{"id":2858,"date":"2013-07-14T06:07:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T10:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/?p=2858"},"modified":"2013-07-14T17:08:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T21:08:33","slug":"ask-an-engineer-references","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/?p=2858","title":{"rendered":"Ask an Engineer References"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In case you didn&#8217;t know (and you probably didn&#8217;t, given how un-announced it was here), I was invited to be on the Adafruit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adafruit.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/13\/7132013-tonight-930pm-et-show-and-tell-on-the-adafruit-industries-google-page\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ask an Engineer<\/a> webcast as a special guest.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s0y8vAx0tM0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Essentially it was aiming to be a quick highlight of what\u00a0 someone could do in the realm of mechanical projects, since the usual target of the show is very much EEs and software folks. I gave a rundown of some of the projects (the entire build histories of which are to the left in the sidebar) and answered a few questions about EV technology. One thing that cropped up was where to start reading or joining if you want to build mechanical things, and I really couldn&#8217;t provide a good answer on the show.<\/p>\n<p>I still can&#8217;t think of one &#8211; unlike the Ardusphere, there&#8217;s not really any well known big names that &#8216;unify&#8217; the mechanical hobbies, such as what Sparkfun and Adafruit might do for the modern EE hobbyist, since the scope of these is so much larger than open-source electronics. You&#8217;d generally have to break it down further, like &#8216;modified electric bikes&#8217;, or &#8216;battlebots&#8217; or something, which is why I suggested with only a bit of irony for people to google search the thing they want to build. For instance, there&#8217;s pretty much a community for every make and model of car in existence.<\/p>\n<p>But here&#8217;s a classic-me onslaught of links which should help at least a few people get hooked and started:<\/p>\n<p><strong>General Knowledge<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Instructables: search for your desired project. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/member\/teamtestbot\/\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s the ones I wrote<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Making-Mechanisms-Inventors-Hobbyists-Artists\/dp\/0071741674\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Making Things Move <\/em><\/a>is probably one of the best primers for basic mechanical concepts and parts I have seen. Highly recommended (a copy of this is in our shop library, by which I mean a pile on my desk)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/gizmology.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gizmology<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.roymech.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">RoyMech<\/a>: Two of my favorites for some more in depth analysis of basic mechanical components<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.mit.edu\/2.75\/fundamentals\/FUNdaMENTALS.html\" target=\"_blank\">Fundamentals of Design<\/a>: Still one of my all-time favorites despite the diabetes-inducing writing style, because it drills down deep into theory and concepts for many different machine components. Unfortunately, it seems the book is now behind a MIT certificate wall, so I&#8217;m hosting it locally <a href=\"http:\/\/etotheipiplusone.net\/stuff\/fod.zip\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Parts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Larger robots (than tabletops\/rovers\/sumobots)\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robotmarketplace.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Robot Marketplace<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.robotshop.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">RobotShop<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vexrobotics.com\" target=\"_blank\">VEX (Pro)<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/andymark.com\" target=\"_blank\">AndyMark<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/pololu.com\" target=\"_blank\">Pololu <\/a>(small end, but custom laser cutting service!)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/forums.delphiforums.com\/therfl\" target=\"_blank\">Battlebots\/RFL<\/a> Forums<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/RoboCommunity\/\" target=\"_blank\">Robot combat community facebook page<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/bigchucksrobotwarehouse.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Equals Zero<\/a> (Gotta do it!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Rideable Things\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/hobbyking.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hobbyking<\/a> (Primarily a vendor of flying things, the parts of which are abused for ground vehicles)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/monsterscooterparts.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Monster Scooter Parts<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/kellycontroller.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kelly Controller<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thunderstruck-ev.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thunderstruck<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.evtv.me\/\" target=\"_blank\">EVTV<\/a> (for large things)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/evalbum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">EV Album<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/endless-sphere.com\/forums\/\" target=\"_blank\">Endless Sphere forums<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diyelectriccar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">DIY Electric Car<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>General industrial\/mechanical supply\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mcmaster.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">McMaster-Carr<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.grainger.com\/Grainger\/wwg\/start.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Grainger<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastenal.com\/web\/home.ex\" target=\"_blank\">Fastenal<\/a>: These places actually cover 99.9% of what you might want to build. I could do an entire *semester long class* just on how to shop for parts on McMaster.