Terms of Service

HardwareContext reads hardware connected to a supported microcontroller and formats what it finds into a report. It is deterministic: it probes buses and pins and looks values up against a static database. It does not run AI, and nothing you scan is sent to a model.

All payments — subscriptions and one-time scan bundles — are processed by Dodo Payments, who is the merchant of record for every transaction on this site. That means Dodo Payments is the legal seller of record, sets and collects any tax owed on your purchase, and is who your statement charge will come from. Refunds, disputed charges, and payment-method changes are handled through Dodo Payments' own customer support and policies.

Subscription plans (Maker, Club, Pro) renew automatically each billing cycle until cancelled. Cancelling stops the next renewal; it does not refund the current period. Maker plan usage past the included 30 scans is billed at $0.15 per scan and charged at the end of the billing cycle it was used in. Enterprise plans are billed under a separate contract agreed directly with us.

A Club subscription generates one code. Anyone who enters it gets unlimited scans on open-source boards at no cost to them, up to the seat cap the admin sets. If the Club subscription lapses — payment fails, or the admin cancels — every linked student account drops to the Free plan automatically. We do not warn each student individually when this happens; the admin is responsible for keeping the club's payment method current.

The Free tier's three scans and Maker's thirty are meant for one person's own hardware projects. Running automated or bulk scans to work around plan limits, or sharing one paid account across many unrelated users outside the Club mechanism built for that, is outside the intended use and we may limit or suspend an account that does this.

The scanner reads pin and bus state; it does not write to flash, reflash firmware, or drive high-current outputs. It is still possible to damage hardware by wiring it incorrectly before a scan, same as with any multimeter or logic analyzer. We are not liable for damage to your board, sensors, or anything connected to them.

HardwareContext — the source code, the site, the board and sensor databases, and the name and logo — is proprietary and belongs to HardwareContext. Nothing here grants you a license to copy, redistribute, or build a competing product from it.

The one exception is the ESP32 firmware under /firmware: it's meant to be downloaded and flashed onto your own board, and you may modify your own copy for that purpose. You may not redistribute it, rebrand it, or resell it as part of another product.

We may update these terms as the product changes. Continuing to use HardwareContext after an update means you accept the revised terms.

Questions: email hello@hardwarecontext.com.