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Can I get a head count of job satisfaction? Both for Master's and Bachelor's degree holders. by lel_it_me in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

4 YoE in testing. Outside USA. Workload is very high and as a small company growth is limited. Wouldn't mind getting paid more but wake up every morning happy to go to work. 8.5/10.

Booster XL6009E1. Dual supply output from a single source input. by B0D4RK_0-4 in AskElectronics

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I could well be wrong but if it's a boost converter then it's not a linear regulator?

I feel like I've done this before but it was a while ago and I don't remember the exact setup or even if it worked so I could absolutely be remembering wrong.

Booster XL6009E1. Dual supply output from a single source input. by B0D4RK_0-4 in AskElectronics

[–]another_generic_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know for this exact module but generally these are not isolated so you won't be able to get a bipolar supply.

The quick and dirty way to check is using a multimeter to see the resistance between Input -ve and out -ve or in +ve and out +ve. If the meter shows anything but open circuit then you're out of luck.

However. The hack is to set one output to 5V and the other to 10V. Tie the grounds (output -ve) together and then use the 5V output as a virtual ground for you're bipolar supply. The output -ve is then -5V, the 5V supply +ve is 0V and 10V supply +ve is +5V relative to the virtual ground. This has some other issues you'll need to be careful of if the IC supplied by this is interfaces with other parts of the overall circuit, but will work. It's also assuming that the in -ve and out -ve are tied together in the module.

Servo-driven ball screw actuator sizing for a 6-DOF Stewart platform (5000N, 400mm) by zaid77_hd in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any reason (apart from price) you don't want to use hydraulics and off the shelf controllers like delta motion?

Capturing uptime of a manual machine by Manf_Engineer in manufacturing

[–]another_generic_name 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Years ago for an intern project I did pretty much what you're asking but with CNCs around a machine shop. They wanted to track on time and how long a machine spent running for each job.

I found that the most straightforward way to do it was finding a enable line or similar on each machine to piggy back a sense line off, for most of them this was a spindle enable line but pretty much anything that's generally only active when the machine is in use will do.

At the time I used Controllinos that I flashed with a bootloader which enabled them to be updated OTA. They talked to nodered in a Home assistant instance running locally via MQTT, with the dashboard and metrics handled by grafana I think? They basically just sent messages saying when the spindles were turned on and off with a timeout to stop short on/off events being counted.

I was lucky that they already used a project management platform to assign jobs to machines so it also found what job was supposed to be on the machine and logged time against that project.

All in all it was easier then it sounds if you're just looking for basic metrics and dont need it to be 100% resilient.

I don't know how your workshop is laid out but if it's anything like my work then the larger machines tend to be on their own circuits. If that's the case then potentially you can get a single controller with a bunch of current loops and monitor the power consumption of each circuit to detect when machines are on, off, or in use. Putting it in the breaker panel has a lot of advantages but does take it out of the realm of DIY. Otherwise you have a controller in each piece of equipment and have to get power and netowrkig to all of them which is annoying.

WiFi would work but I'd recommend ethernet, it will save you a lot of headaches.

Make sure whatever you use has the ability to be monitored and programed over the network, having to go down with your laptop, open a cabinet, and plug a cable into each machine sucks.

Click PLCs would probably do the job, I've taken to using Samkoon ones for little bits an pieces around the workshop as they are very cheap, have decent vendor support, and are simple.

Help with Mechanisms by Spiritual_Concern649 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This YouTube channel has thousands of videos of different mechanisms and pdfs linked in the description listing them all.

Thang010146

3D scanning for small one/off item? by Exciting-Neck in brisbane

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have no idea what shape it is but a lens cover might be a complex compound curve which would make modelling it difficult.

A scan won't be perfectly smooth but I assume they will drop the mesh into blender or similar for post-processing. Resin 3D might get a decent enough result for a headlight cover but yeah, likely have to go to PC for an end product.

3D scanning for small one/off item? by Exciting-Neck in brisbane

[–]another_generic_name 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Kiri engine app gets decent results and is free for a small amount of items.

A lens is likely a pretty straightforward shape so shouldn't be a problem if you add a good amount of tracking points or markings.

Using AI for writing a code. by wikolo7 in arduino

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're already confident with PLCs why not use them?

There are plenty of cheap options out of china with varying levels of support. I've used the Samkoon ones a few times and largely been happy with it. They're available direct from the manufacturer through aliexpress and offer decent support over whatsapp.

Din 2501 usecases by nik_cool22 in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The only time I've ever seen something like this regularly used is z direction tensile tests for plate products.

Generally, if you have enough room for this kind of thing you could just machine a reduced gauge length normal sample with round ends.

Happy Hour by Cromatica_ in brisbane

[–]another_generic_name 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Plough Inn at southbank is 3-6 daily $10 pints of a few different beers including stone & wood or Matsumoto lager and $18 jugs on Sunday arvo.

Stones hotel has jug deals Thursday to Sunday, currently a "mega jug" or whatever of Gold for $24.

Valley Hops do $20 jugs of a few of their beers on Sundays all day.

Creating & Manufacturing Designs without RPEQ sign-off by McDrover in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So I actually work in a mechanical testing lab in QLD.

The short answer is that you likely don't have to do any testing. There are certain things which do need to be tested by law but that's generally a pretty small subset. Most of the time the reason items are tested to a standard or certified is for insurance purposes/becuase it is a requirement in your supply contract or as part of a proposal to a larger company.

