kenneth chung / mechameka0 blog

2023

  • Version 1: A undersized BLDC

    I had just finished my undergraduate degree and really enjoyed the control theory courses. I fully understood how fundamental they were to creating fluid and organic motion for robots, but lacked a true physical grasp of the concept. Sure, MATLAB simulation is primarily where all the magic lies but as…

  • Planter Pot

    I designed a succulent planter pot referencing SMISKI’s and other human-shaped planters for my mom’s garden. All of the surface, free-form modeling was done in Fusion360, which was an odd choice as a parametric software. Mostly eyeballing and pinching surface nodes until they look right and the 3D printer software…

  • Home repair of toaster oven

    [Temp] One day, my parent’s toaster oven stopped working. You’d turn the knob and only the toast function would work (there’s oven, broil, and air fryer mode). Since this oven isn’t super complicated or proprietary like a smart device or super dangerous like a microwave project, surely there has to…

  • 3D-printed cycloidal drive

    After college, I wanted to keep making robotics-based projects. Keep my mind fresh for the eventual grad return once I find my research inspiration. I have always been interested in the unique gearboxes of harmonic drives and cycloidal drives found in industrial robotic wrists. Planetary gearboxes are cool and all,…

  • My very own project?

    The project has since been complete as of 2023, end of my undergrad program. As such, a general overview of the project can be given as part of my portfolio. Unfortunately I was not able to refine the project enough to create a thesis or working, actuated prototype but there’s…

  • Laser cut/engraved mementos

    Designed some laser cut and engraved keychains for my friends before I finish my undergraduate degree and no longer have access to the lab’s laser cutter T.T. I wanted to make designs representative of their respective degrees. Here’s a breakdown of the process Start with key chain idea and sketch…

  • The End of Senior Project

    Deadline was coming up. We needed a final prototype in less than a month, coded and moving before the senior symposium where everyone presented their projects. Since then, I have gotten familiar and tuned ABS to my Ender 3. Ever since I got it, I’ve always printed PLA because I…

  • First integration

    Physical proof of concept was complete. Now its time to integrate with electronics and proper components and see how well that works. One of my teammates just recently got a 3D printer and made the baseplate out of the shimmery purple material. It was absolutely stunning so we used that…

  • Start of senior project

    This month marked the start of spring quarter and the 2nd part of senior design, where teams are tasked with making a physical prototype for the designs proposed and documented last quarter. My team had landed upon a geared mechanism for a 2-DOF solar array system, rotating by a internal…

  • Ultrasonic Proximity Sensor

    As a final project for university mechatronics course, I made a rudimentary 3d scanner using an ultrasonic sensor. Previously, I had messed around with 3D plots in MATLAB and this was a decent reason to utilize 3d visualization. The course, although theoretical information was new like filtering circuits and op-amps,…