Project intro

Prototype 8- April 2nd

This project was started on March 17th by a smallish group of engineers at Fablab Brussels as a 4-day rush to replicate the MIT-ambubag.

This project has grown into a 50+ team, non-profit effort to develop a rapid-manufacturable, open-source ventilator for COVID-19.
The team currently consists out of mechanical & electronic engineers, a doctor-on-site, medical advisors, a group of programmers & reinforcement from experienced R&D-engineers from Flanders Make.

Prototype 1 – March 18th

What we cannot get are medically-certified pressure sensors in large quantities, or flow sensors meant for ventilators.
Those sensors are sold out & have a 10-week lead time.

But you can find good pressure sensors, used in other industries.
Mouser has 50’000+ pressure Bosch sensor chips on stock. Next day delivery.
Car manufacturers have DC-motors in stock in huge numbers.
There is no shortage of laptop computers or microcontrollers.

The goal of this project is to duplicate full functionality of a medical ventilator, with sufficient accuracy, robustness and reliability,
while selecting only parts that can be quickly sourced in large volume from non-medical industrial sectors.

It needs to be affordable, yes. But the goal is not lowest price.
The goal is a redesign-from-scratch of an existing technology for mass rapid manufacture.

Beta Series 1, as of April 4th, features:

  • accurate pressure & volume control
  • p-, V- and flow-graphs in a graphical interface
  • redundant pressure sensors
  • pressure control mode, volume control mode
  • full user-configurable pressure curve (Ppeak, Passist, RR, IE, ramp)
  • breathing detection & breathing assist mode
  • alarms on configurable error ranges for achieved pressures and volumes
  • battery backup
  • a mature & robust pump design that can be rapidly manufactured from laser-cut aluminium sheets
  • a pump design with sufficient power that has no issues achieving the highest pressures, volumes and respiratory rates specified in the MHRA emergency certification requirements.
  • an electronics architecture where the main microcontroller and the connected PC each act as each others watchdog and give an alarm when the other one stops working.
  • possibility to enable remote monitoring of multiple machines


Prototype 7 – April 2nd