Electric Turbo Update!

Greetings!

So while I've been waiting for the custom electric motor; I've been playing with the current electric motor that I have in my person so I can perfect the control module. I have connected a Pot to the breadboard which will allow me to control how much power to send to the motor. I have also been playing with my current Arduino sketch to visually output how much power I'm sending to the electrical motor. I also decided to change the colors of the lights to optimize the feedback of power from the motor.

I must admit that I'm quite pleased with the results! I've also decided to use the vehicle's OBD-II port to send signals to the Arduino board instead of tapping in to the cars existing wires. This should simplify the installation as well as the sketch required to control the ESC.

On a side note, I will be developing a different sketch for those who have older cars.

Enjoy the video!

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Electric Turbocharger update

Greetings!

I'm currently still waiting to hear back from the electric motor company. I think waiting is the hardest part considering that the project should work considering the math involved. Once the electric motor is in, I should be able to get the compressor housing back plate made as well as mount the compressor wheel to the shaft and ultimately the compressor housing.

When that is done, I will do some fitment tests to make sure that the wheel is not hitting the walls on the compressor housing and then I will proceed  to attach the electronic speed controller on to the motor and Arduino board.

After that's done; the batteries would be the only thing left to start some real bench tests! I'm thinking of using 4 car lead acid batteries for the sake of testing and then finding something more compact for real world applications.

Then there's the matter of cooling the motor.

Still have a ways to go!

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The E-charger (Electric Nitrous)

Finally!

I get to talk a little about the electric supercharger that I'm creating. First off: This is not your typical ebay grade "Electric Turbo" that guarantees large amounts of horse power from a PC fan. This is a true, fully functioning Electric turbo that will be capable of compressing a substantial amount of air.

There are two markets I'm making this electric turbo for. The first and most obvious market is the performance sector. A lot of people would love to have instant boost when they want it, It should remove turbo lag and would be an amazing accessory for performance cars with large turbo's that take time to spool up.

The second market is the gas saving market. If I can get the electric turbo to keep 2-8 PSI throughout the entire power band; It should improve the engines overall flow considering that there will be no restriction on the exhaust side.

The E-charger is made up of 3 parts. The first is the control module which will be connect to the Vehicles ECU or OBD-II port. The control module needs to know the current RPM and the current TPS (Throttle Position Sensor). The reason the control module needs these inputs is because it tells the Controller how much power to push the electric motor at. This will be controlled by software I'm developing where users can manually enter how much power they want the electric motor to output when the TPS and RPM are at X. Below are pictures and a video of the control module:

Here you can see some of my "Fantastic" Electrical engineer innovation. I 3D-Printed a small board and attached two strips of copper wire. I then connected them to the positive and negative terminals of the Arduino which allows me to then connect the LED's to the copper strips and only worry about wires that Arduino controls.

*Phew - The second part of this whole thing is the controller. I'll spend very little time talking about this as I'm waiting for the motor to come in and haven't had a chance to play around with a specific controller. In an earlier, smaller prototype build (Will have a video at the end on this) of the motor and a controller; I was able to send signals to the controller via the Arduino board. When the Arduino board reads X RPM and Y TPS, It will send a signal to the controller to spin the motor based on the signal sent from the Arduino. I do have a controller in mind but I'm holding off just in case it'll change due to the custom motor.

Lastly! The third part is the part that sits under the hood. The electric motor, the compressor wheel, the compressor housing, and the cooling solution. Because I have a company building me an electric motor from scratch; I don't have a picture of the motor but I do have a 3D printed model of the proper dimensions of the motor. Below is a picture of the Compressor wheel, housing, and 3D motor model:

There will be a plate that I would need custom made to attach the motor to the back of the compressor wheel. I have a 3D model created for it BUT! I don't have it printed yet. The electric motor will connect to the back plate then the compressor wheel then the compressor housing. The electric motor will then have a cooling jacket which will be attached to a separate cooling system (work in progress).  Below is a previous version of the Arduino set up to controller to smaller motor on an previous gear driven idea that I scrapped:

Hope you all enjoyed the write up! I'll make sure to keep updating the blog!

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GITR, The telecommuting robot

Hello!

As Promised, I'm going to talk a little about the idea behind this robot as well as put up a better video of it. The Idea of GITR came about when I told the company I'm currently work for that I could build a telecommuting robot with a budget of $1,000 or less.

As I was building GITR, I learned a ton about the Arduino boards as well as the possibilities that these boards introduce to us as developers.

After finishing GITR; I realized that it had a multitude of uses. The tablet and the video is controlled via WebRTC. I'm sending data to the servo's via an Arduino board which is receiving commands from .Net. Because I used WebRTC, one person can control the robot while multiple people can log in and have a multi-person telecommuting session.

Aside from having a multi-person video conference meeting; What other market would benefit from having a multi-person conferencing feature on a mobile medium? Healthcare.

