Pages:
Faves
My Stuff
Meta
Post Archives
- February 2012 (1)
- January 2012 (6)
- December 2011 (5)
- October 2011 (1)
- September 2011 (3)
- July 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (4)
- April 2011 (6)
- March 2011 (3)
- December 2010 (2)
- November 2010 (2)
- October 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (2)
- February 2010 (1)
- December 2009 (2)
- November 2009 (3)
- October 2009 (2)
- September 2009 (2)
- August 2009 (5)
- July 2009 (2)
- June 2009 (2)
- May 2009 (2)
- April 2009 (5)
- March 2009 (4)
- February 2009 (5)
- January 2009 (7)
- December 2008 (8)
- November 2008 (11)
- October 2008 (13)
- September 2008 (3)
- August 2008 (1)
- July 2008 (3)
- June 2008 (1)
- May 2008 (3)
- April 2008 (2)
- January 2008 (2)
- November 2007 (2)
- September 2007 (1)
- August 2007 (1)
- July 2007 (2)
- June 2007 (4)
- May 2007 (6)
Category Archives: Work
Building a quadrature generator with a PIC10F222
I need to start my new project with my digital RTJ gage and in order to do so I need to use the quadrature decoder chip LS7166. I could use the actual encoder I’m going to use for the project … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged circuit, electronics, microchip, microcontroller, pic10f222
Leave a comment
Well, the project is done.
I can’t say what it is because I’m sworn to secrecy but I finished another project. I’m simply posting it here for posterity. If you can guess what it is, you get an internet cookie!
RTJ Gage prototype update
Here we go, some images. The unit itself is a bit too heavy, doesn’t have stroke limits and is a bit ugly. It is but a prototype after all though. The next iteration should be more appropriate for a high … Continue reading
Pre-Christmas things I’m workin’ on!
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything (I think every post starts like this) so I’m gonna document a few things I’m working on right now. Things that are both for work and some things that are not. … Continue reading
A die, proper
Well, it’s been some time since I’ve made a die. This is a relatively simple one for a customer. I had some problems with alignment and some mixed up number on my part, but it seems to work adequately. As … Continue reading
From start to finish, a cutter.
We had to build a certain cutter for a customer and I figured it’d be neat to document the drawing and then the finished product. This is a cutter I designed and I think it turned out nice. And here’s … Continue reading
Posted in Work
Leave a comment
The magic of EDM machines
The other day we were asked to remove a section out of a valve. It’s not a huge valve but milling it would’ve been difficult all the way to the center so we put it on the EDM to blast … Continue reading
Happy 2011! uuh, I guess a bit late though.
It’s been well over two months since I last posted. Frankly, not a lot has happened in the meantime anyways. Work is going well and life is pretty good. That said, I’ve begun to regain my inspiration for electronics again … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Programming, Work
Tagged coolant, coolant nozzle, edm, general stuff, lab, refractometer, spider cool
Leave a comment
The new Haas Mill Features
The company I work for has recently purchased a Haas VF-5 40 taper machine to augment the capabilities of the shop. Seeing as they didn’t have one before, this will greatly improve the capabilities of the shop. The item of … Continue reading
Inside of a Yukiwa Rotary Table Control… and WTF!
So today I we got the power going to a brand new Yukiwa rotary table, unfortunately, it seems to produce dangerous voltages on the case of the actual rotary table itself… dunno why. Anyways, if anyone’s interested in seeing the … Continue reading
Posted in Work
Leave a comment
Some changes, some improvements, some fun.
Yes, it’s been some time, again. Every post I make seems to say the same things. anyways. Here are some things I’m working on and also no longer working on. Viscometer No, nope and no. They bore me now and … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work
Tagged assembly, chopper, cnmg432, edm, edm wire cutter, facemill, wire edm
Leave a comment
Long time no post. Machining and trying to get back on my feet.
Well, it has been some time since I posted, about a month and a half or so. There have a been a number of events that have occurred in that time that have both beneficial yet disappointing. I’m not really … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged dot peen, electronics, haas, machining, machinist, marking
Leave a comment
A crummy little servo tester and other minutia
The little servo tester Well, I needed a way to test all of these servos I got from EBay and I decided to spend a little time making a quick and dirty little board for doing that. It uses a … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work
Tagged diy, FAT, File Allocation table, pic12f683, RC servo, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
5 Comments
Viscometer board proceeding, some RS232 fun.
