Some Ideas That Might Help

Ya never know, right?

Before I even begin, I wanted to say that I know there are a lot of scared people out there. Remaining calm, while cliche, is critical. But.. Sometimes our own mind can run away from us. Talk about it with someone. I am personally looking at this all as an opportunity to show how "good" humanity can be, *starting with myself* and knowing well that there will be some that go in the other direction. I feel that even those that are deeply suspicious of everything right now, will find some value in this post. I also ask for a bit of patience in the areas I indulge myself a little. This will likely be the last thing I do pertaining to this project.

Also, for anyone that might be aware of my posts: You thought they were long before? Prepare to be amazed!! The most relevant parts are probably 3d printing, CNC, and the automated aquaponics. It was all designed together though, and I believe it could all be beneficial.

For quite a few years, I worked extremely hard on a suite of technology. The goal of this suite was to use modern technology to enable every household to be largely self-sufficient. Im putting aside the whole "why would governments/corporations want that?!" question (its a good one, but as per usual, this post is already gonna be long). Do note, this will be a US-centric perspective.

Years before that, I was a typical super-idealistic teen, also just known as a teen. Making a long story short, my dad sat me down and asked "its great that you care about these things, but can you provide the actual tools to achieve what you want? And, do it in a way that appeals to as many as possible, regardless of ideology? Because the approach you are taking now is more likely to result in little more than philosophical banter."

Of course, at that age.. I recoiled at the notion that I may not know everything, or that there might be better ways to go about "stuff." Funny, in hindsight, and one of my most influential, poignant memories of my father.

So, thats what I did. Like so many, I just want to make my family proud whether they are still here or not.

The tools to achieve a lot of this werent available at the time I started all this. And, I ended up getting sick. All my ideas started to have much more personal relevance. "Self-sufficiency," is easy to look at as a pipe dream when you need to rely on others for even simple tasks like grocery shopping.

If ya couldn't tell, Im struggling to figure out where to really begin on this.. Bluntly and openly, this is my lifes work. "Passionate" doesnt even begin to cover how I feel, and I wanted to show that someone with my health conditions still has value. Meaning. A source of pride, not a burden. And yet, when it comes down to it, I failed. Thats a personal problem though, but like I said: Blunt and open. So, theres a bit of context for the curious.

As of now, the concept involves using automation, additive & subtractive in-home manufacturing, and implementing extensive decentralization while retaining connectivity. My creative foundation was taking inspiration from living beings and applying it to a house. So, there is a CNS, lungs, brain, etc. The analogies dont always work though
Manufacturing has been a growing issue for quite some time, but has certainly been an even hotter topic recently. I believe we are still looking at this in terms that are, essentially, obsolete. In the traditional manufacturing sense, we cant compete with a nation like China. Significantly less concern for worker safety, lower standards, lower pay, population, and more, make it a fools errand.

Historically, "decentralized" has been entirely synonymous with "distant," "disconnected," and "disparate." Many still view it through this paradigm, despite daily use of some technology that changes what it can actually mean in reality: stability as well as rapid progress. Concepts that can frequently be mutually exclusive, even on that very technology (the internet, btw).

However, with modern technology like 3d printers and even CNC (much more similar than many realize.. One adds material, the other subtracts), we have an opportunity to not only return large segments of manufacturing, but do it in a way that is incredibly difficult to disrupt, enables fast progress/change in any circumstances, and in my opinion, provides a platform for Americans to bring their ideas to life easily and with their own agency, directly. We can even design manufacturing platforms that you can put a "3d print head" on, or a "CNC head," depending on what is being made.

The total project was what I called the LV (Living Vehicle). I chose this because the multiple relevant meanings amuses me (lol..). It was a 1400sqft, 2 story mobile structure. The second floor would use a hydraulically driven pop up roof in the same vein as typical RV popouts. The total estimated cost, including labor, was ~$75k for a fully furnished home with all of the technology suite and even a killer home theater. I feel that is a very impressive number, personally, for literally everything.

The issue is that tools like 3d printers are still a bit difficult to use. Kind of like the first printing press versus a modern ink printer. It is also mostly dealing in plastics, even though the base technology can be scaled and modified to print everything from concrete to sintered metals. However, if we were to truly focus on this as a way to fundamentally approach manufacturing, the pouring in of additional resources and ideas would undoubtedly jump progress on something like metal printing accessibility and ease of use quite dramatically.

