Tag: OSHWA

ANAVI Arrows and ANAVI Macro Pad 12 Are Open Source Hardware Certified

The ANAVI Macro Pad 12 and ANAVI Arrows have received official certification from the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA). OSHWA, a non-profit organization based in the United States, manages the Certified Projects Directory and hosts the annual Open Hardware Summit. Notably, the summit takes place in different cities, and in 2024, it is scheduled to be held in Montreal, Canada.

The printed circuit boards of ANAVI Macro Pad 12 and ANAVI Arrows were designed the open source software KiCad

The certification program by OSHWA ensures that a project’s understanding of “open source hardware” is in harmony with the wider community’s definition of open source hardware. Subsequently, OSHWA assigns a unique identification number (UID) to every certified hardware version. This UID commonly comprises a blend of a country code and a numerical sequence, ensuring that each certified hardware version possesses a distinct identifier. For our two new keyboards, the UIDs are:

BG000094 for ANAVI Arrows version 1.0
BG000095 for ANAVI Macro Pad 12 version 1.0

The OSHW Certification Mark serves a dual role: not only does it display the project’s unique certification ID, but it also streamlines navigation and information retrieval. In this context, the “BG” prefix signifies the country code for Bulgaria, indicating that these mechanical keyboards are crafted in Plovdiv, the second-largest city in Bulgaria and the oldest continually inhabited European city with over 6000 years of history. What sets our keyboards apart is their complete adherence to open-source principles. This means that every facet of their design and functionality is open and freely accessible to everyone. Our dedication to openness extends to utilizing only free and open source software in various project aspects, including designing the printed circuit board, creating acrylic enclosures, developing firmware, and thoroughly documenting the entire process.

The printed circuit boards for ANAVI Arrows and ANAVI Macro Pad 12 were designed with the open source software KiCad on Ubuntu Linux distribution. Furthermore, we use open source firmware called KMK, written in CircuitPython. Soon QMK firmware will be also ported to both keyboards. Open source ensures transparency, sharing knowledge and hopefully fostering collaboration and innovation within the community.

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Macro Pad 10, Knobs 3 and Knob 1 are OSHWA-Certified!

Great news! The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) has officially certified ANAVI Macro Pad 10, ANAVI Knobs 3 and ANAVI Knob 1. OSHWA is a non-profit entity registered in the US that organizes the annual Open Hardware Summit and maintains the Certified Projects Directory.

ANAVI Macro Pad 10, ANAVI Knobs 3, ANAVI Knob 1
ANAVI Macro Pad 10, ANAVI Knobs 3, ANAVI Knob 1

As part of the certification program, OSHWA ensures that the definition of “open source hardware” used by a specific project (in our case in these 3 mini mechanical keyboards) matches the community’s definition of open source hardware. They provide a unique identification number (UID) for each version of the certified open hardware device based on the country code and a number. So now we have:

The prefix BG is the country code for Bulgaria, because all these mini mechanical keyboards are made in my hometown of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. As truly and entirely open source projects, we also go one step further. Only free and open source software has been used to design the printed circuit board, the stickers, the firmware, and the documentation. In previous updates we explained how we use KiCad for designing the printed circuit boards and the open source firmware QMK and KMK written in CircuitPython.

ANAVI Macro Pad 10
ANAVI Macro Pad 10

One more thing: this year’s open source hardware summit will be held in New York on April 28 and 29th. You can attend remotely and in person. So make sure to mark the dates on your calendar!

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ANAVI Gardening uHAT is now OSHWA certified

A few days ago we received an official confirmation that ANAVI Gardening uHAT has been certified as open source hardware by the Open Source Hardware Association with UID BG000079.

The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) is a non-profit organization that supports the open source movement and maintains an open source hardware certification registry. OSHWA Certification provides an easy and straight-forward way to quickly check if a product complies with a uniform and well-defined standard for open source hardware.

Open source hardware certification guarantees the sharing of knowledge and keeps prices fairly based on the bill of materials of the hardware’s components. ANAVI Gardening uHAT hardware design files are available under CC BY-SA 4.0, which allows you to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

In a nutshell, OSHWA certifies a project as open source based on public access to four elements:

  • Hardware – functional elements of the product
  • Software – code, firmware, or other software involved in the product’s functionality
  • Documentation – including design files, schematics, and instructions
  • Branding – brand names, product names, logos, and product design

The exact certified version of each product receives a unique UID, for example, ANAVI Gardening uHAT is with UID BG000079. The prefix is the country code. We make our open source hardware in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, so the country code is BG. The suffix is a sequential ID number. At the moment, there are 79 certified open source hardware products from Bulgaria. For a comparison, the United States is leading with the amazing 2052 certified products, followed by Germany with 116. Bulgaria comes in at the third place, primarily thanks to our awesome open source neighbors from Olimex.

