Building India's open hardware community.
We're a volunteer-run community of people who design, build, document, and share open-source hardware.
Electronics, robotics, tools, manufacturing. Whatever you're building, we want to make it easier to build it together and share it openly, anywhere in India.
India is full of engineers, makers, students, researchers, and tinkerers building genuinely interesting things.
But building hardware in the open is still hard. Finding collaborators is hard. Finding the right know-how is hard. Keeping a project alive once the first prototype works is hard.
We want a community where people can find each other, learn together, work on projects together, and add to an open hardware ecosystem that anyone can use.
This isn't just about meetups. It's about getting more open-source hardware built.
Community
Meetups, workshops, discussions, and local gatherings for people who like building hardware.
Build
Open-source hardware projects, built together. Find contributors, share ideas, and get your hands dirty on someone else's board.
Learn & share
Open documentation, tutorials, and shared know-how. Hardware should feel approachable, especially if you're new.
Support
Help open hardware projects get seen, find collaborators, and meet people who can help them move forward.
We don't hand out grants, equipment, or manufacturing services. What we have is people, time, and a lot of enthusiasm.
Open-source hardware being built by people in the community. Projects don't need to belong to us. Independent projects are very welcome.
Heads up: the cards below are examples showing what a listing will look like. Real projects go here as people share them.
Have an open hardware project?
Share it with the community. Half-finished is fine. Messy repos are fine. That's how most good projects start.
We started in Bangalore, but we'd love to see gatherings all over India. Here's the kind of thing we get together for:
Upcoming
Nothing on the calendar yet.
We're just getting going under the new name. Want to host a meetup or run a workshop in your city? You don't need permission. We'll help you get the word out.
Propose an eventPast
Some of what we got up to as Absurd Industries. Talks, builds, and workshops, recorded.
You don't need to be a hardware engineer to be here.
Students, hobbyists, designers, writers, people who are just curious. Small contributions count. An hour a month counts. Pick whatever fits.
Join the community
Meet other people who are into open-source hardware. Say hi, lurk, ask questions.
Bring your project
Share something you're working on and find people who want to help build it.
Contribute to projects
Electronics, firmware, mechanical design, documentation, testing. There's always something.
Organize something
Run a meetup, a workshop, or a small gathering in your city or campus.
Share knowledge
Give a talk, write a guide, teach a workshop, or sit with someone while they solder their first board.
Help run the community
Events, communications, projects, docs, day-to-day operations. This is how the community gets shaped.
Community-driven for real. Not as branding.
These are the principles we're holding ourselves to. We haven't built the formal processes behind them yet. We want to figure those out with the people who show up.
-
01
Community voice
Members should know how to suggest ideas, raise concerns, and influence where we're headed.
-
02
Transparency
Important decisions, priorities, and how things get done should be understandable and easy to find.
-
03
Volunteer ownership
If you take something on, you get real responsibility and a real say in how it's done.
-
04
Open participation
Anyone can contribute, whatever their background or experience.
-
05
Shared direction
The community shapes the goals and priorities. Organizers and volunteers turn them into action.
-
06
Accountability
Who's responsible for what should be clear. New people should get room to lead, so the same few don't run everything forever.
We started as Absurd Industries, a small bunch of hardware enthusiasts in Bangalore who wanted to meet other makers and build things together.
Over time we saw a chance to focus on something more specific: helping open-source hardware grow in India.
So we're carrying the people, the community, and the volunteer spirit of Absurd forward, under a new name and a clearer mission.
We're still small. No big organization, no serious money behind us. We're building this alongside whoever chooses to show up.
Where we came from
Organizers & volunteers
The people currently keeping things running. This list should grow and change. That's the point.
Useful stuff we keep coming back to. We don't run any of these. They're just good. Know something that belongs here? Tell us.
Open hardware basics
Manufacturing & prototyping in India
Where to get PCBs made, where to source parts, who does small-batch fabrication. Needs a volunteer to write it
Community-contributed guides
Write-ups from people in the community. First guide could be yours
-
Discussion platform link
Join the conversation
Where most of the community talks day to day.
-
Announcements link
Follow announcements
Events and news, without the chatter.
-
Contact email / form
Contact the organizers
Questions, ideas, concerns. All welcome.
-
Repositories link
Project repositories
Code, schematics, and docs for community projects.
-
Proposal form link
Propose an event or activity
Got an idea for a meetup, workshop, or build day?
This is the beginning. Help shape it.
We haven't figured everything out, and we don't want to do it alone. Show up, build something, tell us what you'd change.