Live data from Hacker News

Open Source Tractor

opensourceecology.dozuki.com

161–170 of 213 posts

Re: Open Source Tractor

#161
post #89
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know; my neighbors are farmers and their tractors don't have cabins. I'm not saying it's healthy, just that different people place different emphasis on different features. Having occasionally used a (cabin-less) tractor without power steering for years, I'd pick that over a cabin for instance. Dust and pesticides can be worked around with masks, goggles or scarves when occasionally found around. A straw hat…

I don't think I'm claiming that the open tractor HAS to have a cabin. It should be an option, though. Possibly one with some positive peer pressure around it. A box doesn't fix everything. You still have to get air into it from somewhere and it's all gonna come from outside. But sitting in a dust cloud is a little different situation than getting some dust through a vent. Especially if you're sweating like a pig the…

It is an option. You're 100% free to bolt it on, just like with open source software: if a feature isn't provided out of the box you have the source.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#162
post #50

Patents expire after 20 years or so. Why not just take a 25 year old tractor, 3d model it, make your small improvements and updates, and then start working on value adds like parts pipelines, data & gps driven agriculture, etc

Modeling a tractor in CAD isn't the issue. Manufacturing it is. A 25 year old tractor design (probably out to 75+ year old tractors even) still has hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure and tooling behind it. Molds or dies for a single part can easily reach into 6 figures, without taking into account the $10 million injection molding machine. The simplifications you could do would be limited, as every des…

> I could model that in CAD in under an hour.

That's very impressive.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#163
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perforated steel tube is a readily available material and a ratchet is a cheaper and much lower skill tool than a welder. Also seems like customization is one of the project goals. I would imagine that if wanted to weld it instead the design would also work for you.

For steel as thick as this, stick welding is very forgiving though. Big heatsinks, hard to melt through. Most people can probably learn to make (ugly but) strong enough welds in an afternoon.

They will look strong enough. Whether they really are strong enough or not is a completely different story and I guarantee that you won't learn that in an afternoon. Veteran of many thousands of welds here, welding is a real skill and with gear like this making a mistake could cause injury or death to operator or bystanders. Better make sure you know how to weld beforehand.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really enjoyed working with grandpa's Ford 8N. Thanks for your input!

Great example. Compare the traction of your machine to an 8N. That engine will outlast 4-5 briggs engines easy (10K vs 2K hrs). They have an efficient gear drive as opposed to hydrostatic. Lots less maintenance and no need for gallons of hydro fluid. They have a robust 3pt hitch with an excellent PTO drive. They will drag your tractor up and down the field all day long. I really mean to be constructive, sorry if I am…

I appreciate your enthusiasm. First of all, the design originates with Open Source Ecology, a sister project. I'm involved with Replimat. There's also Gridbeam, XYZ Cargo, Precious Plastic, and about a dozen other groups actively developing around the system(s).

I appreciate all your points about the sort of tractor best suited to your unique circumstances. I don't see anything about our communities designs which prevent you from constructing such a machine using our parts and techniques. I think it'd be a neat design to have among all the others which can be built this way!

Re: Open Source Tractor

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This demonstrates the power of open source. These engineers are to be commended. if you haven't seen the famous Open Source Ecology pitch by Marcin Jakubowski, you're in for a treat! Open-sourced blueprints for civilization | Marcin Jakubowski , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GEMkvT0DEk

I need to watch that! I'm developing an algorithmically-driven civilization architecture concept. (in the sense of, how to organize society from a blank slate point of view, while maximizing the wealth of experience for all individuals? I think we've gotten a little caught up in ideology and culture wars and stopped looking for ideas to move society forward with more efficient, humane, robust, collaborative (or adver…

Where can we follow your work?

What help do you need?

Re: Open Source Tractor

#166
post #122
post #119

I'm sorry, maybe it's just me--but none or almost none of these projects have actual plans to build them! Everything is a wiki stub. Almost all the topics have unanswered questions going back to 2013. Some have a nice top-level "blueprint" looking infographic, and then absolutely zero details about building them. I'm not sure how to use this project, although given my 40 acres and great desire to DIY, I should be a p…

This is pretty much the wrong website. You want this: https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Civilization_Starter...

Many thanks! I felt certain I had to be missing something.

I wish it was easier to find this wiki from the site originally linked.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this the same situation that the USA eventually found itself in with respect to the USSR? I think the whole cold war can be re-envisioned as a socioeconomic conflict.

I believe it so as well. I was just reinforcing that I don't believe conventional war can occur without a major technological innovation in missile defense. It all comes down to sociology-economics, which is in turn downstream of culture. Neither the USA or China have close to optimal culture, but even accounting for western propaganda, the United States is a much happier place . Source: I met many Chinese people in…

1. selection bias

2. depending on when you went to college, your experience could be out of date

surprised you would make such definitive statements on something as hard to measure as happiness, without better sources

Re: Open Source Tractor

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, three phase power seems to be completely unavailable in rural areas, except in small pockets of industry.

So how do the power companies run electricity to those areas? They don't use DC, do they? Or do you mean individual houses are typically wired with just one of the phases?

US residential and rural areas typically have 120/240v split phase (single phase) 3-wire service, (2) 120v hots and a shared neutral. Commercial customers can usually get three-phase power.

Re: Open Source Tractor

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A more direct statement of your point might help here. abolish Silicon Valley. [1] [1] Wendy Liu, https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley

There is a school of economics that claims to oppose the upwardly mobile rich but in fact mostly harms the upwardly mobile poor. Linguistic patterns are no proof of motive but they certainly indicate who an author is writing for.

the twang is strong

Re: Open Source Tractor

#170
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This demonstrates the power of open source. These engineers are to be commended. if you haven't seen the famous Open Source Ecology pitch by Marcin Jakubowski, you're in for a treat! Open-sourced blueprints for civilization | Marcin Jakubowski , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GEMkvT0DEk

Way back when I reached out to them for getting the actual blueprints for a light industry coop - modular open source welders? Sign me up! Got a reply along the lines of "we are working with our sponsors and will not be releasing any blueprints". 10 years later you still can't get blueprints from their site: https://www.opensourceecology.org/gvcs/gvcs-machine-index/ They seem like the solar roadways of open source ha…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN