Time flies like an arrow... Fruit flies like a banana

Been about a month since I posted my working on the desk. Unfortuantely that month has not seen a mountain of production, but my room as a whole is slowly coming together, and work has continued.

First and foremost I added the first of some necessary shelving options. This one is the most important as it holds all my electronic testing equipment. What engineer is complete without test equipment??



I have a very nice analogue oscilloscope, rescued from ruin last year. I also recieved a 2Mhz function generator and old school psu before they were binned. I do hate that teaching establishments tend to trash working equipment, but love it when I get to save it :) Need to find a way to organise all the cool stuff they dump being given to me automatically.

The desk has also had a makeover. Unfortunately, the fablon I purchased was matt white, and being a note of more than just the colour, it was useless as a dry-wipe surface. However, the next best thing is that the desk has been painted with an eggshell wood paint, providing a cleanable, worktop surface. This will then be carefully covered with clear fablon, which thankfully does have the necessary markerphilic properties.








In other news, I recieved my order from Tee publishing (.co.uk). Took a few days and they dont send a sent notification, so was wondering when it would get here. The book I recieved is regarded as something akin to a holy text among a special group of mad folk (hackers/tinkerers/makers).




Written by a prophet known as David J. Gingery, The Charcoal Foundry is the first of 7 books in the series Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap. In the 1st book, your are guided step-by-step in the theory and construction of a charcoal furnace to melt scrap metal, and the art of sandcasting your own metal parts.

The following in the series are:
The Metal Lathe
The Metal Shaper
The Milling Machine
The Drill Press
The Dividing Head & Delux Accessories
Designing & Building The Sheet Metal Brake

Followed in this order, the reader is taught how to use the creation from the previous book(s) in order to create the next part. So, in theory once I have a charcoal furnace, I use it to cast parts to build my lathe. Then I cast and Turn Parts for a Metal Shaper...etc, etc

You can kinda see why this is such an amazing series, and why there are a subsect of makers who feel that May 3rd, the date of his passing, should be a recognised holiday.

If you're interested (Jamie) then the books can be found from teepublishing.co.uk, but as the delivery price compounds with each book, you might be better buying the whole series straight from the original american publisher, Lyndsay.

http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/index.html

Thats all my tired brain will allow at the moment, and not much more has really happened anyway. So, until next time.

Zai Jian

Marc


"Rule 1 - Cardio..."

I am the Desk King!

Today, several awesome things happened. First, my first week ended with my boss seeming happy about my work so far, and next week looking interesting, if hard.

Secondly, when I got home there were 3 surprises waiting for me. First, I recieved my first ever package addressed to the tinker shed:



Which contained my very own Bus Pirate:



This is a device designed by Ian Lesnet (hero!), and is an interfacing tool used to connect via a serial terminal, allowing designers to prototype new chips and devices without the need to write reams of code, and suffer several inches of hair recession in the process. The device is maintained at dangerous prototypes and can be purchased at seeed studio.

If that wasn't enough, when I entered my room, my desktop had been cut for me following my plans, leading to my finished worktop and bringing it ever closer to completion :)





So, I'm gonna go play with my bus pirate, and research how the hell an MSP430 works...

Tot ziens

M64

I'm sleepy

Morning always seems to swing by far, far too fast... I'm sleepy, but unlike my cohort, not hungover.

which is new :p


Anyway, continued work on the desk last night, which has brought me to the stage of near-completion. All that is left now is the final 2 worktops and a bookcase, but that bit isn't so important. I'm going to finish the worktops in either Melamine backing board (white...desk? Ftw) or with sticky-backed Fablon, a plastic sheeting which will be tested to guage it's dry marker conditions.

For now, I should get back to work, but if you're interested, here's the next batch of foties, enjoy.

Something old, Something new, Something Borrowed.... and a Tardis!

It's been almost a year to the day since I posted on this site (368 days if we're being pedantic) as I purchased a new site... which I haven't posted on in almost as long... But no more!

It's much easier to post blogs on these sorta sites, so wether I'll continue to post here, or start a dedicated tinkershed blog I don't yet know. However, for the time being, blogs here, and any full projects will be written up on the site, should any happen.


I am currently working (again) for the Lews Castle College, researching learning materials for secondary (high school) students, the design of a permanent interactive display for Renewable Energy Sources and the installation of an embedded web server to allow remote dataloggers to transmit their results to be published in a single place.

In my own time, I am currently designing and constructing an epic workbench, which I shall now christen:



First I measured most of my room (as this is now the space dedicated to the desk, who really needs a bed anyway? Then I did more planning and preparation than I've ever done for one of my hair-brained schemes...




Then, I calculated all my wood requirements, utilising the awesome power of 2x1" and 2x2" pine timber and 8x4' MDF, so as to achieve my desky awesomeness.

The desk will occupy the left hand side of my room, reaching 3 walls and using 1 and 3/4 sheets of mdf for its working area. On Monday, the room was stripped on that side, and the first of the legs were put in place.






Today, the first piece of mdf worktop was cut and fitted, and it is that surface from which I am currently posting. I'm very excited about this desk, as I have been meaning to find a project that would help me try and learn my fathers diy skills for some time now. Over the next few days, the 2 remaining worktops will be fitted, and an mdf bookcase added.




