There are two major problems that I see:

- Source of clean air: HEPA filter will get contaminated and needs to be changed. UV sterilization might do it, but bulky and power intensive. Otherwise carry your own gases -- extremely technical, likely to asphyxiate yourself.

- As soon as you go I to a red zone the exterior of the suit is contaminated. Basically you need a disposable suit/gown outside the positive pressure suit.

Only other issue is that this is bonkers. Stay at home, wash your hands, wear a face shield when out to prevent touching your face if need be.

Unless you are in a room with 20 infected people the filter won’t matter that much.

A few layers of cotton is usually enough to filter 95%> of all 0.3 micron particles this is because the filtration is based on the fact that the thickness of the filter is orders of magnitude larger than the size of the particles so the size individual holes at any given layer don’t matter that much.

That said the majority of the benefit from this suit wouldn’t come from air filtering but from the fact that you won’t get contaminated droplets on your face and you won’t be able to touch your face with your hands after touching contaminated surfaces.

Sorry this is completely wrong. If you get enough airflow to breath you're getting enough virus to get sick.

Do you have a source for this?

I think that study is testing the opposite what what this suit provides -- it's not testing protection of the wearer, but testing whether or not the mask protects others:

The median-fit factor of the homemade masks was one-half that of the surgical masks. Both masks significantly reduced the number of microorganisms expelled by volunteers, although the surgical mask was 3 times more effective in blocking transmission than the homemade mask.

I made this for a neighbor who is a ER nurse and told me they ran out of "proper" suits. It's better than nothing.

The idea is that you can keep throwing out the outer suit but keep the rest.

One time I biked to work (~5 miles) on a summer day (80+ F) wearing nothing but underpants and a PPE suit from childrens' hospital Boston. The only thing exposed to air was my face.

When I got to work, I was swimming in my own sweat. I remember taking it off and draining buckets of sweat out of the 'sock parts'.

If this thing is air tight, I expect it would work about the same. That little blower wont be enough to cool you down on a warm day and you will be enjoying a sweat bath.

What was the reason behind the strange cycling attire, if you don't mind me asking?

In some sports this is kind-of normal procedure to reach a weight class before a major competition. You go into a sauna or do sports in air-tight clothes and lose a few kg of water. After getting weighted and assigned a weight class you drink lots of water again

I did it for the lols, I also didn't know that it was made out of non-breathable fabric.

If you really want to go all the way, you can either DIY or buy one of the existing ice backpacks. These come with a vest with water tubes to cool down your skin and blood. The ice supply lasts a few hours.

Of course, it means there will be more to worry about contaminating when doffing.

Oh ffs were not dealing with the andromeda strain here.

If you need to go outside and you’ll be in occasional contact with other people gloves and a face shield will do.

If you’ll be in constant contact with other people or in situations where air circulation will be limited e.g. public transport or small offices then a respirator / face conforming mask needs to be added.

I wonder whether hospitals could use something like this. Pipe in air from outside to the helmets of healthcare workers. Everyone needs to be tethered, which is pretty annoying, but maybe doable?

Maybe you could make one out of a snorkel mask (like one of the dodgy full-face ones: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BP6CTBQ/) and a vacuum cleaner?

In the 1971 film The Andromeda Strain, the biological containment lab has these cool suits which have a tunnel you crawl through to get into the suit. The suit never leaves the containment chamber. I keep thinking back to that design, and wondering if that's the future of COVID hospitals. Something like that wouldn't be that hard to mass produce at all.

They also had a laser that burned off the top layer of your skin lol

BSL4 laboratories (highest level of biosafty) require exactly this.

Random picture from Google: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.txbiom...

That's exactly what we were trying to do! Since the system is positive pressure, the "snorkel" can be as long as you like. It can even leak a little bit, with no ill effect to the wearer (since the air will puff out).

There are plenty of powered respirators on the market under $500 which offer suitable filtration.

Can you (hospitals) buy them right now?

Don't miss the rest of that site. Mad genius.

https://civilpedia.org/p/?pid=101&t=p&h=Basics+of+IEC+Fusion

or this

https://civilpedia.org/p/?pid=30&t=p&h=Laser+Microscope

I've never seen that before...

The "laser microscope" only goes halfway. You can deconvolve the diffraction pattern and get a fully volumetric image! Resolution is an issue. One setup, if your target is not moving, is to aim the projection at a desktop scanner.

OMG that would be awesome, can you elaborate a little?

The site is a collection from various authors, I'm one of them :)

It's pretty incredible.

