Trying Some Graphic Etching

Copper PCBs amazing..Toner Transfer Etching Great! Graphic Etching Superb!

This weekend i had to print(rather etch) a few circuits..i have been making for the past few weeks..When i was cutting the PCB(Bare Copper PCB)..I got an idea Of making cool key-chains with this technique.I printed my details on a tiny little piece of copper PCB and Etched it,Drilled a hole and attached a small ring and chain from a broken Key-Chain.It turned out to be great! Although,we can improve the design..This is still my first..I also printed a Bag-Tag ..with a Hack-a-day logo ( their Fb cover page pic) as a tribute to this great site

(PS:The logo is the property of Hack-a-day..I don`t possess any Rights!)

If anybody in India,Wants a key-chain like this,can mail me at : rohit7gupta[at]gmail[dot]com

Deciphering almost any Automotive Combination Switch Assembly

I was recently working on a project that involved using a combination switch assembly used “normally” in the cars for Indicating Directions, Wipers, Headlights and Horns! For those who work on such projects which involves using things which are made for something else to do things that they usually dont do..this might be the post that can get u going and you can Decipher the full console/part in about 10-15 minutes.

Usually the generic way is to check each and every connection using a DMM as a continuity tester and figure out which switch closes which connection..which is very lengthy and often makes one impatient.

Here are a few tips/steps/way outs/notes/whatever:

  1. Open the console(only the outer covering) to see where the wires land up. Never ever open a switch assembly because it might contain some springs or mechanical arrangement that might be difficult to re-assemble.

Rear Assembly “Almost Exploded”

Front Exploded View

2. In many of these Assemblies the switches for a common purpose are base colored the same while to distinguish between them line colors are given. Like in the photo below the green wires are for Indicators wherein the all green wire is Common, the Green-Red               ( Syntax: Base Color-Line Color) is the Left indicator and Green-Yellow is the right indicator. Once you find wires of common base colors ..probe one without any line color to ones with a line color but same base color. and do some mechanical movements..a beep will show the contact made..then carefully document it in a diary/notebook.

Wire Harness Connector

3.When you have still some connections left to decipher ..Follow the following algo:

  • Initiate a mechanical switch and analyse the movement..because it is obvious that somewhere in the world in your hands a contact is being made..it might be that some copper strips be making contact when a plastic bar presses the strip..or a metallic piece moving on a PCB pad.
  • Once you figure where the action takes place..probe the point and There you get the missing links.
  • Now if there are some more wires left..lets follow the principal of exclusion and work backwards..trace the wires back to the point of contact and see what sort of mechanical action produces that kind of a reaction.

PCB Pads and the copper strip for Wiper control and the Green-Red Wire of the Indicator System

Copper Strips and the black contactor that makes and breaks!

Hope you like the post and manage to decipher a few assemblies. Keep me posted on how this helped.

Happy Tinkering!

Arduino ControlWare v.1.0 Beta

I had a bit of an experience developing GUI`s and Data Visualization in Processing.Processing is very cool to work with and the designs are highly scale-able. There are tons and tons of separate examples and libraries available for processing especially the Serial Library which eases the task.

During this week , i tried to make myself a GUI using Visual C#. It was a really great experience.Although you can make buttons in processing too..but its a lot easier in Visual C# Express.However, it seems not many DIY`ers use C# and its used mainly by hardcore coders and developers..but still i managed to find some cool references via MSDN and a demo(of his work) by my friend to put together a simple and easy way to talk to Arduino on a windows machine!

You can monitor Analog Inputs , control digital pins and connect to the COM Port of your choice.Since i am still building upon it.So i am leaving a gist of how the GUI/program currently looks.

You will see that the Digital Pin 13 is missing. Actually i have used it to indicate an Active Serial Session.This makes it a lot easier while debugging.

ControlCom from Indian Tinker on Vimeo.

Edit: 02 Oct`12 : Thank You Guys for appreciating my work!I gave the same to few of my folks at my college for beta testing. Here is the link to the final executable on Windows Only!

