberdeen Guitars, discusses her journey from creating the LilyTiny e-textile microcontroller with Leah Buechley to her current work in…
CH32V003...fun! with CNLohr
CNLohr joins Chris Gammell to discuss the CH32V003, a low-cost RISC-V microcontroller, and his open-source CH32V003fun library. He explains how he implemented a software-only USB stack and used the chip to control a Nixie tube display…
T-25-010 : Ioannis Papamanoglou and Narayan Powderly - Engineers transforming how we design, test, and build hardware with atopile
Narayan Powderly and Ioannis Papamanoglou, co-CEOs of atopile, discuss their command-line circuit design tool that brings software development practices to hardware engineering. They explain how their frustration with slow board…
476: Sidetracked by Mining the Moon
Lee Wilkins, an artist and the chair of the Open Hardware Summit, discusses the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), its certification processes, and the upcoming summit in Montreal. Wilkins explains OSHWA's expansion beyond PCBs to…
293: Skateboard Tricks
Limor Fried, founder and lead engineer of Adafruit, discusses the evolution of her Manhattan-based company from dorm-room kits to a manufacturing operation with 100 employees and 4,000 products. She details the development of the PyGamer…
Open Source LLMs with Simon Willison
Simon Willison, a software engineer and creator of Django, joins Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal to debunk an IEEE Spectrum article claiming open source AI is uniquely dangerous. Willison details the rapid evolution of open source Large…
Discussing the Open Source PDK with Tim Ansell
Tim Ansell of Google discusses the Skywater 130nm open source PDK and the associated shuttle run program that allows designers to get chips manufactured for free. He explains how open source tools like Yosys, OpenROAD, and Magic are…
US Semi Fab SkyWater Seeks to Co-Innovate in Quantum, Photonics, and…Free Silicon?
Steven Kosier, CTO of SkyWater Technology, explains the company's unique position as the only US-owned pure-play foundry, focusing on its 'Technology as a Service' model that enables co-innovation in quantum, photonics, and microfluidics…
Ep. 0 - Introducing the OHM Podcast!
Stephen Hawes and Lucian Chapar of Opulo introduce the Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast, discussing the challenges of running an open-source hardware company that manufactures the LumenPnP desktop pick-and-place machine in-house. They…
All we have to fear is FUD itself
Hosts Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal discuss the recent controversy surrounding HashiCorp's accusations against the OpenTofu project, analyzing the incident as a classic example of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) used by entrenched…
285: A Chicken Getting to the Other Side
Carlos Maltzahn, adjunct professor at UC Santa Cruz and founder of the Center for Research in Open Source Software (CROSS), discusses his initiative to help PhD students transition into open source software leadership. He details three…
Open Source Projects Overview: Laptop and Raspberry Pi CM4 Module
Lukas Henkel, CEO of Open Visions Technology, discusses two open-source hardware projects: an open-source laptop and a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) alternative called Pi.MX8. He details the laptop's progress, focusing on the complex…
An Interview with Ian Lesnet - Bus Buccaneer Builder
Ian Lesnet of Dangerous Prototypes discusses the evolution of the Bus Pirate and the company's open hardware business model, which relies on manufacturing partnerships with Seeed Studio in China. He details the technical challenges of…
289: Stamping HORSE on Zebras
Alicia Gibb, executive director of the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHW) and director of the Blow Things Up Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, discusses the legal and business frameworks of open source hardware. She explains…
45: Yanking on a Cat's Tail Is the Only Way to Learn
Dave Anders, who works for CircuitCo, the manufacturer of the BeagleBone Black and MinnowBoard, discusses the nuances of open source hardware, contrasting fully open designs with 'open source friendly' products like the Flyswatter 2. He…
Arduino's Invisible Touch with Massimo Banzi
Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, recounts the platform's origins in 2002 at an Italian interaction design school, where he and colleagues Tom Igo and David Cuartieres created a low-cost microcontroller board to replace the expensive…
Ep. 33 - Guest: Bar Smith of Maslow CNC
Bar Smith, founder of Maslow CNC, explains the evolution of the Maslow 4.1 large-format CNC router, detailing the transition from a scrappy, open-source garage project to a polished product via a successful Kickstarter. He discusses key…
Ep. 14 - Owning Your Data
Stephen Hawes and Lucian Parr of Opulo discuss the trade-offs between data ownership and convenience, detailing their strategy of using proprietary tools like Gusto and Shopify for non-core functions while maintaining open-source control…
Paths into Systems Programming
Bryan Cantrill, Adam Leventhal, and other engineers from Oxide Computer Company discuss the nature of systems programming, defining it as software that runs, creates, or debugs other software. The group shares personal anecdotes about…