If we were to already have this in place, something like a ventilator shortage would be handled simply by asking Americans to "take these files, print these parts." It would also completely cover everything from "cheap plastic crap" to high grade medical prints. As it stands, advanced printing is still mostly in its infancy and what does exist isnt exactly accessible for the average person.
The next aspect was food. Aquaponics and hydroponics, much like 3d printing, has never been easier to get into from both a price perspective and a learning perspective. However, it can also take a certain amount of knowledge to actually succeed, as well as continuous effort and focus dedicated to the process. Its easIER than ever, but still not easy.
It takes a typical aquaponics system (basically.. raising fish in the water the plants grow in), and uses automated monitoring systems to watch everything from water & nutrient levels and deliver/address whatever is needed in real time. You would essentially choose what crops/fish you were growing through the interface (more on that later) and the system would handle everything else. The final plan was to *also* automate the harvest process, but thats a real tricky one.

My inventions for HVAC came much later in the process, inspired by my previous work, and that process inspired me to share it all (mostly). That inspiration can happen all internally, and it can also inspire others. I can be one sappy SOB, perhaps only equaled by my cynicism and verbosity

Instead of having a centralized structure, I used discrete modules that are installed in the wall space between studs. This was critical to the design, but also had the added inherent benefit of relatively easy retrofitting in existing structures.

Each module creates a flow of hot, cool, or ambient air. Before I stopped working on it, I was working on a vacuum chamber for creating large temperature deltas. It would spray a fine mist of water into a vacuum, use that energy to either heat or cool the air, and then use a fan to blow it all around. The idea can be loosely correlated with a refrigerator, if the fridge utilized the heat it produces for.. I dont know.. Keeping the fish tanks warm.

The part I think is the most fun is the ambient air movement, along with how the "thermostat" works. The module had a flap(s) to direct airflow FROM one room to another, as well as blow into both. Beyond the in wall modules, motors were connected to windows as well, to bring their variability into the equation.

Each room has a small environment monitor that takes readings in real time, and acts accordingly. So, if one room is cold, instead of that possibly forcing a central heating system to blow hot air through the whole house.. It can actually move air from one area of the house to another, only applying extra energy as needed, in the specific locations needed. The windows are controlled in much the same way, opening and closing in real time to best capture the effects of outside breezes and general airflow. The external environment is also monitored, mimicking a weather station in many ways.

The software that controls this is essentially the same across the board. The same processes that detemine how much Potassium to deliver to the plants are also responsible for opening the 2nd floor northeast window 43% to best utilize that breeze. It takes a target value, say 69 degrees on the thermostat or a specific PPM of phosphorus. In the former, the person would set it like a normal thermostat, and in the latter, the target value would be provided by the internal database. That database could possibly even use blockchain technology so that everyone has their own "copy," and it can still be improved and refined without compromising the data or requiring direct "outside" connections. I feel that last part is important.

The software learns over time, in a specific installation/environment, what nodes to tweak to get the "best" results. While this means it can adapt to any environment simply by being there, it also meant that there might just be initial periods of "I do declare.. My house is insane." But, rather quickly, it should figure out that, say, opening that NE 2nd floor window to 43%, and bursting a bit of air through the living room/dining air module is, for whatever reason, the best way to bring the den in the basement to the user set target value. This system also very easily enables the ability to set specific environments for every room and it will simply be run through the same processes the same way.

Energy generation would be handled through some typical means: solar, wind, and other things. Its pretty open to interpretation. My preliminary concept for wind was to use turbines that were small enough to be printed on a (larger) "consumer" 3d printer, and use many of them in many locations. Their facing direction, even angle, would be run through the same software. Here, the target value is self-defined by its max. Whatever positions capture the most wind energy are defined as "best," for that very specific value set.

Where it gets tricky is in being able to effectively change that "best process for this specific set of variables" (whew!). My operating hypothesis is that, past the initial calibration period, the "best" would be most successfully visualized as a range. So, during normal operation, the system will occasionally close that window to 39%, or turn a single turbine 0.5degrees and compare to existing results.
A "best" value is applied to THIS process as well, so the system will learn what small, real time changes might alter its current "best" values beneficially. As a sidenote, it really appealed to me to take this even further, essentially fractaling out a "best value" process indefinitely. In practice, two layers seemed sufficient, at least for my applications. I suspect it might also be applied to the 3d printing process to increase ease of use, reliability, and consistency.

