Render, render on the screen, who is the fairest that's ever been.
There is far more to open source hardware than designing something for yourself and dumping these files online. For a project to really be open source, people need to be able to build it, to use it, to modify it.
To this end I would rather have an OK microscope with fantastic documentation, than have a brilliant microscope with poor documentation. So, as I wrap up this design phase it is essential that the documentation is good enough for Andy to build the microscope in Panama. More than that, I believe as members of the public funded this project, each of them should also be able to replicate the microscope too. Preferably all this can be completed without needing to ask me questions.
The key to great documentation
I think the key to great documentation is clear distraction free images, combined with simple and direct instructions.
The simplest way to create the images is to take photographs. However there are three problems with this:
Every time you update the design, most of the photos need to be retaken for consistency
Photographs normally have distractions in the background unless very carefully taken in a light tent
I am a poor photographer
Points 1 and 2 apply to all projects, point 3 could be overcome.
The solution we have found in OpenFlexure is assembly renders that automatically update with the design. To that end I have created this complete assembly of the microscope:
All code for these renders is available in this merge request.
Next steps
Now the microscope is assembled, I need to make sure these assemblies can be build on the cloud (in the GitLab CI). This will allow the rendered documentation to stay up to date with the changing design.
Finally I need to break the renders into individual assembly steps as we did previously for the OpenFlexure Microscope, for example:
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