Assorted projects and pontifications.
Woohoo, another SpaceX project that I can share! I was the Avionics Systems Integration project lead for the Dragon 2 “pad abort” test in the video below. For this project I was responsible for determining what flight avionics boxes were required, designing and building ground-side power and communications equipment. I ultimately passed off the project after the first year of development so that I could start on a new project.…
My latest creation is an internet-of-things door lock. The package actuators the deadbolt using a servo and determines if the door is shut or not using a reed switch. There is also a motion sensor that can determine if someone is approaching the door. The lock builds on the SmartThings platform using their Arduino Shield. With it I can control the lock over the Internet using the SmartThings app. What…
SpaceX has publicly shared a sweet video about one of the projects I worked on! I was the Avionics Systems Integration project lead for the Dragon 2 “propulsion module” project in the video below. For this project I was responsible for determining what flight avionics boxes were required, designing and building ground-side power and communications equipment, and integrating and testing the complete assembly. I am proud to report a quicker…
After a second revision, I have completed the power board for the Mecanumbot. This board has the following features: automatically selects between two batteries and the wall chooses the wall if available, otherwise drains the batteries one at a time provides power voltage and current measuring via ATmega168 running the Arduino bootloader communicates to the primary vehicle Arduino over I2C provides regulated 5V power for the robot LEDs Downloads Eagle…
One of the sensors I intend on integrating into my Mecanumbot is the 2D laser range finder from the Neato XV-11 robot. To make the connection between the laser and the computer cleaner, I decided to make a PCB. (My first PCB! Woohoo!) I followed the schematic from the Neato Laser guide on the ROS wiki. I later found out that there was one error in the schematic – the…
I taught a microcontroller class to a few people at work this week. The goal of the class was to show people how easy it is to interface hardware and software with an Arduino. Each participant was given a little project to complete by the end of the day. The first half of the class was dedicated to some standard tutorials which everyone participated in. The second was for the…
A few months ago, I was introduced to the Arduino. The Arduino is a great little prototyping platform, but it has a limited number of I/O pins in the standard Duemilanove flavor. Well, I got my hands on an Arduino Mega tonight, the big brother of the Arduino Duemilanove, so I decided to make something with it. What I came up with is a little game called GameChuck. GameChuck works by lighting an…