I wanted to address insulation as well, which is an interesting topic all on its own. The idea that won out for focus was to use vacuum barriers to reduce thermal conductivity. The two leading ideas were to seal the walls and vacuum out all the air or use premade "vacuum boxes" that install between studs. A possible issue here would be losing pressure stability, especially over time. So, each one would have a small hose connecting it to a device on some hydraulic pumps. Like everything else, the exact pressure/vacuum could be monitored and changed in real time.

To supplement all the other systems, I decided on a hydraulic system to help with everything from heating water, providing water pressure, vacuum pressure, and air pressure. Using thermal convection and the right pipe designs, a lot more energy can be produced than most think. Though, I did plan on also having some traditional pumps, etc. The air pressure, when stored, could also be used for typical air tools and the water pressure can even be used to pressurize things like the nutrient drips.

One goal was also to collect water, both from the environment and the condensation that can be created with a lot of the tech. The issue here was sanitation. I could install some panels to collect condensation on the exterior walls, but over time.. They are gonna need cleaning. Effectively producing water and maximizing ease of use just kept clashing on all the ideas Ive had here.

Going back to the "best value" process, its important to note that all of these decentralized systems are run through centralized communications (though not directly to the internet at large). If the system learns that keeping hydraulic pressure at a certain level makes it easier to achieve the "best value" of wind energy, it will account for it.

There are a lot of things that I just thought of as "cool," such as home theater speakers of my own design. Not exactly a necessity, to be sure, but the LV is a platform. One idea was to use small, custom drones to handle cleaning around the house. They would identify something like a fork, pick it up, and deliver it to Base (the sink ). Creativity and personalization is part of the whole deal. I also spent a significant amount of time pondering a philosophy surrounding all of this.

And.. If anyone actually gets this far, Im going to indulge myself a bit. Many believe that greed is the biggest, or one of the biggest, obstacles to realizing further potential than we have as a species. Id propose that it isnt that drive, itself, that is a problem.. But how we define it and pursue it. Sure, I can manipulate and exploit someone and get a bigger currency score. The further Im willing to go, the higher score Ill get. Its a very direct feedback loop. However, in doing so, we may have taken the resources away from someone that might have improved our quality of life in ways that currency never, ever could. Its simply a representative middle man, afterall.

This isnt a new thought, and its a bit more abstract than the currency score paradigm. If Im honest though, Im not sure it was particularly feasible to achieve before relatively modern times. Despite my teenage proclamations otherwise My general goal was to create something that met basic needs, and even basic quality of life "stuff," in a package that also strengthened things on the macro levels. You can see this design philosophy in pretty much every system here.

Pragmatically, truly shifting over to this as a nation is one heckuva task. Even with mass awareness. Its the type of thing that can disrupt economies and put people out of business. Though I do believe the end result would be massive net benefit for everyone, there would be growing pains. However, we are already experiencing those things right here and now. Even more pertinently, a lot of these systems directly address some of the most pressing issues we are facing. Not all, to be sure, but some.

Im certain Im leaving stuff out, but its a big topic. Since the core concept is literally "the whole being greater than its parts," I probably look at it in a certain way too.

At the very least, with widespread, easy to use, multi-material printers, wed have a revolutionary manufacturing base. Not only returning capability to the US, but in a way that has never been seen before. With the rest, critical lines like food supply becomes significantly more stable. Things like self-isolation and quarantine in a pandemic become much easier. Actually affecting this change is.. A massive deal. But, with the resources of a nation put towards it, even in these times, something I failed to do might have a sliver of a chance of helping someone. Ideally, everyone.

reply to: Serdgiam

S
Seriously, you have a wonderful heart!!

I read the first post and a couple paragraphs of the second and I am dying to tell you about this thing that came out of CS and game graphics but the smart folk at MIT started researching this in earnest. It is right up your alley (and will keep that “China is going n front of us” out of the discussion)...

Voxels.

Pixels are graphic elements that when combined allows you to blow up asteroids with your triangle ship!!

Voxels are about “3D spaces” and MIT has been doing this for a decade! They have 3D printers and CAD software that is connected to their modeling software that is very interesting (see my ‘MIT and NASA New Shapeshifting Wing’ thread... The explanation is a few posts in because it took me a few weeks to truly get ‘it’).

In general, voxels are 3D spaces of self similar shapes designed to work together to provide structural strength and flexibility in a least amount of material to make it happen!

Right where you need to see!!

Now back to the OP because I share your enthusiasm (and the need for “the quest for wealth” to die. I think we are on the cusp and we can win... or fall, interesting times, no?).

Like what I read so far!

