Sustainable Tech
- You don't need a new computer for up-to-date software ... just the right software!
cross-posted from: https://floss.social/users/be4foss/statuses/112332015705832479
> You don't need a new computer for up-to-date software ... just the right software! > > Come to #Umweltfestival 2024 in #Berlin to learn about the role of independent #FreeSoftware in the sustainable use of hardware. > > 🗓️ Sunday 28 April, 11-19h > 📍 Straße des 17. Juni (Brandenburg Gate) > > \#KDEEco together with #FSFE (@fsfe) and Bits & Bäume (@bitsundbaeume\_berlin) will be there! Some in the #GNOME and #postmarketOS community may be joining as well :) > > @kde > > \#KDE #BMUV #UBA #GermanEnvAgency #OpenSource
- Using coffee or tea as printer ink
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/3036509
> There is apparently a printer that can use spent coffee or tea leaves to print. I love this idea but I would not buy a printer when so many are being thrown away. I pull them out of dumpsters with intent to repair them. So the question is, can they be hacked to work with coffee or tea? > > Canon actually disclosed how to hack their cartridges as a consequence of a semiconductor shortage due to coronavirus. So this suggests #Canon could be a candidate for this hack. Has anyone tried it? How precisely do we have to match the viscosity of homemade ink to the original ink?
- FOSS Water Purification, Structures, and Sanitation (Off-Grid Communities) 📖💧🏠🚾🌱www.eco-libre.org 2023 Annual Report - Eco-Libre
In 2023, we added 4 new open-source hardware projects to address community's human rights, including access to safe water, shelter, and sanitation
Happy 2024! The Eco-Libre project published our 2023 Annual Report for last year.
[!Eco-Libre 2023 Annual Report](https://www.eco-libre.org/2023-annual-report/)
Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre hardware for sustainable communities.
> Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source hardware and software that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights. > > - Eco-Libre's mission statement
We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.
Executive Summary
- Eco-Libre was founded June 24, 2023
- Begun searching for land in Ecuador
- Four projects created on GitHub
- Currently 2 active contributors
- 2024 priority is finding land and R&D on Life-Line
Michael Altfield registered the domain-name eco-libre.org on June 24th, 2023, a few weeks after arriving to Ecuador.
Over the next 6 months, Eco-Libre committed research and designs to our GitHub org for four projects (licensed CC BY-SA) which address some of the essential requirements for a new community's basic human needs: clean water, shelter, electricity, and ecological processing of waste. By releasing these designs under a libre license, it allows for other communities to build their own infrastructure with minimal effort, and it encourages collaboration on standardized design concepts.
As Eco-Libre's projects mature, we will build experimental prototypes in our own community. To that end, Michael is currently traveling around Ecuador by bicycle in-search of land to found Eco-Libre's first physical site.
In December, Eco-Libre was joined by Jack Nugent, who has since committed contributions to the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.
The priority focus for Michael in 2024 is to determine the best region in Ecuador to buy land where Eco-Libre can physically iterate on projects.
The priority focus for Jack in 2024 is to finish the research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.
Projects
Eco-Libre was founded this year (in 2023). In our first 6 months, we've begun work on four libre hardware projects. All of them are currently in the early research stages.
Eco-Libre Launch-Nest
The Eco-Libre Launch-Nest was our first project. The concept is to build a small-footprint, high-occupancy structure for sustainable living of 30-people.
| [!CAD screenshot of a 6-story masonry structure with a large array of solar panels and three large parabolic solar dishes on the roof](https://www.eco-libre.org/2023-annual-report/#launch-nest) | |:--:| | Eco-Libre Launch-Nest 2023.09 |
The rooftop has sufficient space for 72 solar panels (2 meter x 1 meter) and 3 parabolic solar concentrators (16 square meter).
The structure is six-stories above-ground, which is the recommended maximum height of a confined masonry structure in an earthquake zone. It also has a basement.
The building is designed with external, enclosed, firewalled staircases on either end. These are symmetrical and designed such that the building design can be rotated around a center courtyard to have four Eco-Libre Launch-Nest structures that share the same stairwells.
Currently only basic, incomplete architectural design-work has been done in CAD. Before a structural analysis can be assessed (eg to determine the location of columns), further work needs to be done on finishing the placement of windows, doors, and dividing walls.
Eco-Libre Life-Line
The Eco-Libre Life-Line project is a series of components making up an infrastructure to deliver a clean water pipeline to a community. This includes:
| [!Photo of a small weir funneling watter into a 200L barrel with an expanded metal grate covering its opening](https://www.eco-libre.org/2023-annual-report/#life-line) | |:--:| | Eco-Libre Life-Line 2023.12 |
- Collection of raw surface water (eg from a stream)
- Removal of large organic debris & sediments
- Removal of small particles
- Removal of harmful bacteria & parasites
- Clean water storage
Michael started the Life-Line project after visiting a number of communities who had constant issues with their water systems breaking or failing to provide clean water. The goal is to design a low-cost, self-cleaning pipeline of systems that require minimal human intervention (max routine maintenance twice per year).