I'm currently deciding on what to use to cover the top of my workspace, and am leaning towards Melamine backing board, as used in shower enclosures, due to it's whiteboard-emulating properties. What better way to work through design ideas than a whiteboard desktop?

Anyway, I'm tired and off to bed soon. Hope this wasn't tooo boring a read for you, and I'll try to spice things up in the future. Maybe with erotic stories or something, who knows.


Tìoraidh

Marc


"Break out the L-word" "Lesbian?" "No, the other L-word" ".....Lesbians?"

FREEscale!

I'm trying to avoid studying so I thought I'd mention the Freescale chips that arrived a few days ago. Thanks to the generous nature of freescale when it comes to samples (Atmel, it has to be said, have still not contacted me about my chip request...) I have received 10 free chips with which to test and play. I think this is a great thing for hobbyists and inventors, as it allows people to order interesting chips, and actually play about with them, without the fear of breakage. This means that more people can experiment without worry of destroying the chip, or melting it in attempts to surface mount solder it. (especially as some chips can only be bought in rolls of 1000 from their site...)

The 1st chip I ordered was the MC9S08JM60CLH, a SMD chip of the same family as one I have used in my Uni courses. I ordered this because of the Defcon 16 badge Joe Grand created for the Defcon convention, as it really interested me with regards to what it can do.

The 2nd is the MC56F8006VLF, which is designed for use within power systems. I was drawn by this for possible application in my final year project.



The one on the left is the MC56F8006VLF, with the MC9S08JM60CLH on the right. For size I have used a GB 10 pence piece, which for international standard is almost exactly the size of an American quarter... as I don't know where I put mine...

Yes, they are actually minuscule. The MC56F8006VLF is daunting when you think of the task of soldering, but that's where half the fun is...

Oh, and for clarity, if by some chance an American Engineer does stumble across this page, it is pronounced soLdering. There is an L for a reason, if it was spelt soDDering, I'd understand, but please can you start a movement to change this trend of pronunciation, especially as I have now let the spelling of Analog go...

It's Analogue btw..

Salam

M64

"Welcome to the Hotel New Hampshire..."

Faildays and pictures...

Today's update is very picture oriented. If you don't like this, I am sorry, and if you send me a complaint, along with £10 processing fee, I will be sure to sort out this matter in future.

To begin with,


Needless to say, the coil casting failed miserably... I didn't use enough hardner, causing parts of the cast to remain gooey and gel-like even after 2 days of drying. Also, due to the horrific look of the resin mixed with talc, the colour was horrible, even before it mixed with the wax. Basically, it all went wrong, and I lost all my coils in the process. Fortunately, we learn from our mistakes.

Problem is, I'm reluctant to put this new knowledge into practice, so I am consentrating on:




ELECTRONICS!!!

Sorry. I love building stuff, and much prefer it to fabrication...
This is the in-progress work of my Arduino-based Datalogger. When finished, it will read (in real time) the voltage and current created by the bike, and display this, along with the calculated power, onto the LCD screen. It will also use a light sensor rx/tx pair to record the rpm of the wheel, and calculate this into m/s. All this data will also be recorded on the SD card to allow graphing and long-term storage of the resultant data for the turbine.


As a special treat:




This is a photo of the Helium weather baloon used by the other research group for their investigation into harnessing more powerful wind currents at greater height. The reason we went out to watch was purely to see the balloon either crash or escape. Unfortunately neither happened. Least we can watch tv though, right?

Aavajo

M64

"I'm sorry Shaun..." "What?!?" "No, I'm sorry, Shaun..." "OH GOD!"

We want FREEEDOOOMMM!!!... No? fine, gimmie a fiver then...

Today was busy. Spurred by the hope that I could get a picture of a member of the Scottish cabinet riding my tur-bike I worked hard to try and finish it. This meant casting the coils in plastic resin, which didn't go to plan.

Firstly, if you are ever encasing in plastic something you hope to display, check that the resin you use does not look like a tin of runny sick. 2nd, be prepared for how utterly god-awful a tin of runny sick looks when mixed with un-sieved talcum powder. 3rd, always check how much accelerant your specific resin requires, or you could be waiting a long time for a train that only comes when you open the foul-smelling (and looking) part-gelatinous, part-solid swill that resides inside your beautiful mould and threatens to hold your time shite spent coils trapped in it's useless tendrils.

In case you hadn't noticed, it didn't all go to plan. Basically the main problem was I underestimated how much hardner was required by the resin, prompting an unbelievably slow curing process, that was only confirmed to have started when we opened up the mould and peered into the murky, gel-rubber depths. Fingers crossed it will work...

If by luck it has worked, the next step will be the electronics. As each coil has been extended to the outside of the stator by both its beginning and end, I can make nearly any configuration of coils I want. First order of business will be to wire them up all in parallel, for maximum current, and all series, for maximum voltage. Going from there I will look at how to get the most usable configuration, and connect that to external loads.

So far these look to be resistive loads, light bulbs and a simple electrolyser.

Fun stuff :)

Shalom

M64

"It's a kind of magic..."