tyler
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Posts: 12
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Post by tyler on Aug 7, 2016 23:43:15 GMT
Hi, I'm Tyler. I'm an electromechanical engineer that got asked to cross-post a few articles I had written for my blog at www.wirebiters.com This article discusses some basic CAD terms that you'll need to know if you want to open up and use some basic CAD packages. www.wirebiters.com/basic-cad-terms/Here's some more advanced CAD package stuff. www.wirebiters.com/understanding-surface-geometry/Why would you want to use this? Well, 3d printing rocks. If you want to print your own embedded device controller housing, it's pretty easy to design your own and have it printed somewhere. If you're in a city, there's probably a local that can do it if you Google enough. Alternatively, just use https://www.3dhubs.com If you're using something to alter the physical world, it's useful to be able to print any necessary parts that you can't easily fabricate otherwise. Personally, I use SolidWorks and CATIA for my modeling; however, you might opt for a free CAD program like Sketchup. Some of you guys might consider designing and printing your own circuitboards from a service like OshPark oshpark.com/ and a program like Eagle or KiCad. If you're curious as to how PCBs are made, here's a quick writeup. www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuit-board-manufacturing-part-1/www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuit-board-soldering-pcbs-part-2/www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuitboard-finishing-pcbs-part-3/www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuit-board-testing-pcbs-part-4/For completion, here's a quick overview of IC lithography for creating integrated circuits. www.wirebiters.com/dfm-ic-lithography/Finally, I'd like to suggest taking a look over bolstering your lab with a new soldering iron www.wirebiters.com/whats-best-soldering-iron-hobbyist/Happy reading! |
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tyler
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by tyler on Aug 8, 2016 1:50:59 GMT
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Post by curious48 on Aug 8, 2016 7:31:14 GMT
Hi, I'm Tyler. I'm an electromechanical engineer that got asked to cross-post a few articles I had written for my blog at www.wirebiters.com This article discusses some basic CAD terms that you'll need to know if you want to open up and use some basic CAD packages. www.wirebiters.com/basic-cad-terms/Here's some more advanced CAD package stuff. www.wirebiters.com/understanding-surface-geometry/Why would you want to use this? Well, 3d printing rocks. If you want to print your own embedded device controller housing, it's pretty easy to design your own and have it printed somewhere. If you're in a city, there's probably a local that can do it if you Google enough. Alternatively, just use https://www.3dhubs.com If you're using something to alter the physical world, it's useful to be able to print any necessary parts that you can't easily fabricate otherwise. Personally, I use SolidWorks and CATIA for my modeling; however, you might opt for a free CAD program like Sketchup. Some of you guys might consider designing and printing your own circuitboards from a service like OshPark oshpark.com/ and a program like Eagle or KiCad. If you're curious as to how PCBs are made, here's a quick writeup. www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuit-board-manufacturing-part-1/www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuit-board-soldering-pcbs-part-2/www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuitboard-finishing-pcbs-part-3/www.wirebiters.com/printed-circuit-board-testing-pcbs-part-4/For completion, here's a quick overview of IC lithography for creating integrated circuits. www.wirebiters.com/dfm-ic-lithography/Finally, I'd like to suggest taking a look over bolstering your lab with a new soldering iron www.wirebiters.com/whats-best-soldering-iron-hobbyist/Happy reading! Hi, Tyler! Thanks so much for these excellent references! It's great to have you here and these are really very interesting.  For anyone else following along, I am just starting to get into mechanical engineering (without a prior background) due to working on an Arduino-based prototype for a project which I might post about later - which is why I was asking about these. Tyler, I notice your blog has both mech. engineering and electrical engineering. Which side did you start from? It is a bit rare to have an interest in both |
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tyler
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by tyler on Aug 8, 2016 10:08:09 GMT
I started off as a nuclear tech (focusing on power systems) then eventually got a degree in electrical engineering. Out of college, I got hired to be an electromechanical engineer at an aerospace company. To round out my skillset, it was suggested that the company send me to night classes to learn the mechanical side. It's been a long, strange journey but I'm pretty happy with it overall.
