Pattern Language

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Sun 14 Feb 2010

Open Source Induction Furnace Continued

Posted by Marcin

The open source induction furnace project discussed previously is moving forward. We are currently evaluating bids, as you can see at the induction furnace project management site. This marks a point in our organizational history where we are beginning to outsource work, consistent with the proposed open source development pipeline process. Outsourcing is an industry standard for mainstream enterprise, but it can also be useful for scaling open source economic development. In particular, it appears that we found bidders fully capable of handling the project, including possibility of building the actual system. Read the bidding negotiations at the project management site for details.

In its limit, this type of outsourcing process can be an effective route towards open-sourcing the entire economy. All it takes is an organized and funded effort. The technical skill is available, but conversion of technology into open source form requires the nurturing hand of many technologically-literate generalists.

The concept for the OS induction furnace is:

The concept embodies a universal power source for induction melting and heating. The founding principle is (more…)

Categories: Induction Furnace, Open Source Economic Development, Open Source Product Development Pipeline, Open Source Technology, Organizational Development, Pattern Language

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Mon 29 Jun 2009

Power Cube Completed

Posted by Marcin

Power Cube is our open source, self-contained, modular, interchangeable, hydraulic power unit for all kinds of power eguipment. It has an 18 hp gasoline engine coupled to a hydraulic pump, and it will later be be powered by a flexible-fuel steam engine. Power Cube will be used to power MicroTrac (under construction) and it is the power source for the forthcoming CEB Press Prototype 2 adventures. It is designed as a general power unit for all devices at Factor e Farm, from the CEB press, power take-off (PTO) generator, heavy-duty workshop tools, even to the LifeTrac tractor itself. Power Cube will have a quick attachment, so it can be mounted readily on the quick attach plate of LifeTrac. As such, it can serve as a backup power source if the LifeTrac engine goes out. See the construction of Power Cube, and demonstration of it powering the PTO generator:

Video thumbnail. Click to play.
Click to play


The noteworthy features are modularity, hydraulic quick-couplers, lifetime design, and design-for-disassembly. Any device can be plugged in readily through the quick couplers. powercube It can be maintained easily because of its transparency of design, ready access to parts, and design for disassembly. It is a major step towards realizing the true, life-size Erector Set or Lego Set of heavy-duty, industrial machinery in the style of Industrial Swadeshi. Via open source, it is now becoming accessible to everybody. With the addition of local biofuel (pyrolysis oil) and steam engines, we await the time where local production is a reality.

Categories: Industrial Swadeshi, MicroTrac, Open Source Technology, Pattern Language, Permafacture, Post-scarcity, Power Cube

[9] Comments

Fri 17 Apr 2009

Last Frost Date

Posted by Marcin

Two days ago marked the last frost date. I took a video walkthough – on the plant life and landscape of Factor e Farm. This is to record the natural history and evolution of our place – not only for seasonal, but yearly, changes. Fruit trees are beginning to bloom, and life is starting to buzz once again:

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Categories: Natural History, Open Source Permaculture, Pattern Language, Seasons

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Wed 15 Apr 2009

Health and the Future of Factor e

Posted by Mathew

Molly and I built a hand washing station and I put together a shower Factor e Farm. This post is an analysis of the sanitation issues rooted in geography, infrastructure, and human use following Christopher Alexander’s guidelines for design analysis.

All of Factor E Farm’s housing, work, and animal facilities have been constructed in the site’s flood plain among major runoff channels. The building zone was chosen for quick delivery and easy access by car rather than drainage. Development has continued under assumptions that the site is only temporary and that a whole new Solar Village will be built to replace the original site. This assumption depends on the tools and techniques under development.

(more…)

Categories: Biotecture, Challenges, Construction, Documentation, Factor e Team, Guests, Infrastructure, Open Source Ecology, Pattern Language, Quality of Life, Visiting, Volunteers

[44] Comments

Sat 21 Mar 2009

Explaining the Global Village Construction Set

Posted by Marcin

Yesterday, Mathew, Nick, Jeremy and I participated in the conference call on extending our collaboration ability. One major issue that we face is the large scope and difficulty of explaining the process of building the world’s first, replicable, off-grid Global Village, via the Global Village Construction Set.

We made 2 conclusions in the conference call.

  1. We are going to focus all of our energy on just the CEB press for now, because we can demonstrate the complete Product Development Cycle by example only. We can’t explain the product cycle – because we don’t even know ourselves what it is until we go all the way through Product Release.
  2. To help others understand the integrated ecology of the Global Village Construction Set, we’ll start moving on to ecological diagrams of operations, and how the different technologies fit in that ecology. The first diagram is the Solar Energy Cycle. You can see the rough sketch.

We have updated the Global Village Construction Set – so read about the changes that have been made. The same functionality still exists, with minor refinements and simplifications in the way we present the entire package. Still, we make the bold claim that the set, along with a few other readily-accessible technologies – is sufficient to provide an infrastructure for advanced civilization. The items mentioned in the GVCS constitute a package of items that are currently not open source or replicable, therefore fraught with high costs – such that creating a replicable global village from existing components is difficult and expensive, if not impossible, in practice.

Here is the updated Set:

And here is the set rewritten in pictures:

From now on, I shall toil you less with diagrams of words, and more with diagrams of pictures. While we have already shown a simple set of component icons for an open source technology pattern language, we’re going further with pattern language concepts to explain the individual, integrated technologies. We’re moving from components more to integrated technologies, and from the integrated technologies to ecologies thereof. Different infrastructures and ecologies, such as solar power infrastructure, fabrication ecology, or waste resource cycles – may be explained now by using icons.

I have to go now and write my Oekonux 4 presentation (coming up next weekend in Manchester, UK) using some of these icons. If you are interested in meeting up during the conference, let me know as well.

Categories: Open Collaboration, Open Engineering, Pattern Language

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