Microcontroller thread #4!!!

increasing the power bill...

 

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How about a machine to play an ordinary musical instrument?

It is extraordinarily difficult to test instruments objectively because a musician automatically adjusts the technique while a machine would hopefully apply itself equally.

 

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This particular one does not use dust at all (but I know of the ones you're referring to). This one uses a process called fused deposition modeling. It cleaner certainly.

 

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I think a rapid prototyping machine would be too difficult. a milling machine would be within reach, maybe I should do that. however, I don't really have anything to mill. perhaps I could sell it to my university at cost, but they already have milling machines.

got any other ideas for manufacturing machines? maybe something else would be worth while.

 

we like gave you tons of ideas...and ur still stuck?

 

to be fair, many of them were beyond the reach of someone who has limited time and money.

also, its not like I haven't gotten anything from you ideas, and I may do one that has already been proposed, but I don't want to just jump on something. I don't see anything wrong with exploring ideas. that is why I would like to know what other kinds of manufacturing machine you guys think could be within reach.

 

Those might be the simplest manufacturing machines that can be made. One good resource, by the way, is www.tinaja.com Don Lancaster has been the hardware guru for manufacturing type machines forever.

If you are interesting in manufacturing small parts, that is a very good resource.

 

hmm, does anyone know anything about RFID or smartcards? maybe I could do something with that. can RFID cards have a unique signature so that, when scanned, it could look up info from a database, or would it have to be a smartcard?

 

hmm, maybe a scientific instrument? does anyone know of a scientific instrument that would be simple enough to be practical?

 

calculator

 

spectrophotometer

 

heh, good one. I was thinking more like a piece of lab equipment. BTW, that was like that fastest reply ever =]

 

oscilloscope

 

*googleing*
hmm, seems kinda difficult. maybe I should look more into RFID.

 

hmmm. now thats interesting. we may have a winner =]

I will have to do more research to figure out how feasible it is, but that would be awesome have my own oscilloscope.

 

Graphics LCDs are often pretty cheap.

 

chromatographer

 

I think I will get the pluto-II board. it is a pretty good deal, I can use it to learn VHDL (which I have been wanting to do) and it has an oscilloscope upgrade for $40 (and gives you all the software needed). though it is already done, it would be nice to have something to learn from, so I may try and re-make something similar to theirs, but on my own.

so, it looks like my primary project will be to learn how to use an FPGA board with VHDL, and a secondary project will be to learn and remake their oscilloscope project. however, I doubt I will be able to accomplish much in terms of a scope before my co-op is over and I have to hit the books.

 

Holy crap, you haven't found a project yet? Your first microcontroller thread started in July last year. What have you done since then? Believe me, I don't want to be insulting but maybe you should spend less time brainstorming and more time DOING.

 

lol, good point ds, but you have to remember, I had car problems in the end of july, and worked at my co-op through most of the semester ( which started in august). this semester had no room for brainstorming. GVSU is actually a very hard college. people transfer from bigger universities and are surprised how hard it is. moreover, engineering is generally a very time consuming degree. additionally (as if I didn't have enough excuses), I had a semester long design project, so all free time went to that.