Possibly of interest, w/r/t improving availability of ventilators in a medical crisis:
Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
61–70 of 148 posts
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there actual evidence for this? That governments aren't as effective at producing things. This gets bandied about a lot but I'm not sure it's true. I think governments can be highly effective at producing things.
The evidence was presented 50 years ago under the label of Soviet Union. USSR couldn’t produce shit.
Yet they somehow beat the US to space. And for some reason the US is still buying rocket engines from Russia.
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#63This probably should have gone on the thread about flattening the curve not being enough. But. Where is the core team of 12 people plus 108 collaborators that should have been assembled a month and a half ago to figure out how to retune US manufacturing to start producing stripped down ICU beds and the supplies needed to keep them operational? This game is easy. The parameters are well understood. You could assign th…
As far as i understand a lot of people are working on this.
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#64This probably should have gone on the thread about flattening the curve not being enough. But. Where is the core team of 12 people plus 108 collaborators that should have been assembled a month and a half ago to figure out how to retune US manufacturing to start producing stripped down ICU beds and the supplies needed to keep them operational? This game is easy. The parameters are well understood. You could assign th…
HI! I’m a robotics engineer with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, Linux and embedded programming skills, and I have 8 3D printers at home including two Prusa printers, a high resolution resin printer, and a large format printer.
I’d really like to help! But there’s no central organization for this. I think we have to quickly organize ourselves!
If anyone has any ideas please add them here in these hacker news comments, AND/OR I’ve just created a thread on my website which we can use for focused discussion: https://reboot.love/t/coronavirus-thread/281
I’m working from home and have some freedom to delay my normal work and assist with this. What should I do? Is it ventilators that are most obviously needed?
We could 3D print the air pumps, but where do we get a vast supply of cheap motors? Or in another case hospitals just needed replacement parts for existing ventilators. How do we get in touch with hospitals and determine their needs? People have also suggested multiple people can be connected to one ventilator with some success. Could we make an adapter to help with that? How would we determine requirements?
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there actual evidence for this? That governments aren't as effective at producing things. This gets bandied about a lot but I'm not sure it's true. I think governments can be highly effective at producing things.
The evidence was presented 50 years ago under the label of Soviet Union. USSR couldn’t produce shit.
During crisis times wild [T-34](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34) appears and overwhelms with numbers and firepower/versatility
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
The evidence was presented 50 years ago under the label of Soviet Union. USSR couldn’t produce shit.
Yet they somehow beat the US to space. And for some reason the US is still buying rocket engines from Russia.
Rocket engine purchases were/are a strategic decision to keep the rocket scientists employed rather than having them sell there wares on the black market.
I thought this was common knowledge for 30 years.
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#67For those of us outside the US/EU, can someone explain about the change in tone here on HN ? There was a similar post a few weeks back and top-voted comments were uniformly scornful about such DIY medical equipment, and about how a ventilator was just one component in the ICU ecosystem.
Now, though, there is a complete 180 ? What gives ?
There is also the question of supply-side issues - uCs and IC boards are overwhelmingly manufactured in East-SE Asia. These projects can't get around these issues, right ? If only there were someway to hack the abundant numbers of smartphones in order to do something useful.
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#68Cool but almost all covid patients who get to a stage where they need ventilation need invasive, mechanical ventilation.
NIV does not allow the lungs to clear fluid and mucus. It also allows the virus to spread via aerosol and infect anyone without full PPE in the vicinity.
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#69For those of us outside the US/EU, can someone explain about the change in tone here on HN ? There was a similar post a few weeks back and top-voted comments were uniformly scornful about such DIY medical equipment, and about how a ventilator was just one component in the ICU ecosystem. Now, though, there is a complete 180 ? What gives ? There is also the question of supply-side issues - uCs and IC boards are overwhe…
> For those of us outside the US/EU, can someone explain about the change in tone here on HN ?
HN is being HN, for better or worse. First skepticism, then shallow takes, then acknowledgement and analysis, now frenzied problem solving.
> a ventilator was just one component in the ICU ecosystem.
Yes, the ventilator is a CPAP machine on steriods. The Respiratory Therapist, Intensivist and Critical Care Nursing staff are what actually keeps someone alive. It's not uncommon for one or more of these to have multiple touches per hour for evaluation and adjustment of the parameters, management of other life support, etc.
We need to buy a shit-ton of ventilators and PPE from existing manufacturers and provide relief for the front-line staff who will be using them.
Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator
#70This probably should have gone on the thread about flattening the curve not being enough. But. Where is the core team of 12 people plus 108 collaborators that should have been assembled a month and a half ago to figure out how to retune US manufacturing to start producing stripped down ICU beds and the supplies needed to keep them operational? This game is easy. The parameters are well understood. You could assign th…
The beds aren't really anything special. "Beds" is code for capacity in an ICU ward with ICU level medical equipment and doctors/nurses trained to provide that level of care. Any hospital bed + a ventilator is probably good enough. Sounds like the government and hospitals are putting in orders wherever they can. But I imagine hospitals aren't going to buy slapped together untested products unless its really really ba…
It's going to be really really bad in a few weeks.