Seriously, voxels will change your world!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I am very happy to hear from you on it all TEOT I want to respond to the voxel comment right now though.

I tried to cover as much as I could, but it was such a big, big project. And.. I think the sheer volume in this thread might be detrimental. I didnt know how else to do it though.

I think I first heard the word "voxel" when Minecraft first released. I never got into it, but I think it used some psuedo-voxels? It was interesting enough to me that when Everquest Next was announced.. I was ALL IN. Thankfully, I only got the cheapest option lol...

I certainly didnt realize that they were being used outside of video games though. I mean, makes perfect sense though, doesnt it?

I had never thought of applying it conceptually to the LV, so Im not sure how it would manifest. But, Id love to find out! Its an absolutely perfect fit, in a lot of ways, to the fundamental design principles of my own.

MIT also has a multi material 3d printer!

I dont think a lot of people realize just.. how.. close.. all this stuff is, but I know you do.

Kudos for putting together this concept.

From a sustainability standpoint, your 'living home' concept would certainly help solve the dependency problems we are seeing due to the virus incapacitating China's manufacturing capabilities. I have been trying to explain to people the inherent weakness that has popped up in our global supply model. It can be visualized now like either a chain (with China as link zero) or a very unbalanced graph (again all other nodes having a connection to China). A better, more resilient model is a true distributed graph, where goods and manufacturing can be produced /everywhere/, so our graph has many more edges connecting one another, and there is no longer one "origin node" with all connections originating/terminating to it (China). Your idea takes the notion of a more connected graph and explodes the number of nodes (now we see connections at the household level rather than national/country level!)

It sounds like advancements in IoT will really help you realize the need to have components within the 'living home' share information and make decisions about how to change elements of the environment (closing windows, temp changes). Without spreading the processing load out among the components within your 'living home' you'd need a mega processor to keep up with all the variables and state changes in the different components.

When you say 'mobile structure', does that mean something that is itself a vehicle (like an RV?) or just a modular home that could be loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved around.

Fascinating idea overall; I wish you good luck.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Thanks for the reply!

There really are so many tools and concepts we have right now that, at the very least, could alleviate so many issues. Issues that I believe have been building up for quite some time, with some of us giving warnings all along the way.

I think the current situation is only really exposing issues that have been right under the surface for a while now.

I do like a lot of the concepts behind IoT. However, it seems like putting the cart before the horse. We use it to tell if we are running low on milk in our fridge or turn down/up the thermostat remotely, instead of realizing the vast potential.

It also, arguably, has the risk of being compromised externally. But, it does get a conversation going about it!

I was running the whole software package from a Beaglebone, by the way. Clever programming reduces a lot of overhead.. The issue was actually database maintenance and access, but not to a huge degree.

I suspect the newest RaspberryPi's would be more than enough for whats needed. The Beaglebone never struggled, so a more capable microPC like RPi might enable some cool features beyond what I did.

The LV was indeed like an RV, essentially a self-contained unit. I did it this way to show the total package. Kind of like a marketing platform, since all of the technologies were designed with the ability to (relatively) easily retrofit into any existing structure as well.

So, if someone didnt want the LV itself and would rather install in their current home, they would still be able to get all of the technologies contained within.

I worked on it all for almost 2 decades, mostly alone. I tried to push through my health issues or get more people to help, but was not able to do so. Feel free to "steal" my ideas

Yes, I guess WRT to data processing for interconnecting all the elements of your LV, it probably is more of an IO bound vs CPU bound problem, reading sensor data and pushing it along to other nodes in the system. Were you using garden variety 2.4/5Ghz WiFi network to link everything up? Amazing that you could run it all from a Beaglebone!

I have seen programs on Discovery where folks create very compact homes out of metal shipping containers, tractor trailers, small footprint wooden frame structures. Your LV concept would compliment that nicely I'd think.

The real upside I see from your concept is utilizing 3D printers to produce materials you need for LV. Once 3D printing comes to the masses, it will revolutionize so many things. You never know, though; I could see TPTB suppressing 3D printing to keep everyone dependent on our current (inefficient and broken) global supply chain.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Its not nearly as difficult as youd think to run all of it! Once the "higher technologies" get involved (like a music server), that changes though. Which.. Probably isnt a surprise.

It seemed the most critical part was to organize and populate the data tables in a way that integrates all the discrete systems in an easily comparable way. It doesnt need to save vast stores of data, essentially just the current "best," for a given situation. Notably, there is a lot of overlap/ranges that are formed here, rather than distinct values for every single permutation. The final values are only modified again if, in those tiny little changes it makes during normal operation, it finds something that works better.