Well, things have been proceeding apace, and I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll have both versions done fairly soon. For debugging the device I’ve decided to create a kind of terminal, this allows one to directly access commands and see … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged diy viscometer, pic18f4680, process viscometer, prototype, rs232, Stormer viscometer
Leave a comment
Stormer Viscometer Grams to Oz-Inch Conversion
Trying to make sense of the standard stormer viscometer and methods that could be used to calibrate a device, I’ve been looking at the original stormer viscometer in order to get an idea of what ‘grams’ actually means in the … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work
Tagged conversion, grams, krebs, oz-inches, Stormer viscometer, torque
Leave a comment
Grams to Krebs conversion formulae
After many a day scratching my head as to why I can’t get my viscometer to calibrate correctly, even assuming logarithmic and quadratic relationships, I find out why I have been having so many problems. Krebs units are in not … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged conversion, grams, grams to krebs, krebs, Stormer viscometer
1 Comment
Working on new viscometer head
Well, I’ve been designing some new stuff since having a little wind of inspiration. This head weighs in at about 700g and provisions have been made to allow an attachment to a handle and therefore a hand-held version could be … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged engineering, sensor, Stormer, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
Quick post, a couple of drawings.
The chill is in the air, October is here. I’ve been pretty busy with the viscometer and some other things, however I drew a couple of objects just for future reference. I figured somebody might need the dimensions of either … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work
Tagged drawings, pdf, qy-2004a, stormer paddle
2 Comments
Getting closer to final completion
A long road behind and still some ahead, here are some pic of the viscometer in its state of completion. Now to implement the ModBUS protocol and finish up this project.
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged diy, diy viscometer, process viscometer, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
In-Process Stormer Viscometer – Damn near complete
The viscometer is nearing full completion! YAY! To mark this occasion to mark the end of a long two years, I am placing a small gallery of the almost finished product. The only thing missing is the outside cover which … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged completed, diy, diy viscometer, paddles, pic18f4685, pictures, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
FDM Part Prototyping
This post is simply to show how neat the FDM process is. FDM stands for Fused Deposition Modeling and is a neat tool for prototyping plastic parts. I was able to see the results of FDM after a customer had … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged electrical enclosure, enclosure mold, fdm, fused deposition modeling, plastic
Leave a comment
Programming, Drafting, Designing and whatever else…
Well, it’s been a busy few weeks since I left the business training program. Thankfully I have some work lined up and things may go well for the short-term. For the last while I was working on the design for … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged enclosure, fdm, mold design, plastic, viscometer, Work
Leave a comment
A quick post about my website.
I’ve finally had some time to put together my website for my business. 8mtech.com is online and has most of the pages complete. I’ve decided to keep the layout very simple and I’ll eventually flesh out the theme a little … Continue reading
Time’s a passin’ – DIY Arms, Music, and invention
Well, the past few weeks have been eventful and interesting. I’ve been busy and school is almost over. I’ve had a few things on the go and I’ve come up with some interesting ideas and implementations. Sorry for the lack … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work
Tagged accelerometer, business, camera level, invention, measuring arm
Leave a comment
Rotary Viscometer almost finished
Well, it’s been a long road but I’m almost at the finish line in terms of the majority of development. All of the parts are mostly made and I’ll begin programming very soon, most of which has been done already … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged phenolic base, rotary viscometer, rotational, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
3 point quadratic regression formula
While developing the in-process stormer viscometer, one of my goals is to allow the end user to calibrate the device with 3 fluids of known viscosity. With a bit of help from mathematica, I’ve found the formula and for whoever … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Miscellaneous, Work
Tagged 3 point, cubic, data set, freebasic, in-process, inverse, quadratic, regression, Stormer, viscometer
2 Comments
Viscometer Project, coming along…
I thought I would have nothing to post but I do I guess. I’ve felt the need to really expedite this project now that I am starting a business. I have done a few of the mechanical things associated with … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged machining, mackaay, pcb, rotary viscometer, rotational viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
Still goin’ at ‘er, now attending the self employment program
Well, no new project pictures or anything. Summer is almost here and I’m pretty happy about that. I’m going to start at a training course for 8 weeks starting May 11. The program itself is funded through the Canadian Government … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous, Personal Projects, Work
Tagged canada, ei, microbusiness, self employment program
Leave a comment
Viscometer Ver.(Eleventy Billion Jillion) a la rotational
Well, this has a been a long few days of work. I have created the ideal rotary viscometer in both terms of price and repeatability. Now, this idea is nothing new but I’m simply happy that it works. I guess … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged diy, electronics, pic18f2620, rotary viscometer, Stormer, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
Working on the new rotary viscometer
Been working on a new version of the rotary viscometer, after many design changes, the result is this. A rotary viscometer bridged with a rotary reaction strain gage. Guess it’ll work. Here are some pictures. I’d say a bit more … Continue reading
Stuff about sensors, a quick post.
