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Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

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Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#101

Post by lightgreen »

redis_mlc wrote: post #78
antpol wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During crisis times wild [T-34]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34 ) appears and overwhelms with numbers and firepower/versatility

Well ... kind of. Stalin fleeced the Kuleks to pay for Americans to build factories just before WW2, after Ford's River Rouge industrial city was completed. He did a good job on T-34 production, but around half of Soviet armaments came from the USA during WW2. The tanks were directly driven to the front - no parking lot needed! :) Stalin is portayed as a monster because he was. But he was also the great leader his co…

No he wasn’t British Empire and US managed well without such a horrible dictator.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#102

Post by lightgreen »

geomark wrote: post #62
DenisM wrote: post #58

Earlier 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.

They got first to space, but people were starving, healthcare was shit, there were no freedom (including no freedom of moving within USSR), and generally quality of life was very poor. Hardly an achievement.

If these rocket engines are cheaper, why not buy something from someone who is producing them below production cost? Good for US, they save money.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#103

Post by projektfu »

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…

I’m still pretty scornful. There’s an existing satisfactory and easy to manufacture design (Manley ventilator) that addresses issues of controlling tidal volume and operating on whatever supply and even allowing manual operation. DIY could make thousands in a cottage industry if desired. Here we are instead with people designing devices and then asking for doctors to give them a pat on the back.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#104

Post by lightgreen »

geomark wrote: post #88
jonathankoren wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Why produce something when you can buy it cheaper? Economy 101.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#105

Post by arcticbull »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #100
koheripbal wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If that's the case we need a whole DIY course of treatment, not just the machine itself. Playing doctor with only the tools and none of the rest is going to be a losing game. :(

1. There’s no treatment other than supportive care.

2. Ventilators aren’t dumb iron lung machines. Current ventilators are large, complex and very much specialized machines which require special training to operate.

Once you get to the point you need a ventilator the ventilator is the least of your problems.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#106

Post by arcticbull »

koheripbal wrote: post #92
rhino369 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There aren't nearly enough ventilators.

This isn’t a ventilator.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#107

Post by lightgreen »

redis_mlc wrote: post #79
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.

> Yet they somehow beat the US to space. Somehow? With captured German rocket scientists. Same as USA.

They actually didn’t. German rocket scientists were smart people and they surrendered to US to avoid horror of dealing with NKVD.

That said, there are reasons why USSR was first in space. For example, USSR deliberately ignored human life cost. In particular, they seriously considered first human flight to be a failure, so they announced it publicly only after Gagarin landed successfully.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#108

Post by arcticbull »

jvanderbot wrote: post #46
tylerl wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> WHERE IS THIS TEAM? Now they're all sheltering in place in their homes. It's amazing how big a difference you can make in the world if you can just get started... a month ago.

Exactly. Still, with prioritization, this team can be assembled, isolated, and funded without limit, even now during shutdowns. But there's too many such leverage points to ... leverage. So, we use the same response Europe had to the Plague.

The bubonic plague killed 50% of infected and the septicemic plague killed 100%.

This one is trending towards 0.6%-0.1% so you can see why the response may not be the same given the 3 orders of magnitude lower estimated fatality rate. Yeah it’s serious but don’t kid yourself, it’s not the plague.

For instance I don’t think the UK would be contemplating just giving it to everyone young enough if it were to kill half to all of them. I don’t recall Thanos getting elected prime minister.

Re: Low-Cost Arduino-Based Ventilator

#110

Post by arcticbull »

ben_w wrote: post #84
bumby wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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”.

Yeah it’s hard to knock the man for failure when he did shoot for the stars and landed on Mars instead.
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