This year we have half-finished the "intake" component in CAD, which consists of building a weir in a stream that funnels turbulent water onto a downward-sloped HDPE barrel with a fine-mesh screen atop it. This design exploits the energy in falling turbulent water to clean the intake screen, and it prevents the intake from being clogged by organic debris during heavy rainfall.
Special thanks to Jack Nugent, who joined Eco-Libre in 2023 and has contributed to research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.
The goal in 2024 is to finish the "intake" component in CAD and also to design the "settling tank", "pre-filter", and "sand filter" components in CAD.
Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth
How do you sustainably begin to build a community on land without electricity and without any structures?
The Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth is a simple storage shed with >1 kW of PV solar panels on the roof. This is the first structure to be built when jumpstarting a new off-grid community. It provides the power, storage, and outdoor workshop space needed to build-out the community.
| [!Photo of a small structure with 4 solar panels on its roof](https://www.eco-libre.org/2023-annual-report/#genesis-booth) | |:--:| | Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth 2023.06 |
This year we've made a simple footprint for the Genesis-Booth in CAD that's 4 meters x 2 meters -- just large enough to fit 4 solar panels (2 meters x 1 meter each). Further work is needed in CAD, but this year we also delved into making a framework for our documentation.
The Eco-Libre documentation is written in reST, generated by Sphinx, and (currently) hosted by GitHub. This is an exceptionally flexible continuous documentation solution that allows for versioned documentation matching versioned releases, works well with git, can be exported to many different flexible formats, and can be extended with custom directives written in python.
The highest priority for the Genesis-Booth is to finish this documentation as a template for other projects. Ideally this should be designed in such a way that information about Eco-Libre in general is seamlessly added to all project's documentations in a reusable way.
Eco-LIbre Treasure Tower
The Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower project is a 7 meter x 6 meter structure for storing and processing a community's waste, most importantly their food & fecal compost.
| [!Photo of a tall 6-story structure with a wrap-around ramp and several doors on each floor](https://www.eco-libre.org/2023-annual-report/#treasure-tower) | |:--:| | Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower 2023.07 |
This structure is 6-stories high and barrier-free, with a wrap-around ramp. All but the top-floor have three doors:
- Access door for maintenance
- Deposit Closet
- Deposit Closet
Each deposit closet contains facilities for the collection of human urine and feces and is slightly staggered in elevation so the user's deposits fall by gravity into their designated collection areas for processing.
Separately from compost, this structure also serves as a storage area for recyclable waste materials, such as metal.
This year a first-draft design of the structure has been designed in CAD, but it's very premature.
Next, a second design prototype (where the two deposit closet entrances are on the same side) should be drafted in CAD and compared to the existing design.
Contribute to Eco-Libre
If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre hardware, please contact us to get involved :)
Cheers, The Eco-Libre Team https://www.eco-libre.org/
- How to Build a Small Solar Power Systemsolar.lowtechmagazine.com How to Build a Small Solar Power System
This guide explains everything you need to know to build stand-alone photovoltaic systems that can power almost anything you want.
Low tech magazine
- [BBC] - What does a sustainable smartphone look like?www.bbc.com What does a sustainable smartphone look like?
In a bid to reduce global electronic waste, Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves. What makes its technology so sustainable?
In a bid to reduce global electronic waste, Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves. What makes its technology so sustainable?
- Build This Open Source DIY Wind Turbine for $30www.treehugger.com Build This Open Source DIY Wind Turbine for $30
If you're interested in learning how to build your own renewable energy devices, this DIY vertical axis wind turbine is a great place to start.
- The hidden costs of using an electric bikeelectrek.co The hidden costs of using an electric bike
Electric bikes might sound like fun, but there are several impacts they'll have on your life and wallet that you might have forgotten about.
- [wired] - Open-Source Your Blender to Fight Electronic Wastewww.wired.com Open-Source Your Blender to Fight Electronic Waste
Berlin-based Open Funk is tackling throwaway culture with a blender that's as easy to fix as to replace.
An open source, repairable blender.
- Siddharth Kara | How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives | Jordan Harbingerwww.jordanharbinger.com Siddharth Kara | How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives | Jordan Harbinger
Siddharth Kara joins us to discuss how miners in the Congo die daily to supply cobalt for lithium-ion batteries that power our phones, laptops, and cars.
- Nokia G42 combines repairability and 5G connectivitywww.techradar.com Nokia G42 combines repairability and 5G connectivity in a handsome purple package
Throw in affordability too and you have a potentially winning formula
The G42 continues Nokia’s quest to make at-home smartphone repairs simple, accessible and affordable
- Repeat turns electronics industry on its head with high-end, sustainable and modular headphoneswww.brightvibes.com Hear, hear! Repeat turns electronics industry on its head with high-end, sustainable and modular headphones
The Repeat headphones turn the electronics industry on its head with their modular design, durability, top-notch sound, and comfort.
