I have this 46 inch TV in my dorm. It is the focus point of the whole room however there is one problem: it doesn't have a remote ( got lost when I was moving it from my house to my dorm). I thought about getting my self a universal remote from Wallmart for 10 bucks but that is not the hacker way. I took the more complicated route. I made a IR emitter that works off the audio jack of my iPhone. I am now learning how to write iOS apps to make this work just like a normal remote. I currently change my TV by playing a audio file on iTunes ( which gets annoying fast ).

It has been a long time since my last update. Since then I have gone to Turkey, came back from Turkey, build my Quad, destroyed my quad when one of the ESCs failed, Rebuilt it with a new frame, didn't like the new frame, Made a Y6 frame, built the y6, took the y6 to HouSecCon and used it as eye candy during Zac Hinkel and I's drone presentation and last but not least I just cut my T-6 frame. So over all I have been a busy boy. I have my y6 flying with out any problems but I decided that KK2.0 is just not really what I want. In the near future i will have an APM2 to fully automate the quad for doing topography mapping and 3D mapping.

Other then that I have designed an phone/water bottle holder for my bed at the dorms. I have been having to put my phone under my pillow ever since I built my bed fort to keep the sun out in the morning and the light out when my roommate is studying. The only solution? Design a holder! So I did.... and this is what i came up with:

I was at the Tx/Rx Labs in Houston today to finish my quad today during the open house. I did more then finish working on it..... I maidened  it in front of  about 10 people I am glad it didn't tip over the side crashing.

Here is more details on the quad. 

Bill of materials

4 - NTM Prop Drive Series 35-30 1100kv / 380w

4- TURNIGY Plush 30amp Speed Controller ( Hobbyking doesnt stock the ESC I have used but this is a drop in replacement. )

Flight controller Hobby King KK2

OrangeRx R610 Spektrum DSM2 6Ch 2.4Ghz Receiver (w/ Sat Port)

The booms are from Home Depot. They are towel racks.

The nuts and bolts are also from Home Depot.

The frame is a custom design that I cut on the laser cutter ( if any one wants me to cut them one just leave a message in the comments)

During the maiden I was surprised at the KK2s stability right out of the box. It did have some oscillation but that can be easily tuned out. I am glad I didn't have to bother with pots like I had to when using the older KK boards to get it to the point where it would not tip over.

I just gave it throttle and it took off without any problems.

I am going to finish tuning the PI in the morning and after that I can fly it a bit more aggressively to see what this thing will do before i have to take it apart to take it to Turkey.

I'll post a video when i get a chance.

Gig'em, Aggies !  

  

Well this is my latest project. I have been working on my own quad design for some time. I wanted a cheap fold-able quad that I can take overseas with out a problem. After a few days of designing this is what i came up with.

I used 5mm plywood because it is so easy to cut with a laser cutter and its super cheap. I got enough plywood to make at least a hundred of these things for just 10 bucks from Home Depot. For the booms I used Aluminum towel racks also from Home Depot costing me only about 8 bucks for all 4. With the frame out of the way lets talk about the most expensive part of the quad... The motors and the speed controllers. I lucked out on those and got everything i needed from a guy on RCGroups.com for only 80 bucks shipped to my front door. That also included a HK KK flight controller. 

My current cost is in the low 100s right now. Considering this is a 900mm quad that's not a bad price at all. 

Things I have left to do:

-Add the power distribution board and solder up the ESCs to it

-Add the flight controller and the Rx

-Fly it ! 

My batteries should be here tomorrow or by Friday I will try to trim it out and get it flying by the weekend before I go to Turkey for the summer. ( Contemplating about taking the quad with me or not)

Have a Happy 4th and Gig'em !

   

Update as I promised. I finished up wiring my V1 board on a spare proto board. But as I was soldering everything up I realized that I had no way of telling the arduino that if the fridge door is open or if its closed. 

In order to solve this problem I decided to install a reed switch. I will use a magnet from a hard drive to turn the switch on and off. But adding a new component means new code to write but it shouldn't be that bad.

For the board I'm going to etch the PCB this time to have a nicer looking board. That way I can reduce the chance of a bad solder joint or a loose jumper wire. On top of that it looks cool. Isn't that the reason for this project any way ?

New layout

V1 Board

The wiring doesn't look that purdy..... but it does the job!

With the sun shining bright. It's back to the projects!

   
With the extra time I have ( since its summer ) I am working hard on my projects.