So, the filtration on this is a hepa filter. It’s a cool way to still get infected

I'm not sure I understand this comment. I don't know if this suit will really offer protection, but I don't see the problem with the choice of filter.

A HEPA filter has a stricter rating than the N95 masks that healthcare workers use.

"HEPA, which stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air, is a designation used to describe filters that are able to trap 99.97 percent of particles that are 0.3 microns"

N95: Removes 95% of all particles that are at least 0.3 microns in diameter

Yes, HEPA filters are more than sufficient if they genuinely meet these specifications.

The nominal rating is stricter, but is the certification process that the claims of the nominal rating are actually met as strict?

There's what it says it does, and the probability that it actually does what it says it does. Those are two different considerations.

That's a different argument -- whether or not the HEPA filter really is a HEPA filter.

And whether the seal around the HEPA filter that the HEPA filter is put inside is airtight.

E.g. I've seen some vacuum cleaners which have HEPA filters reviewed as a bit useless at filtering because the particles flow through small gaps around the filter.

My mistake.

I just roll with a T Rex suit, have the fan in the tail with an embedded pipe that shoots air past a uvc light.

Please don't wear this while sleeping - it's missing some safety features, and you can kill yourself by re-breathing air, without even realizing it.

I took a nap in it. It's all good. You can't overpressure it if you want to (that's what the lower valve is for).

What would happen if the motor died? Would you still get fresh air? You are risking your life sleeping in this.

Part of why I used a blower rather than another type of pump is that you can still breathe in. You have to force the air through with your chest, which is tiring, but there's no danger. the idea is that you go out and get the blower replaced, at that point

You should add a second one-way value. Because with the open tube you are breathing back in the same air you are exhaling.

Try it: Turn off the motor, and take shallow breaths, see how much air you get.

It'll be way too hot to comfortably sleep in anyway.

A simpler version may just be a helmet that drowns your face in HEPA-filtered air (so just positive pressure around your face / head)

It’s called a powered respirator they’ll cost around $200-250 for the ones that just offer more comfort than full/half mask respirators to $500 that also offer chemical/hardcover protection to $1000> for special uses like welding/smelting work.

And, they’re great! They keep you cool, then keep particles out, and they don’t need to seal so tight.

Source: have used one for welding.

I'd love something like this for doing remodeling work in the summer. Sweat and fog on the inside of my safety goggles is a serious risk to my safety and sanity.

You can just use the helmet and not the suit -- that was the original design if anything.

Makes me think of this:

https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1315

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Now, how much if I wanted to buy one? :)

I spent about $60 for the parts overall.

The idea was to use parts that are still available easily, although I worry about the scuba masks for it.

Our other builds are at https://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/pub/web/Cookbook.SaltM...

Ask Matteo! It is probably not that expensive, but in a pandemic supply chains get squeezed and hackers come to the rescue.

Hi, I made this, if you have questions ask away!

If you had an expanded budget and were going to make some design changes for longer-term wear, or more versatility/durability, what would they be? How close to Quarian envirosuits can we get, exactly?

If I had an expanded budget I'd get something designed for this purpose. This was a bit of a McGyvering for hospitals that ran out of regular PPE suits.

If I was to change anything, I'd have more air go between the two layers, for comfort. Or use a less noisy air source than an air bed blower.

Is it legal to wear these things in public? I feel like someone would definitely call the cops on you out of fear.

It just needs flair. Here's a positive pressure suit that's sure to put a smile on your face, just add a HEPA filter.

https://smile.amazon.com/Rubies-Adult-Jurassic-Inflatable-Co...

Why would it be illegal?

Some places it is illegal to cover your face. (Banks, Government Buildings, etc...) I would probably put a "Hi my name is BLANK" sticker on my shirt to kinda offset that.

Inciting a panic, perhaps.

I fear for the overton window sometimes.

I'm not trying to get anything banned, but it's obvious that what you wear has an impact on the people around you. If you walk into a gas station with a ski mask and a pistol I'm pretty sure everyone around you is going to calculate what your next move is. Similarly if I see a group of people put on gas masks at the CVS, I'm going to be pretty scared. If I saw a dude in a full hazmat suit just casually walking around, I'd be terrified!

Why? Because hazmat suits are for, well, hazardous situations. Hazmat suits invoke thoughts of radiation, of deadly gas, of immense pain and long term disability. In short: they're scary, and wearing one could scare people. Thus, I figured they might already be banned in some areas.

I'm betting he wore that thing for less than an hour total. In air conditioning.

I wore that one just to take the picture. I wore the test article one for 10 hours including a 4 hour nap. I don't have air conditioning in my home.