pgFocus: Open Hardware/Software for focus control

Just wanted to drop by and say hi.

I am the developer of pgFocus, which I think is one of the first Open Hardware projects for microscopy and is still the only hardware-based focus control that I know of.

http://big.umassmed.edu/wiki/index.php/PgFocus

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I love the extensive documentation that goes with this project. Thanks for sharing!

Question: I can see the Open Source Hardware Association logo on one of the PCBs, but for the life of me can’t find an actual license for the hardware components. What is the license? Can it be added to the git repositories?

Hi Hpy,

I can’t believe I didn’t include the hardware license on github. Thanks for pointing it out.

The pcb, and its firmware, uses Creative Commons BY-NC-SA,

I will update github.

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Thank you! :slight_smile:

The CC BY-NC-SA license does not fit the definition of open source hardware as stated here, i.e.:

[…]The license shall allow for the manufacture, sale, distribution, and use of products created from the design files, the design files themselves, and derivatives thereof [and] shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the project documentation.

The same website (of the Open Source Hardware Association) also stipulates that their open source hardware logo:

“may be used if your hardware complies with the Open Source Hardware Definition”.

Since the CC BY-NC-SA license does comply with that definition, I think there is a need to not use the term “open source hardware” in the pgFocus wiki and git repositories since that will be misleading and create a lot of confusion. In the same vein, the logo should be removed from the design files, too. One possibility is to use the term “source available” or something to that effect.

Alternatively, switching to the CC BY-SA license (or better yet, one of the newly released CERN OHL 2.0 licenses) is probably the better long-term solution!

Thanks for letting me know. I will make sure the license I select is compliant with OSHA. I will read CERN OHL 2.0 licenses.

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