I'm not dead! Updates and teasers.

Radio breaking squelch Is this thing on? Oh good!
It's been a LONG time since the last update and that's my fault, apologies for the delays in posts but oh the things that have happened since the last one have been AWESOME.

New generation precision suntracker, printed variant

To start off, I have passed a year at the new job and it has been a whole freaking year of awesome times, some frustration with part of the program and then elation when finally it all worked together as intended. Developing a new high precision solar tracker from the ground up has been a massive challenge due to difficulties with getting the most critical part, the imaging Multi Object Tracking sensor that is also found in modern Wiimotes, working from just a datasheet and my admittedly terrible coding skills. Getting the driver working correctly really allowed the power and incredible value of a logic analyzer for debugging a system. On the plus side, once that was working the rest was not too much harder and I have obtained permission from PXI to open source my library once that is working so anyone can unlock the power of this wonderful sensor. Another happening here was my first field campaign with my system, destination Arizona State University to do final debugging and training of the team that will be taking it to the Amazon rain forest.

A tour of Small Batch Assembly

Company logo on the orange walls

Recently I had met up with Bob Coggeshall at the inaugural National Maker Faire and he invited me to stop by the factory sometime in the future. I wasn't out in the general Reston area for a while until there was a conference over there. Sent him a tweet, and the following day drove over through the rather nice technology district.

Combination railgun/coilgun development platform (version .01 craptastic)

Coilgun with projectile

Way back in 8th grade summer and freshman year of high school I got bored and decided I wanted to make an electromagnetic accelerator so I went googling and did a ton of research. As I had zero budget I had to kludge together most of this from junk I had laying around. As a result of this, the efficiency and overall power are abysmal.

Workshop evolution and upgrades

In October of 2014 I moved to a new house which included space for a workshop which has been a huge upgrade for me, as I had been working in a sort of foyer at my old house.  I will be detailing the evolution and advancement of my workshop in addition to offering advice for building your own or upgrading an existing workshop.

Video workshop update (February 2015)

I thought I'd make a video tour of the workshop as I have a decent camera on my phone and it seems that workshops are a point of interest for quite a few makers. Excuse my messy shelves as I do not have anywhere near enough sorters or bins to keep all my equipment looking organized though I will be cleaning them up soon once I get some more containers

Rocket Guidance/ active stabilization system proof of concept is up and running!

Nearly 2 months after I actually started actually working on the system I finally got the proof of concept down. It uses the cheap and very common MPU6050 6-DOF IMU to read angles and an Arduino UNO to translate the angular output into servo movement. Thank you to this tutorial for helping me understand the implementation of the IMU.

IMU detail

Workshop status (6/7/14)

Decided i'd do a writeup on my workshop and equipment in it. Im using the unfinished back room of the basement in the house which is about 100 square feet without storage shelves and workbenches. The workbenches are basic folding Home Depot's workbenches are nice and sturdy with a solid MDF work surface and an undershelf, Im planning to paint the MDF with a polyurethane sealant as so any water from the soldering iron cleaning sponge doesn't cause it to "fluff". The soldering iron i use is a Hakko FX888-D Soldering station, moving up from an old 30W Weller "Firestarter" it is amazing how much of a difference a good iron makes; heats up faster, holds temperature better, precise temperature range, finer tip, and best of all, so very comfy. Ive got bins of electronic components and misc parts I've salvaged over the years, midsize and large RC helicopters (ill convert one into a drone), several Estes rockets, and a myriad range of wires and hardware. Im currently trying to figure out how to put part sorters above and behind my workbench for easy access during tinkering. My whole workshop is lit by LED bulbs as they don't give me headaches unlike some fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, further they don't have the flicker effect show up on video (i will be making workshop videos now). I use a Cree 1200lumen to light the workshop, and 2 phillips LED bulbs in soft light for the focused workbench lights. That's about all I have to say about it at the moment, I am planning on adding a workshop computer so I can program in the workshop and have a mobile computer.