Requests

Clean drinking water shouldn't be a subscription. We need a fully open-source household water purifier - documented multi-stage filtration (sediment + activated carbon + UF/UV), a replaceable cartridge system using locally available media, and a simple flow/quality indicator. No proprietary cartridges, no DRM'd filters. Full BOM, CAD, and a maintenance guide so anyone can build, repair, and re-source parts. Target build cost under ₹4,000.

Before you purify it, you need to know what's in it. Bengaluru's borewell and lake water quality is all over the map. Need an affordable, open-source testing kit that measures TDS, pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen, with probes for common contaminants like nitrates and hardness. ESP32 data logger, a phone app for results, and an opt-in public water-quality map. Off-the-shelf sensor probes, full BOM under ₹5,000, all designs open.

Most people's first microcontroller experience is a jungle of loose jumper wires and a fried board. Let's fix the on-ramp: a friendly beginner ESP32 kit - solder-free 'Sidekick' carrier with labelled breakouts, a guided set of starter modules (LED, button, sensor, display), and an open, project-first curriculum that gets a first-timer to something blinking-and-talking in an afternoon. Everything open and re-sourceable from Indian suppliers. Target kit cost under ₹1,500.

Bengaluru's makers, hackerspaces, and community labs are scattered across a city that loves to drop your mobile signal. Let's stitch them together with a citywide LoRa mesh - Meshtastic-compatible rooftop nodes for off-grid messaging, sensor data sharing, and event pings that don't depend on any ISP. Need open KiCad designs for a solar-powered gateway node, weatherproof enclosure STLs, and a tiny self-hostable dashboard for the mesh. Target node BOM under ₹2,500.

Indie filmmakers and tabletop folks need a modular, 3D-printable figurine system for sci-fi props and stop-motion shorts - ball-and-socket armatures, swappable heads/limbs/accessories, and a parametric OpenSCAD/Blender rig so you can generate variants on demand. Print-in-place joints that actually hold a pose, magnet mounts for set pieces, and a shared parts library everyone can extend. Fully open so a school AV club can build a whole cast for the price of a spool.