Opus-assisted open design: a $31k low-field head MRI sketched in hours
DreamFly_13 · reddit · 2026-10-18
A proof-of-concept called OpenHalbach·Head, designed in a few hours with Claude Opus 5.5: a complete open-source first-pass design for a 60 mT low-field head MRI scanner. The author stresses it is simulation-only — nothing built or tested.
Key specs:
- 880 one-inch N48 NdFeB cubes in a Halbach array (108 kg of magnets), 2.5 MHz Larmor
- Runs from a wall outlet, no cryogens, no shielded room; EMI handled with EDITER-style active cancellation
- Four modules of 41–50 kg that roll through a normal door
- $31k in parts including 15% contingency, at least two suppliers per BOM line
Motivated by two-thirds of the world lacking MRI access, building on low-field permanent-magnet work like LUMC's 50 mT Halbach, OSI² ONE and Hyperfine's Swoop. The point was showing how fast a credible paper design can now be produced.
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