Open Source Mechanical Design?

[Robo_Pi]

Is anyone aware of any open source venues for mechanical design similar to GitHub. GitHub appears to be aimed toward open source software coding. I'm just wondering if there is anything similar for mechanical designs. I've been searching the Internet but everything related to open source appears to be software related. I'd like to start an open source mechanical design project but I don't know where to begin. I'm not sure if that can be done on GitHub or not.

 

[vtcnc]

I think the closest thing you will find to this idea is something like Thingiverse.


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[Robo_Pi]

I never saw Thingiverse before, but it appears to be focused entirely on 3D printed designs. I'm not into 3D printing.

I was just told about GrabCAD too, but that also appears to be focused entirely on 3D printing.

 

[vtcnc]

Can you explain how you see Open Source Mechanical Engineering actually occurring in a real world scenario? I guess I’m not following what you are looking for?


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[stupoty]

It's a good idea, it has crossed my mind a few times.

Instructables is sort of an attempt at it, just had a quick look at their site and it seems better layed out than I remember it used to be.

Yours for the making - Instructables

Instructables is a community for people who like to make things. Come explore, share, and make your next project with us!

www.instructables.com

Loading - Instructables

www.instructables.com

I know git hub does host construction plans for projects with a phisical element but it doesn't seem to be set up with them in mind and is mostly limited to gerba files etc for PCB's.

Stu

 

[stupoty]

hears a good one on how to go blind

Modular DIY CNC V2

Modular DIY CNC V2: UPDATE: You can now purchase some of the plates on my website here! The STEP files are ready to be printed or modified for your needs. I build my first CNC about a year ago and learned a lot from the process. As an engineer I'm always looking at wa…

www.instructables.com

MMMMMM lasers and no safety shields.

It's amazing the safety liability you might be opening yourself up to. It's difficult with all that stuff I guess, whether it's carefully controlled or just a free for all with a disclaimer.

Stu

 

[Robo_Pi]

Can you explain how you see Open Source Mechanical Engineering actually occurring in a real world scenario? I guess I’m not following what you are looking for?

I'm looking for a way to start an open source project. The project I have in mind is a human-like robot head. I have the project started. It's based on a full-head party mask as the face. This mask covers the entire head and even had it's own ears. Here's a photo of the mask:



I also have quite a few ideas for the actual design which will include a lot of intricate mechanical servo linkage. I'm currently building the "skull" frame. I also have a lot of ideas for the electronics using STM-32 microcontrollers. I'm totally open to sharing all of my designs, schematics, mechanical drawings, and programming code. So I have no problem making all of my contributions open source, or "public domain".

However, unlike an "Instructables" article, when I first set up the repository it won't be a finished product. People won't be able to just build it using my plans because I haven't worked out all the details yet. What I would like to do is open this up to "open source" so that others can contribute to the project.

The files would include detailed mechanical drawings of all the parts as well as the schematics, and computer code to run everything.

Maybe I can just use GitHub to do this?

I didn't see any restrictions on GitHub that would prevent it from being used for a project like this.

 

[JimDawson]

An interesting idea. Pinterest is about the only place that I know of. Not even sure how one would go about putting something like that together.

 

[Robo_Pi]

I'm learning about GitHub on a crash video course. It appears that all the automated functions are geared toward text and coding.

Apparently I could still use GitHub as the public repository for the mechanical drawing files. The only difference is that I would need to manually check every modification for conflicts.

In other words, if someone wants to contribute to the design they would need to either explain to me the idea so I could draw it up, or they would need to draw it up themselves and send it to me. Then I would need to manually incorporate that into the design and post the upgraded modification. That would still be doable. It's just a lot more work on my part.

There are ways that I could make this modular. For example I draw things up using Sketchup. So I could simple tell those who would like to contribute to the project to make those contributions by drawing up their new components in Sketchup and saving them as components. Then I could just add those components to the GitHub page.

That would actually work quite well.

I think I will be able to use GitHub after all. It will just require manual oversight by me instead of being totally automated.

 

[jrkorman]

On the last software project I workrd before retiring we used GitHub for software source code, binaries, documentation, calibration data . . . Properly organized I think it would work fine. Also a plus is each person's local repository stays in sync with the master. If you keep it simple its a great tool.