Wedding Ring

 I recently got married and decided to design my own ring. I was originally shopping for a wedding ring, but I couldn't find one that appealed to me. The look I was going for something for that was on the thinner side with some detail like a hammered or faceted finish. The first design I came up with was a hammered look using Meshmixer to simplify the mesh on a plain band design.  I then 3D printed in nylon to test fit and appearance. Unfortunately after see the print, I realized the edges on all the flats got too smoothed over when polished and the ring did not look as cool as the model looked to me.

 I then came up with an idea to utilize the date of the wedding to create the facets. There are 7 facets on an angle on each side and 18 facets on the outside. With the odd number of facets meeting the even number, it makes each facet a bit different from the others and gives me the randomness that I was looking for.

 The ring was design in Autodesk Fusion360 and 3D printed and cast by Shapeways out of rhodium plated gold.

Google Home Wall Mount Base

3D printed wall mounted Google Home.

I recently got a Google Home and was looking for a way to mount it to wall. While there are some nice ones out there, I decide it would be fun to try and design one that was incorporated with the base to give it a different look.

Autodesk Fusion 360 model.

Using Fusion 360 I designed a simple wire cage base that exposes the speakers with a flat wall mount on the back that can be either screwed or double sided taped to the wall. The wall mount also has a cable holder that keeps the strain off the connector.

A prototype was then 3D printed at Shapeways in their White Strong and Flexible Plastic to check fit and color. The prototype worked pretty well and the fit only needed slight adjustments. The white unfortunately did not match perfectly as the Google Home is more of a cream color. There other colors available would probably be better and give some personalization.

These items can be purchased at my shop on Shapeways.

Exploratorium: San Leandro Chime Way

Chime Way concept drawing.

In March of 2016 I started on the San Leandro Chime Way project with the Exploratorium. Chime Way is an interactive art installation and seating area placed at Joaquin Plaza in downtown San Leandro. I worked with an architect and another engineer to turn concept drawings into reality.

My tasks were to engineer the arm that holds up the chime, the ratcheting system that raises and drops the hammer, and the concrete base. After my parts were designed and sent out for manufacturing, I was moved into another project and construction was left to the other engineer. 

Components I designed.

The arm that holds up the chime was designed using the architects sketches for the overall shape. Strength of the structure was checked by an outside Structural Engineer. There are 8 different lengths of chimes so I CADed the models with adaptive features so I would only have to change the dimension of the chime and all the relevant parts would change.

The concrete base was again design using the architects sketches for the overall shape. My job was to figure out mounting and assembly of all the components. 

The ratchet was designed so that it would only move one tick for every swing, no matter how large. This was so that a people of different sizes could time their swings together and have the chimes sound at the same rate. See the video for the ratcheting action.

Assembly of one of the single unit chime benches.

Completion of the six unit chime benches

Ribbon cutting ceremony August 3, 2016

People enjoying a place to gather, sit, and enjoy the soothing sounds of the chimes.

The exhibit open to the public on August 3, 2016 and there was a lot of positive reaction to it.

Exploratorium Facebook Pictures
SF Curbed
East Bay Times

Exploratorium: Kayseri Science Center

Kayseri Science Center, Turkey

Last year February I took a fixed term position at the Exploratorium to engineer and build exhibits for a new science museum opening in Kayseri, Turkey. Turkish government have a policy in place where the designers had to be different from the builders to stop corruption. The appearance of the museum and exhibits were design by Northern Lights from the Netherlands and engineering and building would be done by the Exploratorium.

Brine Shrimp and Photosynthesis Exhibits:

These two exhibits utilized similar water tanks each with a slightly different conditions.

The brine shrimp needed cooled and still water with very little light and the photosynthesis exhibit need occasional circulation with intense grow lighting. The challenge of these two tanks where to fit the required components under the top cap while follow the appearance dictated by Northern Lights.

Design drawings for approval.

Finished Photosynthesis Exhibit undergoing burning and testing

LED grow lighting system

Brine Shrimp Exhibit undergoing burn-in and testing

Ferrofluid Discs Exhibit:

At Ferrofluid Discs, visitors use a magnet to create intricate designs in a thin layer of Ferrofluid, a liquid containing small particles of iron oxide suspended in alcohol. The challenge of this exhibit was designing the disc with no visible hardware and work with a offset two post support while dealing with the abuse of the visitors.

 

Final design drawing for approval.

Disc assembly drawing

Magnetic patterns in the ferrofluid.

