AutoCAD

I have spent the last two evenings playing with AutoCAD and I think I am getting the hang of it. I also had some n/o and c/o reed switches turn up to play with. I have videoed playing with the c/o switch because it's fun. I'm amazed at the distance the magnet can be and it still works. Some careful positioning will be in order methinks. 

Circuit diagrams

Spent all of last evening drawing circuit diagrams. Went to sleep doing power calculations. Geeky heaven

Don't fight progress

If I were a tv character I might be the Lone Ranger. I'm not one for sharing my work, even up to the point of trying to create my own components from scratch. Last night though I learned the value of buying something pre-made and tested from a manufacturer. I'm not spending all my evenings making solonoids!! Although the one I made last night worked fine, I don't want to make another!! I'd rather spend my time making other parts of the engine from bits I can buy off the shelf where possible. 

So eBay has provided and tomorrow I'm going SUP boarding. 

CTC Riverside SLA Printer

Just don't buy one. I got it "working" today. At best it's efforts were abismal. But the second effort only managed 1mm out of 30 before it failed. The resin is a pain, the cleaner stinks. I'll stick with filament I think!!

Little frustrations

I have been trying for the past week to get bits together to make some tooling and it hasn't gone particularly well. Everything has been a bit wrong and needing adjustment. Today I got to nearly the end of making the tool. I could use it manually but I haven't got the motor attached yet. However the most frustrating thing has been the 3D printer. I've currently got two, one is missing parts and the OS is wrong so I'm in talk with the geeks to fix it. The other is on lend from my friend and it couldn't be worse. It's practically just a paper weight. It's a CTC Riverside SLA (don't buy one, really don't). Last week I broke it and had to buy a spare part (£60 tank). Today after fixing a little mirror that fell off in transit I over tightened two crucial screws and rounded off the hex holes (I was hangey) so now it's stuck with no top panel on it. I've attempted to calibrate it but I cannot get the bed to move any further down so I suspect it will squash my caps when I finally print them. I'm going to attempt the print tomorrow with the resin. Last time I used it I burnt all the hairs out of my nose and accidentally left the Uv resin in sunlight, breaking the tank when it hardened. 

So it's going well!!

Charged Kart: An Introduction

Charged Kart is a project I am working on with my brother (and a few other friends) to create a lighter electric go kart with twice the running time of regular electric go-karts and to run our own championship based on our kart design.

OK so there isn't a lot to say at the moment other than to announce our presence. There will be several veiled posts as we work on development because we won't want to share all our secrets, but you should eventually get to enjoy watching videos of testing and track days and an invitation to join the competition when we have built enough karts and secured a venue.