  Open-source is a decentralized and collaborative method of development that
encourages open contribution from an extensive and undefined network of
individuals. Although commonly associated with software development (OSS), the
open-source model extends to hardware development, forming the basis of
open-source hardware development (OSH). Compared to OSS, OSH is relatively
nascent, lacking adequate tooling support from existing platforms and best
practices for efficient collaboration. Taking a necessary step towards
improving OSH collaboration, we conduct a detailed case study of DrawBot, a
successful OSH project that remarkably fostered a long-term collaboration on
Thingiverse - a platform not explicitly intended for complex collaborative
design. Through analyzing comment threads and design changes over the course of
the project, we found how collaboration occurred, the challenges faced, and how
the DrawBot community managed to overcome these obstacles. Beyond offering a
detailed account of collaboration practices and challenges, our work
contributes best practices, design implications, and practical implications for
OSH project maintainers, platform builders, and researchers, respectively. With
these insights and our publicly available dataset, we aim to foster more
effective and efficient collaborative design in OSH projects.