ControlWare.exe

The Arduino Code To be uploaded is :                                                      Source

Some of FAQ`s are:

  1. There is no Digital13 on this as it is meant to signify an active Serial Connection.i.e whether the computer is communicating with Arduino or not.
  2. You have to find out the correct COM Port from Device Manager and enter that with Caps On
  3. This is a VegBurgerWare ( coz i dont drink beer).So if i find u using it.You owe me a burger 😛
  4. Its not Cross Compatible..works best on Windows Only

Launchpad that wishes you Happy Birthday!

I am beginning ( actually beginning again) to learn MSP430 ultra low power and ultra cheap MicroController Series From TI. I thought it would be great to build a MSP430 based Birthday card to add to the initial excitement.

Have a look.

Waiting for your Comments!

Infinity Mirror

I made this cool looking infinity mirror during the vacations. It gives a sense of infinite depth.  It has a symmetric arrangement of LED`s in a Circular Ring sandwiched between two layers of glass.

The WSC Story-Chapter 3 -Assemble…Royal Rumble

Assemble…Royal Rumble

You all might be wondering why these posts are too irregular ..its probably becoz i cant just write it away just like that..Its only when i am in the right mood..it comes out..Ahem..

Now that i mentioned that we had disassembled our car into 3 parts(mechanically) and about 37 parts electrically. Unlike other teams we couldn’t make the car early so we had to send it by Air which is luxury to say at first but its a pain..The cars all broken up ..you see other teams and their cars are just Awesome! And yours ..you still have to make…

To add salt to the wound the cargo was delayed by 3 days..and you need to make the whole car all again..But still we have to thats what we are here for..

Our Pit

Cargo Coming..

The next mountain in our path that will miserably reduce the performance of our system was the incident i am going to mention..The LiFeP04 batteries we had back there in India were very good. The specs are 51.2V,40Ah and 5C  Burst and 3C nominal 23kgs in weight with a custom built Heat removal system that maintained the battery as close to outside temperature so that its performance can be enhanced.

As we air shipped the car,the battery was forbidden in the cargo and hence it had to be carried later. Since they came to the country Via DHL air route we thought we can send them the Hidden Valley,Darwin by air. But there was a catch..The team reached Darwin and the other part which went later was struggling to send it..The DHL store said that they are not authorised to take it away from India but it can bring it to India. An independent courier agency said it looked like bombs ( hahaha)

i wonder why they never said they were the next “Little Boys”. Well since they didn’t  take it ..the bomb exploded on the Team..We were Battery-less Down Under. But finally another firm Stood Up and helped us ship them via sea. And we are still tracking who got the batteries because it says it got delivered a while later we left Darwin. It was to be strictly delivered to the Team Leader but it never reached us although we mentioned the Australian cell Numbers whom to be contacted in case of any problem. We are planning to go Legal..

Seperating The Stuff

So no batteries that starts the list…Our college gave us some money for contingency which we planned to be used in adverse conditions..Here it was ..we bought the Lead Acid batteries specs to mention- 52.8V,33Ah and 2C and 51kg..and it ate all our funds( contingency+ other).So you add weight and reduce the battery performance…:(

Working..

Still we added them and went on our journey to get it all assembled..Frame fixed..wheels attached..Suspensions done..brakes on..rear drive wheel attached..steering fixed up..Then we gave it a trial run ..it went all good ..but there was a bit of snag in the breaks ( front discs )..Now we went on to do the electrical parts..we attached the head lamps, indicators and other stuff like MPPT connections..These was a lot than it seems because our previous wire harness was all messed up due to the last day dissembling and it couldn’t do us any good except giving us headaches..so we rewired the entire auxiliary of the car using Heat Shrinks and not tapes thanks to a friend from Aurora Solar Car Team who advised us..it took us about 8 hrs because we messed up once ( owe it to fatigue) ..So for the last 3 days we haven’t even rested we just napped a bit at Hidden Valley which won us a 4 sec byte in WSC 2011 Official Documentary..

It was just the night before scruteneering …it was 11:30pm at night..we were working on the brakes they still weren’t that good..and we were improving them..but they won`t..Then from the pit 2 stops from the left came Hamed and his friend to have a look..and he told us precisely the right way to remove air..which helped a lot..Thanks Hamed ( Havin Solar Car Team)

Cutting some way out..