What if hospitals had special rooms for these robots for people to log in and check in on their loved ones? What if we had one of these robots in every home to keep an eye out on our parents and children? GITR and even any other telecommuting robot on the market gives us the true ability of being in two places at once and that's the real benefit.

Below is a clearer video of GITR! I hope you guys enjoyed the tid bit of background:

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I've been away for a while

Sorry I've been away for a while guys! I've been trying to juggle school work as well as preparing for the big wedding day!

I do have an update for those interested which is the restart of projectini! I've put together a design and uploaded a prototype of the site here. Now you may be asking a couple of questions in regards to why I chose this design.

Personally, I felt keeping it simple and likable are two unique UX approaches. Starting from the top up, You can see I chose my logo to be a simplistic martini glass with an olive. The reason I like this logo is because it's simple and it says to me "Keep it Classy!" which will be my overall motto with this site. I chose the menu to be on the top right as basic archetypes suggests menus are often located on the top of the content and decided to go against the grain with a large (fluid) background image.

Why did I go with a large background image? The answer is simple: The Audience. My website is targeted at developers and designers who have a decent internet connection. This is because the scrum tools I'm advertising are "Internet Heavy" and would be of no benefit to someone logging in with a DSL connection. I've even contemplated timing out the page if their speed isn't up to par but decided against it due to visibility implications. I'm still working on the tables that hold the wording and the contents as I feel they are just a tad mellow. I may just have large divs move up and down from the bottom instead of trying to integrate text with that noisy background image.

Oh well, I feel like this is definitely moving somewhere for the better!

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Projetini - Project End

So after giving it some thought, I decided not to pursue the projectini project as I was moved to a new position in my current company and won't be able to manage this project and the other. As of now, I'm setting the status of this project to suspended in hopes that I can reopen it or someone would be willing to develop my idea. Priorities are a definite staple in my life, and considering my new up and coming life events; It's a better choice to put this on the back burner and revisit the idea when I have more time in my hands.

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As Promised

As promised here are some pictures and a video of the robot I've created. The robot works either through the WAN (Internet) or LAN (Home or Office Network). The logic is mostly done in an Arduino board with Ardumoto shield enclosed within the black box. I'm using a 12v 5ah battery with attached charger of which is attached to an extension plug that also has the tablet plugged in. I'd love to hear some thoughts and ideas on how I can improve him!

As far as cosmetics go; I'll be giving some companies a call on how much the would charge for a 2 part hollow plastic enclosure. I'm hoping it wont be as expensive so the end product does not break the bank.

You can also attach a Verizon MiFi card and control him outside as long as there is enough signal and low latency.

Here is the Video:

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Projectini - No bueno

Greetings!

I haven't heard from the designer helping me with this so I'm looking for a designer willing to donate some time for this project. In the mean time, I'll be taking a shot at some of the design elements to try and get something out to the public by next month. I wouldn't want to loose the Google entrepreneurship opportunity that landed on my lap.

Oh well!

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System Shock + Oculus Rift + Unity = Amazing

I've decided to post a couple of threads online to see if I can get any support for the System Shock 3 project. As of now, I'm hoping to create a working demo that'll grab further interest of the project. The demo will be compatible with the Oculus Rift goggles and should feature a handful of the assets and graphics used for the System Shock 3 title. There are copyright issues to this, but I'm hopeful of getting past that with a Demo and bringing it to the right holders for their blessing as well as a deal.

Any who, I still need a team who can help me with this so the offer is out there! Let's see who bites :)

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Mock Ups!

Still in the process of creating Projectini (AKA Unity or Project X). Here are a couple of interactive wire frames I came up with. These should give me (and you!) a decent idea of what the website will contain and how it will work. Aside from a couple of eye sores, I gotta say that the logged in portion encourages me to complete my site so I too can use its tools!

Check the mockups out here!

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Decisions Decisions

Still having a tough time trying to figure out a good domain name with the team. I'm trying to find something that will be catchy and easy to remember. Something that goes well with the logo as well. I do however have some of the sitemap done and some of the mock ups courtesy of https://moqups.com/.

I've been toying with the idea of VR and Unity as well. There is so much potential out there for VR that it's almost heart breaking not being able to be a part of the wave of the future. I can envision peripherals + kinect + Rift all creating an amazing experience.

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Project Unity or {x}

I've been working to get the project unity started. I have a designer working with me to create the graphics which I believe is a good way to start. I've already drawn up the wire frames for some of the pages as well as created a sitemap for most of the public facing pages.

I'm really excited about seeing this thing in action, While I was site mapping the "Scrum Room", I felt like this alone can be an incredibly useful tool!

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Google Start-up

Greetings!

I received a neat email from Google that stated that my project had been selected to be a part of Google's Startup launch program. This is incredibly exciting as it provides an amazing opportunity for my project to materialize using the provided Google tools and technologies. As of now I'm forming a team to get a good plan going for this site. I'm also considering using the Startup weekend site (http://startupweekend.org/) to network and hopefully create a full team for this project.

I'll keep you guys posted!

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