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Re: [LUG] Raspberry Pi Ventilator

 

On Tue, 14 Apr 2020, Eion MacDonald wrote:

If living there, I would prefer *something rather than nothing*.
No ability to buy NHS high spec, high cost stuff.

People are *grossly* overthinking this.

When we wanted to, we could build a oil fired steam powered cargo ship from plate steel to launched and sailing over the atlantic in under a day. (3 ships every 2 days)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship

So:

A welder and some sheet metal and girders that you can weld and cut. Some neoprene or latex rubber. (From a standard diving drysuit) A motor. Pullys or a gearbox, metal rods and a good engineer could make the first workable "Iron Lung" in a day or 3. Subsequent ones will be much faster to fabricate. No computer required.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_lung

Polio victims have lived in these for decades.

and the idea is already gaining traction:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/11/iron-lung-backed-stephen-hawkings-family-trialled-covid-19-patients/

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/exovent-covid-19-ventilator/

(although I have no idea why that looks like it has some sort of computer control and flasing lights on it - completely not needed - you can mechanically control the tidal volume to the required amount (usually 4 liters or so) and stick in a standard mechanical over pressure valve to stop over inflation.

Gordon

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