Open Source Ecology

As mentioned in the previous post, a soil-grate shaker is necessary to help tractor-loader buckets of soil fall through the 3/4 inch spacing of the grate on the CEB machine, The Liberator. Welcome to the open source vibrator: Open Source Vibrator from Marcin Jakubowski on Vimeo...

Time is ticking before Product Release of The Liberator. Some last minute adjustments are forthcoming, before we release Beta Version 1.0. Here are some scenes from field testing. First, we carry it over to the work place with the LifeTrac forks...

As of 10/24/09 I am no longer on site at FeF. For those keeping track, thats four days earlier than anticipated, due to a heating mishap where we went down from two stoves to one. So I’ll be cleaning up documentation off site instead. ...

Arduino is an open source electronic microcontroller. We are using it to automate our Compressed Earth Brick (CEB) press - for automatic control that doesn’t require a human operator to runthe machine. The RepRap open source 3D printer also uses Arduino to handle its controls. ...

I would like to share today’s letter to our True Fans with the greater world. It provides the latest insights on the Factor e Farm experiment. Dear True Fans and Supporters, First of all, thank you all for your unwavering support. ...

I’ve been researching and musing over how open source and business go together like two slices of bread. The contraption tastes good only if the stuff in between meshes well. ...

We are starting biweekly OSE Global Conference Calls - beginning Wednesday, October, 14, at 11:00 AM GMT-6 (Central USA time zone). Why? Because we are nearing critical decision forks in this open source project. Read on...

I was invited to present at the Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit 2009 (FSCONS) - November 13-15, 2009, in Gothenburg, Sweden. This is an exciting chance to connect to the Swedish open source and Global Villages contacts...

The last remaining step of our open source CEB Press Prototype II development is installation of automatic controls. This means that instead of a person actuating the hydraulic cylinders in the proper sequence as seen before, we will do this with electric solenoid valves sequenced by a computer...

Technically the Project Visit started last week, but we only got the printer working to sign a contract to lay out both sidesresponsibilities yesterday. This Project Visit will focus on three main tasks that each build off of the work successfully completed last month...

The next phase of CEB development is automation, and October is the month to do it. We’ll be publishing video of the manual CEB II in action with Soil Pulverizer and Slurry Mixer in operation - within a week. We will try this with stack-as-you go on a sample shed structure. ...

The lack of updates means I’ve been working fast and furious on another one month project proposal and finishing up the Torch Table. Saturday I hit a milestone which I thought I would share, we have possibly the largest open source computer controlled drawing table! ...

One of our supporters nominated me for the TED Fellows program. I just got an email from the program officer, inviting me to apply. The application is due by September 25. My schedule this week is tight, and we have an important visitor arriving Friday...

Here are 7 videos from the steam meet, plus other conslusions on our involvement with steam power. We will build a hydronic heating stove with allowance for a steam engine electrical generator - even if we don’t install the steam engine before winter. ...