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/surpluscenter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Surplus Center<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/harborfreight.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Harbor Freight<\/a> (and <a href=\"http:\/\/northerntool.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Northern Tool<\/a>): Cheap used\/surplus, or cheap new &#8220;tools&#8221; that are better for their parts.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/onlinemetals.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Online<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/speedymetals.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Speedy Metals<\/a> are my go-to for small and moderate amounts of aluminum and whatnot. Online Metals seems to have a bigger selection (physically, too &#8211; Speedy seems to only sell up to 12 x 24&#8243; plates!).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Making<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bigbluesaw.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Big Blue Saw<\/a> (custom waterjet and laser machining)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/emachineshop.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">eMachineShop<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/firstcut.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">FirstCut<\/a> (custom 3D machining &#8211; $$$)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Shapeways<\/a> (custom 3D printing) and its upmarket competitor <a href=\"http:\/\/i.materialise.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Materialise<\/a><\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t know enough about Ponoko to say anything about it besides <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ponoko.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ponoko<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mfg.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">mfg.com<\/a> is for the more pro designers who want to hire out manufacturing of just about anything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Designing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The part that we touched on the least, one of the issues limiting people from engaging in building mechanical things is the lack of a well known toolchain to do so &#8211; for example, Eagle or KICAD. Most CAD systems are proprietary and extremely expensive; $10,000 is considered quite cheap and there are a few recent systems that start at &#8216;only&#8217; $1000 or so. The free ones tend to be gimmicky and limited in functionality. Given enough time and practice, of course, these limitations could be overcome.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/students.autodesk.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Autodesk<\/a> gives 1-3 year student licenses to those with a .edu or verifiable educational relation. This is how I keep running Inventor forever.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.123dapp.com\/design\" target=\"_blank\">Autodesk 123D design<\/a> seems to be the highest design software in terms of accessibility * usability product. Autodesk has been pushing hard into the hobbyist market recently, so this might explain that.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alibre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alibre (now Geomagic)<\/a> was a low cost CAD system which was bought by 3D Systems recently.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sketchup.com\/products\/sketchup-make\" target=\"_blank\">Sketchup (formerly Google)<\/a> is popular with some folks, though I found the 2013 free version frustratingly limited.<\/li>\n<li>Open Source CAD platforms: I haven&#8217;t kept up with these so much recently since they inevitably require you to be a Linux hacker to even run, but in case you are one already:\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freecadweb.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">FreeCAD<\/a> seems to be the most together in terms of a functional <em>parametric<\/em> CAD software (i.e. not just mashing cubes into spheres)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.openscad.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">OpenSCAD<\/a>: I am put off greatly by the thought of &#8220;programming&#8221; your shapes, but to each their own! Many of the models on Thingiverse seem to be made with this.<\/li>\n<li>Some people do use <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blender.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Blender<\/a> to design mechanical things.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Parts for Designing<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thingiverse<\/a>, a repository of mostly 3D printable models<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/3dcontentcentral.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">3DContentCentral<\/a>: Affiliated with Solidworks, many industrial suppliers<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/grabcad.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">GrabCAD:<\/a> Full of pretty design models, not so much useful individual parts.<\/li>\n<li>One of the great things about McMaster is that they have <em>basically every nut and bolt and sprocket and gear<\/em> and everything else as downloadable solid models. 50% of any of my designs these days are just downloaded from McMaster, pursuant to the art of design-around-what-you-have-fu.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There&#8217;s also my own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/?page_id=660\" target=\"_blank\">references page<\/a> which I&#8217;ve gathered all my rather technical or design-heavy posts, or posts that use or demo one specific part. I also have some downloadable CAD models uploaded.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In case you didn&#8217;t know (and you probably didn&#8217;t, given how un-announced it was here), I was invited to be on the Adafruit Ask an Engineer webcast as a special guest. Essentially it was aiming to be a quick highlight of what\u00a0 someone could do in the realm of mechanical projects, since the usual target [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reference-posts","category-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2861,"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions\/2861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etotheipiplusone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}