As a very small company we are all proud to have contributed to the Bulgarian success in this field. Hopefully, the popularity of the open source hardware movement will continue to increase worldwide.

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Plovdiv – European Capital of Open Source Hardware!

OSHdata is a brand new independent project launched in 2020. The goal is to report the state of the Open Source Hardware (OSH) based on the data from the certification program of Open Source Hardware Association. Recently OSHdata announced a public report for 2020.

All time open source hardware frequent creators as of February 2020

ANAVI Technology made it to 7th place in the hall of fame for OSH Frequent Certification Creators! Absolute number 1 are our neightbours Olimex. We are all from Plovdiv, Bulgaria and this is not just a coincidence!

Olimex is specialized in open source hardware. They are open source hardware pioneers and have hundreds of open source products. The company was established in 1991 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Olimex development boards and derivatives based on them are used in numerous industrial applications around the world: agricultural tractors, 3D printers, huge mining machines, smart traffic lights, variable speed drivers for oil, gas pumps and conveyors, etc. If you are curious to learn more have a look at Tsevan Uzunov’s (CEO of OLimex) talk at FOSDEM 2020.

Several years ago Olimex decided to switch from EAGLE to KiCad for designing their printed circuit boards. They designed complicated devices with multi-layer boards using KiCad like the do-it-yourself laptop Olimex Teres-I and A64-OLinuXino embedded Linux computer. FreedomBox Foundation even relies on Olimex for Pioneer-FreedomBox-HSK!

After switching to KiCad, engineers from Olimex made numerous free workshop to share their experience. KiCad is a free and open source Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool that runs on MS Windows, Mac OS and GNU/Linux distributions.

Is there any point to make open source hardware with proprietary tools? Not at all! This is why KiCad is a great open source tool for making open source hardware. Back in the days, ANAVI Technology was started and adopted KiCad entirely because of all the knowledge shared by Olimex.

Considering the total number of certified products by Olimex and ANAVI Technology, Bulgaria is the leading country in Europe and obviously Plovdiv is European capital of open source hardware!

Since March 2018, following the recommendations of Drew Fustini, all products of ANAVI Technology are certified by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA).

One more thing: Olimex, Drew, thank you 🙂

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ANAVI Smiley and ANAVI Tag Manager Certified by the Open Source Hardware Association

The primary goal of ANAVI Technology Ltd. is to combine open source hardware with free and open source software. So far numerous of our development boards have been certified by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA). In February 2020 a couple new products were also certified: ANAVI Smiley and ANAVI Tag Manager. Both of them have been designed with the free and open source tool KiCad.

A lot of products on the market claim their are open source hardware, however this is not always true. Open Source Hardware certification allows the community to quickly identify hardware that truly complies with the definition of open source hardware. Because of this certification by OSHWA is important for us.

ANAVI Smiley

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ANAVI Smiley add-on board for Raspberry Pi as a soldering kit

ANAVI Smiley is a simple add on for Raspberry Pi that comes as a soldering kit. It has a couple of LEDs and a button. A simple Python 3 application for using this add-on board is available at GitHub. ANAVI Smiley was certified by OSHWA with UID BG000061. It has been designed as a prize for the teams competing at Pi Wars 2020. Soon ANAVI Smiley will be also available on sale at tindie.

ANAVI Tag Manager

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ANAVI Tag Manager with PN532 NFC RFID module and an acrylic enclosure

ANAVI Tag Manager is a WiFi development board for using PN532 NFC RFID module. The board is using ESP8266. It is powered from microUSB connector. There are slots for UART pins, mini OLED display and up to 3 I2C sensor modules. Furthermore there is also an extra GPIO pin for custom automation solutions. ANAVI Tag Manager is useful for various applications with NFC, including smart locks and payment systems. It has been certified by OSHWA with UID BG000062.

Stay tuned for new articles with details about both of these exciting new open source hardware gadgets!

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