Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff

Sprint Day 0: An Open Source ventilator project you can believe in.

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bd139:
Another ventilator project :palm:. If you can't help with an existing one, create a new one!!! It's like programming languages now....

Interestingly our local government have specifications for what is acceptable on ventilator designs: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-ventilator-supply-specification/rapidly-manufactured-ventilator-system-specification

This is a great one line:

Every current ventilator used inside hospitals has a battery backup, so users will expect it to be there and will behave as if it is, for example, unplug it from the wall in order to rearrange cables or while manoeuvring the patient. However, this needs very careful thought to balance the risks. Including this in the spec means instantly trying to source 30,000 large, heavy batteries. Specifying a DC voltage (ie 12VDC) may well be the most sensible for the machine working voltage. Need the advice of an electronic engineer with military/resource limited experience before specifying anything here. It needs to be got right first time.

Simon:

--- Quote from: magic on March 31, 2020, 06:11:38 pm ---Come on, he only said that he no longer cares about this thread because he is going to start a new one every day :-DD

(now that could be a point for mods to hammer some minimum sanity into him ;))

--- End quote ---

Why put a stop to a nice gradual release of hilarity?

MK14:
How are open source projects like this, coping with the need/requirement to be safety critical ?

Clearly, if the hardware was poorly designed and/or made out of flaky components (similarly if the software had any issues with it). The unit over an operational period of 12+ months, could inadvertently cause the patient(s) harm, affect other medical equipment, or injure someone cleaning inside the unit.

My understanding is that it needs major work. To ensure that medical equipment meets the necessary standards of safety. Otherwise it is not allowed to be used.

E.g. Would some quickly written arduino code, written by an amateur, using libraries they found on the internet somewhere, using some potentially flaky arduino clone. Reliably meet ALL the required specifications, for very long periods of time (12+ months), without ever "crashing". Which could cause (crashing) very sad outcomes as regards the patients.

tl;dr
Although the proverb goes, 'Any port in a storm'. You don't want it to be a port in North Korea, if they blow your ship out of existence. There are good reasons, why medical devices, are usually considered safety critical.

Analogy:
A vaccine and/or cure, to the virus would be great. But, despite sadly, the huge number of deaths, which are already occurring, round the world. We are still being careful, that any new vaccines or cures, actually provide overall benefits to patients. Before rolling them out, on a big scale (bigger than the limited trials, already taking place).

bd139:
No one other than the large companies hired to reproduce commercial ventilators appears to have any idea what "safety critical" systems entail at all.

LaserSteve:
Univ of Florida has their BOM up, except for the PEEP valve and if you watch the video that is a lab grade simulated lung.  Looks like a science fair project  but it sure seems to be working, and they have a background in RT and respirator design/test.
Pvc pipe and sprinkler valve, but seems practical to build.

Steve.

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