Now it was upto the electrical team to seal the connections and lay the panels..after a while we were able to do the needful..It was 3:30am at night we were still up and screwing the panels( heavy ones with a glass frontsheet although prismatic effect helps them a bit but the weight thats rough on the car )..Meanwhile we were also attaching the safety pulls as the Rules mentioned. Then we read the entire regulations to make sure we if missed something .. and Voila its morning and its scruteneering day..We figured Out we didn’t

Some Final Adjustments

have a trail truck and were too short of time to arrange for one..we checked up all the locals but couldn’t find any..They said they were all booked up..Fortunately we were in the last slot so we can borrow the trail truck from any team that had it in the first slot..We were helped by Sikat Solar car team who took our car to Venue..Thank You..

We were at the venue ..it was a delight to see the future where there were about 20 cars under one roof and none of them ran on petrol/diesel..that gave me Goosebumps..We were at the first stand where we got the car measured and the In-Out timings were done..we were cleared..Meanwhile the drivers were tagged(haha..)and weights were given to them..We then went on to the Indicators section where we got  a problem..we were missing the hazard lamp and an system to indicate the driver that the indicators were working..although our ones click tick tok tick tok..but we still have to get them..we noted it and went on to the battery and safety system..we were cleared ….

Loading it up!

Scrutiny

Scrutiny

So the next task was to get the car back to Hidden Valley..It took a while and we arranged a truck trailer..So we went to Hidden Valley thought what we could do..My Friend Jaspreet and I figured out that we can attach a few Leds near the steering..to indicate the driver and create a switch that simultaneously connects both the Right and left Indicators..Hence the problem was solved..We went to YouthShack only the third time since i had arrived..we stopped at Hungary Jacks and had a meal went back again to Hidden Valley to run a few errands and then we waited for the test on the hidden valley track..It went well our car cleared the track a lot slower than the other cars..but still at least we were Going to race to Adelaide..

High Voltage

Isolation

Fire Extinguisher

SUN07 Our license plate..

Our Team Manager Mh. Bilal was very good ..He didn’t let the administrative stress to propagate to the members so that we can all work effectively..U rock Sir! ..

On Road

The next on was the Race to Adelaide..

Indian Solar Car Project- A Documentary

A documentary i made on the journey of my team from the times we thought we could make a solar car to the time we made a solar car.It covers the entire progress of the car from a few rods of Aluminium to a fully functional solar car.

Enjoy it and if you wish to support us in any way.You may contact us via Facebook or email us at [email protected].

A Documentary on the journey Of The Indian Solar Car from nothing to something and finally everything…
How they fought hard times and lack of industry support and funding..but eventually made it possible..
A solar car for just 10,000 USD is far below the industry benchmark for solar car cost..
This is a story of 14 Undergraduates from Delhi Technological University,India who made a Solar car for the World Solar Challenge,2011,Australia!
If you wish to support the project visit: http://www.dtusolaris.in
Like us on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/dtusolaris

It feels like a Robot!

A light hearted attempt at poetry!

IT FEELS LIKE A ROBOT

I am a robot, I can do anything,

You buy me,charge me ,use me , I don’t feel anything.

 

I went up the hill, crossing the old Man`s Mill,

He was running with his bill and dropped his little pill,

I flew down the  hill and gave him his pill..

(Oh! Boy I destroyed him Mill..)

 

I climbed up the Everest and never  did i rest,

I flew down the moon and made a blue lagoon..

 

I think like a robot, I can do anything,

You buy me,charge me ,use me , I don’t feel anything.

 

I can do all the math and let you face the wrath,

I can jump past the ocean and stop any motion.

 

I fly over city and help you find your kitty,

I pick up heavy weight and ain`t coming late.

 

I run on the sun, we can have a little fun,

I don’t  eat the bread, there`s nothing i cant shread.

 

I think like a robot, I can do anything,

You buy me,charge me ,use me , I don’t feel anything.

 

I don’t have any emotion,

My every part does motion.

I can see through the walls,

And never stop at Malls.

 

I can play any game,

You can give me any name.

I will work all the day,

And never ask the pay.

 

No human like me,

Who can help for free.

They are selfish meaty suits,

Always craving for the fruits.

 

It feels like a robot, I can do anything,

You buy me,charge me ,use me , I don’t feel anything.