Well, I’ve been looking around at torque sensors and found some interesting information. For one though, they are NOT cheap. Keep in mind that these are higher sensitivity sensors but it doesn’t seem to have an overwhelming bearing on the … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Other/misc, Work
Tagged rotary torque sensor, sensor, strain gage, torque
Leave a comment
Complete 180, well, perhaps 90.
So, after doing a bunch of work on the rotary strain gage it’s been declared incorrect. Oh well. Here’s the new concept, although not my own idea, were going to rebuild the entire concept around the notion of a dynomometer. … Continue reading
Rotary Strain Gage update
Well, it’s been a little while since the last update, I suppose I should have stated something sooner. So far, the device seems to work but now I have mechanical problems. Friction on the top is preventing the load from … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged rotary viscometer, Stormer, Stormer viscometer, strain, viscometer
Leave a comment
Viscometer Rotary Strain Gage update
It hasn’t been long since my last update about this thing but I’ve made some progress as far as making the unit into a single board. I simply used the AD7705B as I suspected it work work great for this … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged electronics, rotary viscometer, sensor, Stormer viscometer, transducer
Leave a comment
The Rotary Torque Sensor… continued
Well, so far, so good. That’s all I can say at the moment. The rotary gage is operational, though it hasn’t had brushes made for it and it seems to output a reasonable amount of voltage difference based on displacement. … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged rotary viscometer, sensor, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
Been almost 2 years at Endura
Now that It’s coming up on two years at the place I work, I was looking through some of the drawings. I figured it’d be fun to post some of them. I’ll simply place a gallery here, click the images … Continue reading
Torque Coupling Update
This update is a little bigger than usual since I want keep the images and text as a sort of record of what I did for future reference. For the viscometer project, I’ve discovered that the motor is far too … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged ad7705, circuit, electrical, electronics, Stormer viscometer, viscometer, Work
Leave a comment
Creating a strain gage coupling
So now I have to find some way of measuring the torque applied between the two shafts of the viscometer. Here’s my idea. What you can’t see is that I plan to manufacture it out of plastic, that way the … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged coupling, solidworks, Stormer viscometer, strain, strain gage, viscometer
Leave a comment
Viscometer and Graphing
Now that I’ve got the new board working, I’ve been programming all of the pertinant functions back into the chip. This time I’ve redesigned them to be a little more modular and useful in the long term. As was mentioned … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work
Tagged adc, pic, project, smackaay, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
New Viscometer Board
Well, my design finally came to fruition from AP Circuits and I can say I’m quite pleased with the results. The overall appearance of it is really nice, for me at least. Interestingly enough, I had some problems and made … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged electronics, microchip, pic18f, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
Working on yet another stormer viscometer board. :(
Well, For the last week or so I’ve been developing a new viscometer board. Sloppy as it is, it’s a jump ahead from the last board in terms of overall inputs allowed. I used the 68PLCC package PIC18F6680 in this … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged electronics, pcb, pic18f2620, pic18f6680, Stormer, Stormer viscometer, viscometer
Leave a comment
Repaired an abraser the other day
What’s an abraser you ask? Well, it’s a device that has two abrasive wheels that are pressed against a plate with paint on it. The idea is to determine the wear a certain coating or paint will get with a … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Tagged Abrader, abraser, electronics, fix, Taber, Taber Abrader, Taber abraser
2 Comments
Viscometer Motor Results
Well, I took the plunge and built an RS232 output device so that I can track the values over a longer term than whatever my memory can hold. I’ve started with a series of tests designed to test the speed … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Work
Leave a comment
Playing with simulations for the Viscometer
So, I’ve been playing with simulating the output of the viscometer at a specified power output. When the real unit runs it seems to output noisy but patterned values. I’ve found that the output has a sinusoidal output with anomalies … Continue reading
Finished another PCB for the Viscometer
Well, as far as viscometers go, I could be considered an expert by now (no, not really). Today my new board arrived and I assembled it, I’m kind of proud of it, it works real slick just like the last … Continue reading
Laboratory Viscometer
After a couple of weeks of solid work, the laboratory viscometer is almost ready for extensive testing. Since this is a redesign and simplification of the older design, it has a few more features and a couple of drawbacks in … Continue reading
Posted in Work
Leave a comment
Viscometer Report – Aug 6 2008
Since the last report done on the viscometer, a great many things have changed in regards to the mechanical and electrical design of the unit. It is now a rotary viscometer instead of a paddle based unit. It operates in … Continue reading
The Amp Hour Radio Show