It's been a rough week. Here's how my frame is coming along though.

Just a few pieces for Lloyd. The goal is to have the whole bike done by the end of the semester. Should be interesting...

Sticking with Russell’s LOTR theme, here is Narsil, “the sword once belonged to King Elendil of the Dúnedain, the sword that cut the One Ring from the hand of Sauron” (Wikipedia.com).

This was a fun project because I learned how to import Solidworks CAD models into Blender. I really want to learn how to use Blender more effectively, but I find the learning curve a bit steep.

I also 3D printed a 20:3 scale model of the sword. It makes a nice letter opener.

(If you’re wondering where CAD Challenge #1 is, that was Russell’s entry. I figured it might get confusing to have multiple entries with the same number. This way, Russell will have odd numbers and I will have even.)

Recently, my close friend Russell Smith and I agreed upon a simple challenge. We both have our own project orientated websites, and we both have found it difficult to find the time to keep our websites fresh and up-to-date, so we have challenged each other to post something new every other week, upping the ante with each post. Russell will be going first, posting something new by the end of this coming weekend. I will then try to make something cooler by the following weekend. We used to motivate each other in a similar way back in high school, and now we want to try give each other the same motivation from across the country,

If you have not already, check out Russell Smith's website. He is an exceptionally brilliant  engineer and an all around amazing person. Check out the awesome stuff he has made.

Cheers,
-Silas

I needed to take a break from work, so I made a CAD of the NPC-T64 motor. It's a great, powerful motor, and I can't wait until I put it into an new project. You can download the CAD file from the link below.
http://grabcad.com/library/npc-t64-motor 

This is the front wheel of my motorcycle. It's not perfect, but I've already learned a lot about SolidWorks by making this that I didn't know before. You can check out the CAD file here.

It’s only the first week of spring semester and already things seem to be moving at full steam. This semester I am taking three classes, working on research, working in the Rapid Prototyping Lab, taking an Independent Study, and topping things off with a Passionate Pursuit. My mentality is that I will probably be doing all this stuff no matter what, so I might as well get some form of credit for it. That being said, I may have to drop something if I get too run down. I am already sick, and I do not want to make it any worse. My overall goal for the semester is to be constantly busy, but busy working projects that make time fly. Last semester, I was certainly busy, but the time I spent working was neither enjoyable nor productive. Hopefully, I will not repeat that experience.

This semester, I am taking Stuff of History, Thermodynamics, and User Orientated Collaborative Design. Stuff is effectively two integrated classes, History of Technology and Material Science. It is taught by two professors, Rob Martello and Jon Stolk, both of whom are fantastic and engaging. Thermo is the class which leads into Transport Phenomenon, a class which I took last semester, so it will be interesting to take Thermo now. The class is being taught by Jessica Townsend and Brian Storey, and they tend to make an interesting combination. UOCD is the most ambiguous class I am taking, but I am excited for it nevertheless. That class will only start to take form once we settle on our user groups.

 If everything works out, I will be working on more things outside of class than in class. First, I will be continuing my research with the Ruby autopilot. Many of the seniors who were on this project have completed their required time, so I may be working more independently than before. Second, I will be working with the Rapid Prototyping machines, finishing the instructions I have been writing for the machines, and executing jobs people submit. I am not sure exactly how this will work out, but it will in one form or another. Third, I am planning on making an Independent Study on redesigning Lloyd, my electric motorcycle. Essentially, I am planning to CAD my entire bike. In doing so, I will gain a level of practice working with SolidWorks that I will not get from my classes. If I can declare it as an IS, I will gain academic credit for my work. Finally, my roommate and I are working with an arduino-based robot my professor gave me. I am trying to get the robot to talk to LabVIEW reliably, and my roommate is doing the same in Python. Once we have that working well, we want to use a few simple sonar and IR sensors mounted on the robot to have it autonomously map out its environment. I have no idea how far we will get, but it should be fun.

As a final note, I changed my website around a little bit again, most notably adding a CAD Library. I will be populating it with files I upload to my GrabCAD profile.

Cheers!

The beginning of the New Year serves as a convenient time to pause and reflect on all the happenings of the previous year. It is also a convenient time to get an old ATC running again and have some fun.

Sigh. 

Now onto new stuff! Below is a very short list of all the projects and tasks currently on my mind:

• Number one project: Redesign my motorcycle, Lloyd
• Finish my machine shop training
• Make something that uses rivets
• Design a piece that can only be made using a 3D Printer
• Code robotic behavior with Python
• Code robotic behavior with LabVIEW
• Make LabVIEW talk to an Arduino with an XBee
  

I'm sure there will be many more that come to mind soon.

Motor mount and duct are complete. Tomorrow we will work on the body.