Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Open Source Tractor

opensourceecology.dozuki.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 213 posts

Re: Open Source Tractor

#91

Post by beckman466 »

namdnay wrote: post #85
beckman466 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I doubt that IP of tractor designs is a major factor in third world poverty. what's your logic here? the intellectual property system is the way the global north propertied class dominates the global south; i.e. renting out the commoditized blueprints/designs and charging insane royalties [1] [1] Vijay Prashad, https://mronline.org/2019/09/29/iphone-workers-today-are-25-...

Do you think cheap tractor makers in china or India give a fig about IP?

the west is literally trying to provoke a huge war with china because china is no longer dependent on the west's intellectual property. your framing seems ignorant to me.

Vijay Prashad: What's the Left to Do in a World on Fire? | China and the Left, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd8w3ONjv6Y

Vijay Prashad: No Cold War with China, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj1ggllXmws

Re: Open Source Tractor

#92

Post by Ericson2314 »

beckman466 wrote: post #91
namdnay wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think cheap tractor makers in china or India give a fig about IP?

the west is literally trying to provoke a huge war with china because china is no longer dependent on the west's intellectual property. your framing seems ignorant to me. Vijay Prashad: What's the Left to Do in a World on Fire? | China and the Left , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd8w3ONjv6Y Vijay Prashad: No Cold War with China , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj1ggllXmws

I feel like tractors are like AK-47s, kinda de facto grandfathered in before Neo-liberalism and Globalization made exporting IP law a big part part of of geopolitics.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#93

Post by jcims »

beckman466 wrote: post #91
namdnay wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think cheap tractor makers in china or India give a fig about IP?

the west is literally trying to provoke a huge war with china because china is no longer dependent on the west's intellectual property. your framing seems ignorant to me. Vijay Prashad: What's the Left to Do in a World on Fire? | China and the Left , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd8w3ONjv6Y Vijay Prashad: No Cold War with China , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj1ggllXmws

You’re making oblique references and (I guess?) assuming that some conclusion is obvious. A more direct statement of your point might help here.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#94

Post by tomcam »

themaninthedark wrote: post #74
nimbius wrote: post #7

i work on heavy equipment such as tractors, diesel trucks and excavators in the USA. this is an excellent start, but its a long way from a tractor. some of the pitfalls that need to be addressed: "Modular Power Unit" is undefined. can i run it on white gas? diesel? kerosene? what is the engine displacement? air cooled or liquid? If we mean to say this tractor is all-electric, keep in mind most small farms arent equip…

The cab frame it's self has me a little worried as well. It looks like it is all bolted steel tubes and I am not sure how well those would handle a roll over event.

Not trying to be funny here, because I am not mechanically inclined, but isn’t that what a roll cage is?

Re: Open Source Tractor

#95

Post by namdnay »

turminal wrote: post #36
mastax wrote: post #33

Man I remember reading about this in 2011 or so. I'm glad they're still doing well. It's an interesting project at the intersection of philanthropic eco-hippies and mechanical engineers which doesn't seem very common to me. Of course, being older and wiser now I'm less excited about the fantasy of using my brains and grit to rebuild society after the coming apocalypse. And if you are a villager of some description tr…

I don't think the makers of this machine believe this is a viable solution for farmers right now, but they realize that "buy it cheap from China" is becoming more and more of a problem in the long run and something that needs to be fixed. We'll have to give up on the "if it dies, just buy a new one, it's cheap anyway" philosophy sooner or later. I see this project more as an experiment on how to make a functional and…

Buy it cheap from China doesn’t mean it can’t be repaired. Chinese clone AK47s or outboard motors or trucks or tractors can go for decades with a skilled and pragmatic mechanic, one thing that third world countries excel at

Re: Open Source Tractor

#96

Post by [deleted] »

rmason wrote: post #51

This project is terrific. People are critical of what it doesn't do, I'm in awe of what it does do. You're going to have little two man shops in Africa and Asia cranking these out and changing agriculture in their part of the world. This demonstrates the power of open source. These engineers are to be commended.

[deleted]

Re: Open Source Tractor

#97

Post by WhisperingShiba »

beckman466 wrote: post #91
namdnay wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think cheap tractor makers in china or India give a fig about IP?

the west is literally trying to provoke a huge war with china because china is no longer dependent on the west's intellectual property. your framing seems ignorant to me. Vijay Prashad: What's the Left to Do in a World on Fire? | China and the Left , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd8w3ONjv6Y Vijay Prashad: No Cold War with China , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj1ggllXmws

This is a controversial opinion, but I agree.

The global west is realizing it done goofed up; because China does not give a shit about IP and now has the intellectual capability to successfully produce new products which compete with US product. The good news is that China's economy is actually a bigger mess than ours somehow, despite our limited means of production. Everyone is too scared of nuclear war, but the actual war is a strange economic war of 'Who is going to collapse first'.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#98

Post by throwaway894345 »

hinkley wrote: post #86
throwaway894345 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure, but we definitely made extensive use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers when I was growing up. Of course, to your point, that doesn’t mean that kind of exposure is safe .

Did your parents teach you to only spray on the upwind passes, or were you huffing *cides half the time?

I wasn't doing much spraying to be honest, but we usually waited for relatively windless days to spray (not for health reasons, but usually because we didn't want to roundup the neighbors' crops/lawns/etc).

Re: Open Source Tractor

#99

Post by AngryData »

Awesome! It has always been my firm belief that the biggest and best improvement you can provide to poor communities is tractors and tools. It frees up tons of labor from excavation, farming, transport, and can be used as a power plant for many other uses be it through driven shaft or hydraulics or potentially pneumatic. You can use it to drill a well, or dig a foundation, endless amounts of human labor replaced by one man and relatively simple machine for our age.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#100

Post by namdnay »

soheil wrote: post #47

I genuinely wonder how it can compete against any existing tractors. You can order a brand new tractor for 5 grand [1]. Is this going to cost less or come with more capabilities? [1] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/4wd-wheel-farm-agricu...

Not only can you get a very cheap new one, but your village mechanic will know how to repair it because they’ll already have worked on dozens.

I know this project is really cool as an engineer, but engines and vehicles in all forms are pretty much a solved problem in the third world. Those guys can squeeze 50 extra years out of a van that we would take to the scrap, building new open source models really isn’t a priority

Post reply on HN