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Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

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Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#81

Post by visarga »

hyperion2010 wrote: post #36

This 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…

> every single fully functional ICU bed that can be brought online in the next 2 weeks is probably going to save 2 lives.

Yet nurses and doctors probably won't be able to keep up even with all the beds and respirators.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#82

Post by bumby »

ben_w wrote: post #77
neotek wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has missed just about every goal he's ever set by a wide margin and has only managed to pull through because hordes of taxpayers and investors continue to line up to dump money into his black hole projects on the back of his self-aggrandising.

> Musk has missed just about every goal he's ever set by a wide margin Yes, but everyone else in the space sector has missed by a bigger margin . How’s the Bush Mars mission coming along? Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989. > and has only managed to pull through because hordes of taxpayers and investors continue to line up to dump money into his black hole projects on the back of his self-aggrandising. Yo…

> Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989

That seems like a disingenuous comparison given how much control a President has vs a CEO in this context. Bush Sr. had less than four years.

This isn’t meant to bash Musk, just to point out the somewhat unfair comparison. I actually think entities like SpaceX are necessary to combat the political risk inherent in administration turnover

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#83

Post by avian »

threwr32424 wrote: post #67

For 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…

Sometimes it's good to remind yourself that HN comment threads are not written by single person and the opinions are not those of a single entity. Different posts attract different cross-sections of users which lead the discussion in various directions. In my experience it's not that uncommon to see completely different threads on similar posts here.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#84

Post by ben_w »

bumby wrote: post #82
ben_w wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Musk has missed just about every goal he's ever set by a wide margin Yes, but everyone else in the space sector has missed by a bigger margin . How’s the Bush Mars mission coming along? Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989. > and has only managed to pull through because hordes of taxpayers and investors continue to line up to dump money into his black hole projects on the back of his self-aggrandising. Yo…

> Bush senior that is, initiative announced 1989 That seems like a disingenuous comparison given how much control a President has vs a CEO in this context. Bush Sr. had less than four years. This isn’t meant to bash Musk, just to point out the somewhat unfair comparison. I actually think entities like SpaceX are necessary to combat the political risk inherent in administration turnover

You have a valid point; however the point I had been trying to make was more along the lines of “Musk isn’t particularly bad even when he doesn’t meet his own goals; the goals are really hard”.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#85

Post by stordoff »

hyperion2010 wrote: post #36

This 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…

Minor detail, but why 12 people plus 108 collaborators - is there some significance to these numbers I'm unaware of?

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#86

Post by kortex »

abakker wrote: post #41

Can anyone explain why normal ventilators don't just use flow meters on compressed air with a solenoid? A standard pilot valve pneumatic solenoid can switch much faster than this. with regulated air pressure, and an air filter on the air, it seems possible to make it work pretty easily just using compressed air.

It's a lot more complicated to modulate the pressure. You need to titrate the pressure to each patient/setup, and often inhale vs exhale. Motor with ESC? Easy. Solenoid valve has only on/off, so you have to manually tune a pressure valve for each level. Also the pilot kind like those in sprinkler systems don't work well with low pressure air.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#87

Post by beojan »

ashildr wrote: post #76
dirtyid wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat related: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1239675564199481347.html >The President said today that governors should try to get things like respirators and masks on their own. The problem with that approach is that suppliers will have to emergently engage w 50 different state purchasers who would in effect be competing for supply. 8/x >Instead, the US fed gov should be central buyer and partner to this indus…

The US fed gov just tried to buy an early vaccine candidate “on unprecedented scale”. I’m not sure that they will do the same when shit hits the ventilators.

They tried to buy US exclusivity for the vaccine candidate. I really hope they don't try anything similar with ventilators.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#88

Post by geomark »

jonathankoren wrote: post #66
geomark wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then why all the angst among US military and government about being unable for so long to produce their own rockets?

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#89

Post by wwweston »

DenisM wrote: post #58
reillyse wrote: post #49

Earlier 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.

It often couldn't figure out how to produce enough of the right things -- pricing signals were better across a wide variety of consumer goods. It did pretty well at some things.

Pricing signals are also bad at some things.

Saying "the government is bad at producing things" is an overgeneralization. It'd be bad to put it in charge of producing everything. But putting markets in charge of producing everything has points of failure too, which is why we're having this conversation.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#90

Post by koheripbal »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #64
hyperion2010 wrote: post #36

This 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 hack…

The bottleneck with distributing new ventilators isn't physically producing them - it is getting them tested and approved by the FDA.

So the use-case here is people putting their loved ones on these ventilators at home because the hospitals are full (which is entirely possible).

Ideally, we should be working with existing ventilator manufacturers in the US to have them increase their current output.

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