Buy designs on OpenHardware.io
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I'm happy to launch a new feature I've been working in for the last few weeks!
We will now allow authors to sell their designs on OpenHardware.io through Ebay or via our manufacturing partners.
This feature is currently in beta testing together with the first manufacturer PCBWay.com. I hope to smoke out any bugs during the next couple of days. Please report any problems you might find in the contact form.
There is just a few of steps to make your PCB available for sale as an author:
- Upload and publish the Gerber files for the PCB (you've probably already done this part).
- Add an optional BOM to allow the manufacturer to create DIY kits or fully assembled boards.
- Fill in the PCB characteristics and create a new revision in the "Selling" tab where you edit the project.
When someone buys through OpenHardware.io , the author will get a small commission sales! Pretty neat to give some encouragement back to the talented open hardware designers we got here right?
When a board is available for sale (all variants) it looks like this:

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oh, very nice idea :wink:
Thx for thinking to us, that might be helpful :)
I don't know pcbway yet but will give a try soon I guess, to see quality! Do you think there will be multiple fabhouse available? I think so.. -
oh, very nice idea :wink:
Thx for thinking to us, that might be helpful :)
I don't know pcbway yet but will give a try soon I guess, to see quality! Do you think there will be multiple fabhouse available? I think so..@scalz, me and @Hek was discussing this the other day, and will correct me if i'm wrong in saying that he will be seeing how it goes with PCBWay and then maybe looking for other fab houses to use if it goes well.
I love this idea, and i'de to thank Hek and everyone involved for the work and organisation that has been put into making this feature become live!
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oki.
I am looking at their website. they seem to have nice options (lot of, so that's cool!) without asking. for 4layers, not the cheapest! the fabhouse i use is cheaper on this but 2layer is more common, so. And again they have transparent/priced options, cool! I guess offer will grow, fabhouses will be interested ;) that's a really cool idea :) -
oki.
I am looking at their website. they seem to have nice options (lot of, so that's cool!) without asking. for 4layers, not the cheapest! the fabhouse i use is cheaper on this but 2layer is more common, so. And again they have transparent/priced options, cool! I guess offer will grow, fabhouses will be interested ;) that's a really cool idea :) -
Ok, Integration with PCBWay.com has now been completed and tested.
First board out available for sale is @sundberg84's EasyPCB EasyPCB.
The shipping cost is currently set by the manufacturer per country and shipping method. We will probably make some adjustments of the pricing in the future to handle light packages better. All boards sold are HASL lead free.
@Hardware-Contributor
Please prepare a revision of your board under the "Selling"-tab of your project to make them available for the community to buy.
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Is openhardware.io separate creds to the forums or is there a SSO?
If separate: the sign in with google a/c is throwing a 500 error. -
Yes, the credentials is separate at the moment.
It was a too big task to build a single-sign-on solution when I build openhardware.io. I might have another look some day and create an OAUTH-endpoint for the forum (but that will only solve it for new users).
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@hek, is it possible to search for projects that I can buy? It would be great to have such filter.
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Shipping cost is now much lower for small orders!
During testing/integration with the pilot manufacturer PCBWay.com we discovered that shipping cost calculations was a bit too un-flexible. This resulted in a quite large shipping cost for small orders (like 10 PCBs).
This has now been resolved by letting manufacturer do advanced calculations based on PCB properties (weight). Hope you like the result!
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Are there any plans to also add the option to buy the boards from PCBway fully assembled?
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The manufacturer evaluate the possibility to offer kit/assembled version for each board that has the sales function activated. A few requirements:
- Complete BOM with components and package sizes.
- Its also hard for them to offer boards that consists of multiple sub/child PCBs (like an Nano/Pro Mini, breakout sensor boards). As they would have to source these parts from different vendors.
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I really like the idea of kit form availability, especially for the through-hole boards for the new comers/beginners. Allowing them to assemble and understand how the module works on a hardware level.