I have always wanted to add a lock to my fridge so that my roommate can't get in to it and eat all the delicious food that I worked hard to cook. However I didn't want to install a pad lock because 1) they take too long to open  and 2) they look ugly. So in my mind the only logical thing to use was an RFID reader.
It has many advantages compared to padlocks or any other locking mechanism: An RFID system is sleek since i can put it inside a nice thin box or i can even embed it inside the fridge, the cards are dirt cheap since I am prone to losing key cards, and most important reason to use an RFID reader is that it is super nerdy and futuristic!

Now I justified my self the reason to use an RFID reader its time to build it.



For this project I used a Parallax RFID board from Radio Shack as my reader and an Ardino UNO for the brains.

It is still in development stages but i have gotten the RFID reader to do a serial print of the RFID tag and turn on LEDs. Next step is adding a servo to control a nice thick steel pin that will be used to lock the door. Once done I will post my code here so that you can also replicate this cool fridge lock.

Stay tuned I'm not going to say that because for some reason every time i say that i don't make an update for about a month.

Well I have some good news and bad news. I am retiring the Self balancing skateboard project for the time being. I had to sell some of the parts for the project ( the sabertooth, the motor and a few other parts) to a friend that wanted me to build him an electric skateboard that he would use over in College Station to commute to and from his classes at A&M. I worked on it for a few week ends and got it to nicely function.

I am using the Sabertooth Speed controller in conjunction with a Spektrum DX3S R/C car controller to control the motors speed. I am going to be working on a different controlling system for the future so i can incorporate some sort of electronic traction control on the 5th wheel due to the fact that if you press the throttle too fast all it does is spin the powered wheel until it eats up the plastic on the tire.

But for now the whole contraption is powerful enough to push a relatively large person around.

Here is a video ( the guy on the skateboard is my friend from school and I'm controlling it )
I have a few more projects under way. I will update on them when i get more done on them.

Why I haven't been working on the project

I know I was saying I would finish up my skateboard over spring brake but I wasn't able to. However I have been working on something else. It is not as elaborate as the skateboard but non the less it's still cool.

For our engineering class we needed to build a tennis ball launcher to hit a target. Well I think we have built a launcher that will not only hit the torget but send it to the moon while doing it.

Enough talk picture time!

Guess what! Its Spring-brake 2012 !!!! Ill be at home working on the skateboard all week along with my engineering class project. Expect multiple updated over this week.

Since my last update I have not had the chance to work on the scooter because I kind of branched out to a few different project over the past month. So this got put on the back burner.


Since my last update:


I built an Air cannon as a preparation for my Engineering 111 class project. We are going to be building a tennis ball cannon for our term project, therefore before we have to build the actual cannon I wanted to make one for my self in order to get some experience building air cannons. I also wanted to make sure that when we are building this thing for a grade we won't run in to any un expected surprises... plus who doesn't love shooting things our of a PVC cannon.



I have also gotten back in to flying my R/C planes

Because I didn’t have any working planes at the time being I attempted to build a flying carpet themed R/C plane. "Attempted" being the operative word here. The motor I had in hand was way too powerful so spinning an 8x4 prop it just torque roll as soon as the plane left my hand.


Then I took on my 2nd flying project.... learning to fly a quad.


Last year (3 months ago so yah last year: p) I attempted in building a quad from a Home Depot yardstick and a few motors. I am sad to say that after many broken props and messed up motors I couldn't get it to fly. So this time around I saved my self the embarrassment in front of my friends (I never test my new things alone) I bought my self a Blade mQX. And man is this thing fun! I have only had it for a few days but I am flying it with out any problems, The flight characteristics is similar to that of the mar but with out the self correcting tendencies but that just means that you can do even crazier moves with it. I am currently typing this while waiting for the batteries to charge so I can fly some more even though its 12am right now. Yes it is that addictive!


Before I go I want to address one more thing. I see that some of my traffic comes from an old post at RC Groups about my near space balloon project (what I had originally created this site for. That project is currently on hold pending funding. I currently do not have the funds to send FPV gear up miles and miles and miles up in air.

If there is any one that wants to help me achieve this goal and that can loan me his or her FPV gear during experiments I have a feeling I can achieve this goal with in 2-3 months at the most. If you are a company looking at this thinking about partially or fully funding my project I wouldn't mind taking your company name and logo to space as a way to say thank you for your support.