I worked with Arduino/Beaglebone/FPGAs/PIC in college but I'm a little rusty on it. If I have any functional project pictures from the past, I'll try to dig them up and post them. Whenever I get the time to (which is probably after grad school is over at my current rate...), I've been meaning to resurrect my buggy Arduino Bluetooth remote control app that I wrote for Android and release it on the app store as one of those "loading screen ad" free apps.
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Post by curious48 on Aug 8, 2016 12:58:04 GMT
I started off as a nuclear tech (focusing on power systems) then eventually got a degree in electrical engineering. Out of college, I got hired to be an electromechanical engineer at an aerospace company. To round out my skillset, it was suggested that the company send me to night classes to learn the mechanical side. It's been a long, strange journey but I'm pretty happy with it overall. I worked with Arduino/Beaglebone/FPGAs/PIC in college but I'm a little rusty on it. If I have any functional project pictures from the past, I'll try to dig them up and post them. Whenever I get the time to (which is probably after grad school is over at my current rate...), I've been meaning to resurrect my buggy Arduino Bluetooth remote control app that I wrote for Android and release it on the app store as one of those "loading screen ad" free apps. , All this sounds incredibly cool!! I'm glad to have you here. For sure, a write-up with pictures would be enjoyed by many. On Arduino bluetooth, which bluetooth module did you use? I do have a write-up on using HC-05 and would be curious to know what you used if you stay around here you could certainly help with my project. Right now, I am working on building a small "helping hands" type thing that scales movement. I'll post its progress soon and hope you can help but mostly I'd be interesed to know more about your bluetooth solution, which perhaps I can add to the write-up |
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tyler
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Posts: 12
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Post by tyler on Aug 9, 2016 0:22:28 GMT
I used this Bluetooth radio. amzn.to/2aNf5lLIt was kind of a pain. I used an Arduino to just read an integer as the commanded action from the radio. The transmit and receive pins were wired the way you'd expect. The hard part was creating a Java-based app to open a socket and communicate over Bluetooth reliably while not crashing. I've never been trained in Java so there was ... a lot of learning involved. Error trapping is your friend. If I ever get it "finished" to the point that I'd show someone other than a professor for a grade, I'll do a full writeup. |
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Post by curious48 on Aug 9, 2016 13:04:52 GMT
I used this Bluetooth radio. amzn.to/2aNf5lLIt was kind of a pain. I used an Arduino to just read an integer as the commanded action from the radio. The transmit and receive pins were wired the way you'd expect. The hard part was creating a Java-based app to open a socket and communicate over Bluetooth reliably while not crashing. I've never been trained in Java so there was ... a lot of learning involved. Error trapping is your friend. If I ever get it "finished" to the point that I'd show someone other than a professor for a grade, I'll do a full writeup. For some reason I find the statement "the hardest part was creating a Java-based app [that didn't crash]" to be a bit funny.  For sure, Java is a massive beast. Is there a particular reason you chose it? Many people prefer languages like Python which, while being scripted, are still somewhat lighter-weight! There are even ways to get Python (or a dialect) to run directly on microcontrollers, which I'm guessing that Java wouldn't be able to do... so I'm just curious how you came to that choice, especially since you say you were never trained in it... |
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tyler
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Posts: 12
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Post by tyler on Aug 9, 2016 22:37:18 GMT
Oh. I didn't give enough background. Whoops.
I used Java-Android on a cellphone to run a custom made app I made. This app acted to control the phone's bluetooth radio to transmit codes to the bluetooth radio wired to the Arduino to drive a robot around. The robot used Arduino. The cellphone uses Java because that's what Android apps are written in.
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For sure, Java is a massive beast. Is there a particular reason you chose it? Many people prefer languages like Python which, while being scripted, are still somewhat lighter-weight! There are even ways to get Python (or a dialect) to run directly on microcontrollers, which I'm guessing that Java wouldn't be able to do... so I'm just curious how you came to that choice, especially since you say you were never trained in it...