Completed Ferrofluid exhibit

Tornado Exhibit:

The Tornado exhibit creates air movements with the combination of a large fan at the top and air blowing out the tubes generating a vortex. The vortex can be seen when the mist from the fog machine is caught in this air movement. There were two major challenges with this exhibit.

First challenge was the initial design concept from Northern Light, which was intended as a passage way in and out of the area. This concept would have had issues with the stability of the vortex and had a poor user experience.

Initial design from Northern Light

To demonstrate this I built a mock-up in the Tornado exhibit and made a video convince the Kayseri officials as changes to the design were a big issue for them.

Second challenge was the height of the exhibit, the design called for a 10m(33ft) high exhibit. The building itself was 11.5m to the ceiling and the exhaust from the exhibit would hit it and cause drafts that would blow out the vortex. If the air were to be exhausted outside, then the HVAC system would have to replace the large amounts of air which would also generate drafts. In addition to these issues there was no where at the Exploratorium to build it to that height. After discussion with the Kayseri officials we compromised to build it at 7.3m(24ft) with extentions to raise it to 30m to be attempted at final assembly in Turkey. In the end the 30m height did not work and the exhibit was lowered, but even at the lower height, this is still the largest Tornado Exhibit the Exploratorium has built to date.

Final design drawing for approval.

Baffle design drawing.

Initial construction at the Exploratorium. The lower height of 7.3m(24ft) was needed inorder to fit inside of the building.

Assembly at 10m(33ft) extended height at Kayseri Science Center. The tornado was only able to form once at this height and attempts at tuning were unsuccessful.

The Tornado Exhibit was brought back done to the 7.3m(24ft) height and worked right away.

Monake Vape

It's been a while since I've updated this site, but for good reason.

I would like to introduce: Monake Vape.

Screen shot of monakevape.com

I have been working on designs for personal vaporizers. Unfortunately, I cannot share the designs as they are now products that my partners and I are selling.

The first product for sale is the Calvert Mod which features a clean, simple design. The next two pictures show the Omni-directional firing switch and a M20x1 hybrid style top cap.

Calvert Mod featuring the Omni-directional firing switch.

Hybrid-style top cap with M20x1 threading.

For more information and updates you can follow us on:

Webpage: monakevape.com
Facebook: Monake Vape
Instagram: @monakevape

The Hearts Ring

3D printed and cast by Shapeways in polished silver.

When distilling, there are three distinct products; the heads, hearts, and tails. This ring was inspired by a love for distilled alcohol and cocktails. It was designed with a combination of Autodesk Inventor and 123D Design, and 3D printed and cast by Shapeways.

123D Design screen capture.

If you are interested in purchasing this ring, I am selling them through Shapeways in silver and brass.

AVLS Driver/Automotive Arduino Controller

A while ago, I swapped out the engine in my 2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS to one from a 2011 model. This new engine had a feature called I-Active Valve Lift System (AVLS) that allowed the engine to run one cam profile for smooth idling and another for a slight increase in power. This system is normally operated by the ECU. Because it's not available for the original ECU in my car, I decided to make my own.

Arduino Uno R3 mounted in a TuxCase lower enclosure and custom AVLS Driver Shield PCB boards.

I used an Arduino Uno R3 microcontroller for this project because of the low cost and ease of use when prototyping. Programming an Arduino is also very easy to learn. Next, I designed a simple circuit on a bread board using a 9V regulator to lower the voltage down from the car, and a Bipolar NPN transistor to switch the AVLS solenoids on. I chose a transistor because it works with a PWM signal, which is used by the solenoids.

AVLS Driver Shield populated.

I then designed a custom Shield to more permanently mount the components using EAGLE PCB by CadSoft. On the custom PCB, I added a second transistor to control future projects. I also added fuse holders, LED indicators, and Molex connectors for power and signal I/O. The boards were manufactured by OSH Park who do small orders of custom PCBs for hobbyists and prototyping.

Spacers.

AVLS Driver Shield attached to lid that also acts as a heat sink.

Lastly, I designed an upper enclosure to fit on top of a TuxCase to house all the components. I designed the AVLS Shield to use the top lid as an heat sink and mount. The components were waterjetted out of aluminium and just stacked to form the the upper enclosure.

Completed enclosure.

While I am not completely satisfied with the enclosure, it will serve its purpose for testing. One day, I would like to design a PCB with both Arduino and my components on a single board. It would have a water tight enclosure to allow it to sit in the engine bay.

This AVLS Driver can also control other devices and has room more inputs to create smarter control algorithms. Once I test this board and make some revisions, I will release the board design as open source so others may use it.