OK! I have worked hard on the board over the weekend and today. However it has decided not to cooperate with me. I have they gyro responding when I'm running the test sketch, I have the motor responding when i run the test sketch.... but when I put the two together i get nothing. I have no clue why it is not working. I think I'm going to use my 2nd arduino to see if that is the problem.

Meanwhile I'm waiting for 90 degree bent pins to attach the 5 DoF sensor to a proto-shield to make the system a bit more robust.

Well I have not had time to do any real work on the skateboard. I am taking calculus 2 and I realized that over the holiday I forgot some of the stuff I leaned in calc 1 so I have been playing catch up. However I have modded my current form of transportation. Here I a quick pic

Edit: This week end I'm going to try to get the scooter to self balance. I want to be able to ride this thing around campus already !

Self Balancing Scooter Motor Test

Nearly done! I have hooked up the lipos to the ESC and the ESC to the motors. Looks like everything is working out just like it should. All i need to do now is get it balancing and hook it up to the wii nunchuck.

Gyros work !!!!

I just tested the gyro and the acc. I'm glad to report that everything works as it should. My chain break should be here in the morning. I have class until 8pm however I hope to have the board balancing by the time I go to bed.

The pics

OK as I have promised last night here are some pictures.

I have put together most of the board. All the wood is cut, the wheels are bolted on, the motors are bolted on and the wiring for the gyro is done. However I have ran in to an unexpected problem.... I don't have a chain link tool to shorten my two-meter long chain. I have gone to the bike repair shop near my house and even though they didn't have the right tool they pointed me in the right direction and told me what to buy. I have placed an order for the part on Amazon with 2 day shipping (got to love Amazon prime) So I should have the tool by Wednesday. 

While I wait I will finish up wiring my motors, making the connectors for my batteries and getting a Tupperware box to fit all the electronics in to for the time being.

I will post pictures of what I have accomplished  in the morning when I wake up.

Small update. All my parts should be here on Friday. I think it will take me about a day to put everything together and buy a 2nd arduino since mine is over at my dorm.  Tomorrow will be intense! Watch this space :D

I just landed in Houston about an hour ago after a long 12 hour journey from Istanbul to Houston. I think the pizza below describes how I feel about the journey. 

As I entered my house all tired and loaded up with luggage's  I had a box waiting for me on the porch... IT WAS THE SCOOTER PARTS ! 

I'm going to buy some plywood and some long screws and start putting the scooter together with what i have right now. This thing is finally getting off the drawing board.  Now its time for me to sleep the long trip off...

 

 

Finally some eye candy!  I just finished the sketch of what the final project will look like. The official code name for this project is SK8ER and I have only 1 more day till i head back to US and the parts from Monster Scooter arrives. 

As soon as i get back ill get to work on putting the larger parts together while waiting for electronics. However that should only take me a day or two. The real challenge will be fine tuning the self balancing software. 

I am nearly done ordering all the parts for the project.

I wanted to use 2 300W motors however I was not able to find any in stock at any of the scooter supply stores. So i ordered up some 250W motors for the project along with the wheels and chains i need.

Here is all the parts I ordered up: 

250W 24V motor http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/24v250wmotor.html

the E100 wheels http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/rae1rewhasch.html

plus the other accessory's such as chains  giving me a grand total of 170 bucks just for the scooter parts

Then I ordered up 5 degrees of freedom sensor  ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G558AM/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details ) that set me back nearly 70 more bucks. 

However I'm proud to say that the only thing I have left to order is the Speed controller. 

I am currently in Turkey for  Christmas break  I will be returning on the 10th so I am having everything sent to my moms house back in Texas. She still has no idea that a bunch of stuff will be arriving on her door step this week. Its going to be interesting. 

Edit: I have just ordered the last part of the project the ESC. ( http://www.dimensionengineering.com/Sabertooth2X25.htm )

Aggie Space Program Changes

With a new year I have new projects in mind so  I am shelving the balloon project for the time being and concentrating on something new. I need something to take me around campus and I was fixing to buy a longboard like every one else then I realized why have something that goes on 4 wheels when I can have something that is cooler on 2 wheels that i can use on campus that will make people take a 2nd look.


So cue the dramatic music!

The mission if  you chose to accept it is to build a self balancing scooter to take you around campus for less then 500 bucks.
This message will self destruct in 10 seconds!

Yah I think I watched too much Mission: Impossible


I just wanted to add I got the inspiration for this project from John Dingley's projects and i will be expanding on what he has done.