Fabless Chip Design with Mohamed Kassem
Mohamed Kassem, co-founder and CTO of eFabless, explains how the company is democratizing fabless chip design through the OpenLANE tool flow and the newly announced open-source PDK from Google and Skywater. He details the economic shift…
523: Bad Experience With Donuts
Elecia White and Christopher White discuss the LeapFrog LeapPad and Odyssey Globe, recalling Elecia's work on their capacitive sensing and custom ASIC technology around 2001. They analyze the governance models of open source projects like…
Renode with Michael Gielda
Michael Gielda, co-founder and VP of Business Development at Antmicro, discusses Renode, an open-source simulator for embedded systems that allows developers to run production binaries on a computer. He explains how Renode’s determinism…
Rethinking Bluetooth for IoT | SimpleBLE's Kevin Dewald | Internet of Things Podcast
Kevin Dewald, founder of The California Open Source Company and creator of SimpleBLE, explains why desktop platforms have been neglected in Bluetooth IoT development compared to mobile. He details the technical complexities of implementing…
287: Joke With No Punchline
Kate Compton, a computer scientist and creator of the open source story generator Tracery, discusses her concept of 'casual creators' and tools that empower non-professionals to engage in creative play. She explains how Tracery and the…
Ep 353: Fantastic Peripherals, Fake or Not Fake Picos, and Everything on the Steam Deck
Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss a variety of hardware hacks, starting with Kokenshaw Tech’s simplified open-source smart knob that uses standard brushless DC motors and an ESP module to make Scott Bez’s original…
92: Everybody Behave, Please
James Lane Neal, founder of Osh Park, explains how he transformed a local DorkbotPDX community effort into a scalable PCB manufacturing business by panelizing orders from diverse users to reduce costs. He details the technical challenges…
Ep 297: Prusa Eschews Open Source Hardware, The Lemontron Prints Upside-Down, and the vecdec Cyberdeck Does Minority Report
Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos discuss the release of FreeCAD 1.0 and a pre-production Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 spotted at Electronica. They analyze Prusa's decision to close-source the Core One printer, debating…
Ep 348: 50 Grams of PLA Hold a Ton, Phreaknic Badge is Off The Shelf, and Hackers Need Repair Manuals
Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss a week of hardware hacks, starting with the data retention risks of unpowered SSDs and a 3D printed PLA hook designed by Tom Stanton that successfully held over a metric ton. They…
Where it comes up14:10
An Interview with Dave Vandenbout - Xceptional XESS Xenagogue
Dave Vandenbout of XS Corporation (XESS) discusses the history and current state of FPGA development, explaining why FPGAs remain a niche tool compared to microcontrollers due to the parallel vs. sequential programming paradigm. He details…
An Interview with Piotr Esden-Tempski
Piotr Esden-Tempski, founder of One Bit Squared, discusses the development of open-source hardware and software tools for embedded systems, specifically the Blackmagic Probe and OneBitC board. He explains the technical rationale behind…
Open Circuits with Eric Schlaepfer and Windell Oskay
Eric Schlaepfer and Windell Oskay, authors of the book Open Circuits and creators of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, discuss their work in open source hardware and retro computing. They detail the design and production of kits like the…
S3 E6: Building Innovation Moats with Open Hardware with Andrew "Bunnie" Huang
Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, a hardware hacker and author of *Hacking the Xbox* and *The Hardware Hacker*, explains how open hardware creates structural innovation moats through community engagement rather than secrecy. He contrasts the Chinese…
Ep. 20 | Dr. Aaron Edsinger, CEO & Co-founder of Hello Robot and Former Head of Robotics at Google on Humanity in Robots
Dr. Aaron Edsinger, CEO and co-founder of Hello Robot and former Head of Robotics at Google, discusses the philosophy behind building practical, non-humanoid robots like the Stretch mobile manipulator. He contrasts the iterative…
Episode 56: Intelligent warehouse robots - Guillaume Doisy
Guillaume Doisy, Lead Systems Architect at Dexory, explains how the company builds digital twins of warehouses using autonomous mobile robots to solve inventory inaccuracy. He details the technical challenges of indoor localization in…
Ep 227: Open Source Software, Decoupling Caps, DIY VR
Hosts Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss the Red Hat GPL controversy and the subsequent fork by SUSE Linux, followed by a deep dive into hardware hacks including a DIY VR headset by Dragon Skyrunner and a solar-powered speaker by Jamie…
Ep. 40 - Influential Media
Hosts Steven Hawes and Thea Flowers of Opulo discuss the books, documentaries, and creators that shaped their engineering and entrepreneurial journeys. They highlight Steven's early inspiration from Everett Bradford's flamethrower and…