 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
I worked with the
mesicopter
group at Stanford University lead by Professors Fritz Prinz and Ilan Kroo. My part of the project was to help build systems integration testbeds. Above is the first version of a rotary wing aircraft. The controller is a Great Planes Real Flight RC Simulator controller with a joystick connector to a custom transmitter
board. A PIC17 converts joystick input to motor values and uses a 418MHz digital radio transmitter to send data to the flyer. A PIC17 on the flyer gets the data from a receiver and drives L293DD power chips to run the motors. Here is a description of a physical simulator written in Java3D.
If you have Java3D installed on your machine and a decent graphics card, you can fly the physical simulator in this applet, or this test version.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
I helped with a project in Fritz Prinz's lab done by graduate student Byongho Park to build shape memory alloy SMA actuators (Nitinol, Flexinol, biometal are other names). Above is a four legged crawler with radio control. See more details about the circuit, and a paper. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The KJ66 gas turbine from Artes Jet weighs about two pounds and will generate almost 15 lbs of thrust. It rotates at up to 117,000 rpm. I built this one from the Artes kit. This was very easy. The only real work was setting
up the fuel lines and pump. I also started to machine parts for another one but probably will never finish it. This engine burns kerosene at about 250ml per minute and makes an awesome turbine sound. It is 111 mm in diameter. The complete setup with fuel lines, starter moter, and radio setup can be seen by clicking
here. It is running at about 100,000 rpm in this picture. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
Jerry Howell has a number of beautiful designs for Stirling cycle hot air engines. I built this little engine from his "Miser" plans using a Sherline mill and lathe. This is the 1/2 size miser. It is shown running
at about 100 rpm from the heat generated by my hand in a cool room about 65 degrees. It runs faster on a cup of coffee. It will run backwards if placed on an ice cube. My machining skills improved dramatically during this project. I polished the inside of the cylinder many times and had to make three graphite cylinders
before I got a perfect fit. The cylinder, displacer column, and balance disc are of stainless steel, the support column, flywheel etc. are aluminum. The displacer is plastic foam. Other parts are graphite, delrin, and brass. Here is a closeup .
Home
|
|
|