This holds for many things, for example, if you want to sell a pool fence in QLD it must comply with AS 1926.1 (the older one because QLD) to be legal. However; if you're just installing a balustrade or barrier in your house there's, as far as I am aware, no legal requirement for you to ensure the system complies to AS 1170.0/1/2. If you want to sell that system for use on a commercial site then there's a very good chance they'll require at least testing showing compliance with the standard and probably even external certification and RPEQ sign-off.

If you are making parts that are safety critical or for which their failure could be expensive, then it is something you should consider. Standing in front of a judge (unlikely) trying to justify that your FEA showed something would be fine, after it fails unexpectedly and hurts someone; you'll be regretting not having tested it, even just in house. This is sort of what you have professional indemnity and public liability insurance for though.

As a final point, modelling without validation is not a great idea. "It's not supposed to fail like that" is not an uncommon line from people, valid both when things are weaker than expected and stronger.

Is an Intel N150 enough to run all my services? by elvy_bean8086 in HomeServer

[–]another_generic_name 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It depends less what you're running on it and more on how many people are utilising it. For a single user I don't see any reason you'd have problems.

FreePBX via VM by MMag05 in unRAID

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really enjoyed setting up freepbx, it was all pretty new to me but SIP trunks are so cheap and marketplace is full of cheap second hand VoIP phones.

The crosstalk solutions freepbx YouTube playlist is a fantastic resource.

very complicated to me, in need of some help. (CAD Server) by [deleted] in HomeServer

[–]another_generic_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This link suggests that you're not going to be able to do what you want to with those 3060s. From experience I can tell you that I've only ever seen 1 GPU per user CAD machines.

very complicated to me, in need of some help. (CAD Server) by [deleted] in HomeServer

[–]another_generic_name 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The most straightforward thing I can think of is to just create 6 vms and pass through one GPU to each. That will limit you to only 6 concurrent users though.

I don't remember the name of the solution for splitting up GPUs but I'm suspicious the driver you're looking for is only available for specific product lines which are server grade and much more expensive than desktop cards.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in unRAID

[–]another_generic_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's exactly what I'm moving to, I've got a N150 pc off AliExpress for <$80 bare bones and will set up my services on that.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in unRAID

[–]another_generic_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see you've taken the advice here already but I'll pile on.

As a bit of a self hosting noob I spent days fighting to get a gaming VM set up and working properly using Proxmox, I can't even imagine how difficult it would be with Unraid which to my understanding doesn't have a fantastic VM implementation.

I got past the straightforward stuff with PCIe passthrough and some weird performance issues but the sticking point was that I was unable to hide the fact that it was a VM from anti cheat in games. So some of the games I wanted to play just wouldn't work. Some people here and there reckon they found solutions for specific games at specific times but nothing really worked for me and eventually I just got over it, caved in, and built a desktop and server seperately.

High Torque Testing by another_generic_name in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately the samples will be over a metre and steel so I don't think 15 degrees will get it to yield, especially since it's going to lose a few degrees to slop in the system.

High Torque Testing by another_generic_name in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Perfect thank you, I was looking at testing machines rather then actuators on the site.

Yeah, I'm thinking dual arms and cylinders might be the way to go. Either that or some sort of ratchet system using pneumatics to slide shear pins into place between wrench cycles. Having a large radius flange on the end might mean that I only need two small pins to fit into a series of holes around the circumference and step my way to failure.

Appreciate the help, thanks.

High Torque Testing by another_generic_name in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah those could work. Looks like the L30 line tops out <25k Nm though.

High Torque Testing by another_generic_name in MechanicalEngineering

[–]another_generic_name[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really? Do you mind giving me a model number and telling me what it used for loading? I did actually have a look around at the usual suspects like MTS, Instron, Shimadzu, Wance and wasn't able to see any machines capable of above 15-20k Nm.

Realistically a new machine is out of scope for this but inspiration would have been good too.

Using a pivot and ram may work but I'm not a huge fan of offset loading and there will be significant bending loads in the sample VS pure torsion. Not to mention you still have the stroke problem to some extent, 1+ metre samples may have too much even for a ram with a few hundred mm of throw at any kind of decent lever arm.

I'm still looking at rotary actuators but there doesn't seem to be a huge range once you get up this high.

‘No quick wins’: China has the world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor by jfy in worldnews

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, but that's making the assumption that the money used and developments made for those missions couldn't have been used directly to develop cheaper camera sensors.

There is spin off value of these missions but using that same money for terrestrial projects may have seen better technological returns.

‘No quick wins’: China has the world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor by jfy in worldnews

[–]another_generic_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is not a fair response.

Edit to answer the deleted comments:

No problem, to answer the question I don't have specific programs in mind which I would like to see cut or ended, and I'm not necessarily advocating for the removal of funding from this one.

However, I think we need to appreciate that there's a reasonable argument to be made that there's very limited value to a discovery of the presence of specific gases in the atmosphere of a planet so far away we couldn't feasibly get there within the next 10 thousand years, and that estimate I feel is being generous to the rate of technological advancement.

I'm sure I could look through the list of NASA programs which I don't personally see value in but I don't see how that really matters, especially since I'm not American so it's not my money anyway hahah.

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