I ended up saving several tiers, forbfurther comparison, but Im not sure how necessary it would have been in anything outside the prototype phase.

A lot of the rest of the code was effectively simplified to.. Binary basically. If a particular node is required, it turns it on until it isnt.

I actually used wires rather than wireless. The 1-Wire protocol & devices seem almost tailor made for my application and I struggled to find anything that really came close. Some of the aspects could probably be made wireless, but other than basic connectivity, I didnt put much effort there. I did design a security fob that works off proximity to "home," but so much needed to be done I figured it could take a backseat.

As things like shipping container/tiny homes got more and more popular, I felt it was probably a great market to really focus on as a priority. Never got that far, but I think it still rings true.

As I said, it was a 1400sqft structure, so a bit bigger than many tiny homes. But, it had a full pop up second floor, so the footprint wasnt huge.

On one hand, I could see things like 3d printers being supressed for profit. However, current events may make many more amenable to the idea that in that pursuit, we can end up paying high, high costs.

Realistically, if there were a full blown decentralized manufacturing base that could handle everything from plastic to metal.. Everyone in the nation can leverage that to achieve things we never could before. I probably spent as much, or more time, thinking about these aspects than the project itself. I think those discussions are just as important as the tools to achieve it.

Fascinating! For the 1-Wire protocol, what type of wiring connects together the devices, and did you need to interleave that throughout the LV structure? (I'm imagining something like CAT-5 running through studs in a traditional home, but my guess is 1-Wire uses a mush smaller gauge wire)

Will need to spend some time reviewing 1-Wire. On a previous job I worked on a product that collected information from medical devices, ventilators, pulse oximeters, medication pumps. The vast majority, except for newer devices, could only be connected via serial port, and had pretty basic communication protocols, nothing like how nowadays everything runs its own mini HTTP server, even embedded devices!

What is your background, if you don't mind me inquiring? I am a software engineer, but that sprung from my enlisting in the army as a biomed tech. We were trained with basic electrician skills, reading wiring schematics, checking voltages and troubleshooting device components, from centrifuges up to X-ray machines. After I went back to school, software seemed like an easy transition. You seem to have quite a bit of electrical and software acumen to have conceived and worked on this LV.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Man.. If you are a software engie that is interested in this type of thing, definitely check out 1-wire! I used 22AWG speaker wire

I used 3 wires, instead of the possible 2. Its wacky stuff in the best way possible. Each device essentially has an address that can be used as a source for very, very particular data table population. It can also carry data/power on 1 wire with a small cap that stores energy needed for data transmission.

Do keep in mind, Im going off memory for all of this. I was able to find some notes, etc. but I havent worked on any of it for a couple years. I stopped because.. I needed help and the one person who was helping (my dad), passed away.

As Im sure you can guess, this would be a large project for a team of healthy people with a lot of resources. Some crippled, sick dude who working himself literally to death (me) didnt stand a chance.. Id be lying if I said I wasnt at least a little bitter about it. Not towards anyone, just the situation. Well.. Some people too. When my dad passed, some saw an opportunity and they stole stuff, etc. They never understood that all they needed to do was ask...

So, I said "eff it" and started working on and playing guitars.

I initially went to school for chemical engineering, with the aim of getting into weapons design. Had a crisis of conscience as well as some better ideas (what we are now talking about, in a MUCH more primitive form), dropped out, then worked with animals (from shelters to professional training) while working on all this stuff in the off time.

When my health issues started, I began to dedicate more time & focus to the tech. I saw its potential for everyone, but also as a way to enable myself to be.. normal. Which is why some of the aspects focus on cleaning and stuff like that. I went to a high school that actually had EE, programming, etc. so thats where I got started and then after getting sick, dedicated every waking hour to learning and applying, designing and prototyping.

Among other serious issues, my spine is fractured in 8 or so places. Due to a mystery metabolic bone disorder, those vertebrae have been broken for over a decade now. If youve ever broken a bone.. You can probably guess that when they stay in that acute fracture stage, for years, it makes things difficult. Even so, Im lucky/blessed that the location of those fractures is such that I can still move around and appear largely "normal." Have also had hip replacements and all that jazz.

There were some things that were significantly more substantial than what Im sharing, but Im hesitant to share more than I have. I figure if, somehow, this stuff takes off.. Ill consider it. Theres so, so much here anyway that I dont see much of an issue