The Road to Production

Open Hardware – EOMA68 Laptop

Lead Image © lightwise, 123RF.com

Lead Image © lightwise, 123RF.com

Article from Issue 223/2019
Author(s):

Despite challenges, hardship, and delays, the EOMA68 laptop project is set to test its first PCBs. Through this learning curve, Leighton, the project's developer, has laid the groundwork for other open source hardware pioneers.

In 2016, I wrote an article about Luke Leighton's [1] crowdfunding campaign to build a modular, recyclable computer (Figure 1). Three years, and dozens of updates later, the project is about to test its first printed circuit boards (PCBs), and production appears just around the corner (Figure 2). Behind this milestone is a complicated story of changing specifications, the challenges of production in China and Taiwan, personal hardship, and delays; all of which illustrates the challenges that new manufacturers face when bringing open hardware to release.

Figure 1: Luke Leighton has been working towards a module computer for seven years.
Figure 2: Three years after a successful crowdfunding campaign, the project is testing its PCBs.

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