Mechanical Engineering

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/197685

Open Source Watch Movement Really Ticks All the Boxes

When you think of open-source hardware, you probably think of electronics and maker tools– RepRap, Arduino, Adafruit, et cetera. Yet open source is an ethos and license, and is in no way limited to electronics. The openmovement foundation is a case in point– a watch case, to be specific. The “movement” in Openmovement is a fully open-source and fully mechanical watch movement.

Openmovement has already released STEP files of OM10 the first movement developed by the group. (You do need to sign up to download, however.) They say the design is meant to be highly serviceable and modular, with a robust construction suited for schools and new watchmakers. The movement uses a “Swiss pallets escapement” we think that’s an odd translation of lever escapement, but if you’re a watchmaker let us know in the comments), and runs at 3.5 Hz / 25,200 vph. An OM20 is apparently in the works, as well, but it looks like only OM10 has been built from what we can see.

If you don’t have the equipment to finely machine brass from the STEP files, Openmovement is running a crowdfunding campaign to produce kits of the OM10, which you can still get in on until the seventh of June.

If you’re wondering what it takes to make a mechanical watch from scratch, we covered that last year. Spoiler: it doesn’t look easy. Just assembling the tiny parts of an OM10 kit would seem daunting to most of us. That might be why most of the watches we’ve covered over the years weren’t mechanical, but at least they tend to be open source, too.

From Blog – Hackaday via this RSS feed

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/36527199

Watching heavy machinery never gets old.

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/oil-quenching-y3oiCKG#/t/toolgifs

If you're UK based, would you mind taking part in a Coventry University study to assess the UK’s automotive industry skills gap, workforce shortage and training needs alongside the role of emerging technologies use, including that of AI, for futures planning in the automotive industry?

It's a short anonymous survey (around 10 min): https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/coventry/ai-skills-workforce-needs-in-the-uk-automotive-industry-can-ai-

Posting here hoping for a physics-based reply. Not 1 with so many physics equations. I've just disliked opinions that've probably contradicted reality.

I viewed a vid re power versus torque in vehicles. My understanding is that power is torque multiplied by angular velocity. Given an amount of power, a high-torque vehicle doesn't have a very high top velocity. A high-velocity vehicle won't tow a very massive load.

I related it to my little knowledge re stick shift. Gear 1 is used to move a stopped vehicle or for low speeds. Does gear 1 mean max torque and lowest angular velocity? I think you need a high torque to overcome static friction. Does gear 2 mean a dip in torque and a rise in angular velocity? Does the max gear mean lowest torque and max angular velocity? When I was young, a driver said one can carefully switch from gear 1 ➡️ 2 then 2 ➡️ 3 then 3 ➡️ 4 (and so on) on a wide road with very few surrounding vehicles. He said it'd up the velocity and a high gear generally meant more fuel-efficient.

Please correct me if any of the above is wrong.

I googled. Here's what I read –

"Revolutions per minute" is how many revolutions the engine itself is making per minute. The gear ratios then translate revolutions of the engine into revolutions of your tires (more or less). Lower gear means lower tire revolutions per engine revolution, but also the tires are easier to turn.

So when the car is going slower, meaning it requires more force to accelerate, you want lower gears. As the car speeds up, you need less force to go faster or maintain that speed, so you switch to a higher gear, sacrificing power for more efficient use of your engine.

I didn't ask an llm to avoid hallucinations.

Wanted to ask about this. I do not work in California, however many of our vendors and customers are seeking to swap to MIL-PRF-8625 Type II, when they historically used Type I.

I'm totally on board with this - anything I can do to push safer, less environmentally destructive processes is a win in my book. But I understand that not all companies are interested in jumping ship so fast.

So I wanted to ask, what's your companies take on it? Did you know about the industry phase out?

The US Space Force is tracking 20 pieces of debris from the Intelsat 33e.

I've been dealing with this for months. I've received yet another drawing from a company calling "Diameters on a common axis/center to be 0.XX" TIR U.O.I. "

Total Runout requires a Datum. Your "common axis" is not a datum and can not referenced. It's driving me mad. Like, where did everyone get this notion that it's acceptable? It'd be one thing if it was just one or two drawings, but I'm into the dozens at this point. It's getting to the point that I'm starting to question if I'm either the one in the wrong or everyone has some sort of mass psychosis.

Am I in the wrong here?

Scientists and engineers have successfully tested a high-powered laser weapon mounted on a British Army combat vehicle.

According to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD), this trial marks the first instance of such a weapon being fired from a UK land vehicle.

Crosspost from the "Energy" Community. Seemed too good not to put here.

Is there any mechanical engineers? What you would wish to know when you were starting learning? What skills and topics you consider the most useful in mechanical engineering?

What is the fastest way to learn mechanical engineering in the nowadays when 3d printers are avaliable to be able to design and make custom clocks, engines, generators?

Just build a replacement nuclear power plant and reuse the water. Right?

I can't stand the SpaceMouse Pro. They ruined it! Why would they swap the nice tactile buttons for stupid gummy membrane buttons? And why coat the whole thing in nasty soft touch coating that is going to turn to goo? We peaked with the previous generation of space balls.

Since I've been working from home though, it has gotten quite annoying to unplug my SpaceExplorer and take it back and forth to the office. It would be so nice to have one of those fancy new wireless ones. But that's not happening, since they ruined it.

So, I added USB-C to mine, instead. Now, I'll just have a cable at the office, and a cable at home and just take the unit itself back and forth. I can even leave a USB-C to USB-C cord in my case, in case I need to use it with my laptop away from my docks! If anyone is interested, I can share the STL for the little breakout board mounting piece I made.

A University of Virginia professor believes he has discovered how to create a freeze-ray device, inspired by the Batman villain, Mr. Freeze. Rather than being a weapon, this device is intended to cool down electronics within spacecraft and high-altitude jets.

A tiny, hard-working bacterium -- which weighs one-trillionth of a gram -- may soon have a large influence on processing rare earth elements in an eco-friendly way.

"Traditional thermochemical methods for separating lanthanides are environmentally horrible," said Buz Barstow, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell, the corresponding author. "It's difficult to refine these elements. That's why we send rare earth elements offshore -- generally to China -- to process them."

Not sure how useful it is yet, but it sounds like with some AI and proper cameras you could use it to completely repair certain components. Theres something similar to this using electrochemical plating to repair microfractures throughout a component - only downside is that it takes like weeks to do it properly (I'll see if I can dig up the paper later)