What Qbranch does in the off-season...

[Qbranch]

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've been CD'ing... but, I'm back.

Wasn't quiet sure where to put this, but since it has to do with a career, why not.

I'm sure I'm not the only high-school-first'er that's gotten a technical job out there... but to those of you that don't have a job thats up your alley... just a reminder there's always another engineering place looking for a few good FIRST'ers.

Anyhow, here's what I do at my summer job. At ECU, I design and build manufacturing equipment used to build industrial control modules (everything from turn signal blinkers for a humvee to hybrid locomotive APU pack controllers). This is the first project I've gotten finished so far this summer.

In short, this machine loads printed circuit boards and pallets of other materials onto the conveyor of a new production line being designed and built to manufacture a whole new line of industrial controls. The machine (dubbed the Magazine Loader) has a four-station rotary magazine changer capable of handling 200lbs that can load any of it's four magazines onto an elevator, which can index to any slot in the magazine. Then, a pneumatic gizmo pulls the boards or pallets onto the conveyor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RblH8bxZYCM

Fancy, no?

Comments appreciated.

Thanks, and see you all at IRI!

-q

[Uberbots]

looks sweet... and you did that yourself? thats pretty darn impressive.


being another FIRSTer (well... FIRST alumni) that has a technical summer job, i guess i will share what im doing as well.

I am working at Hartford hospital this summer, in the research department. one of the first projects i was given was to make a data logging system for an operating room, organize it by timestamps, and see how the patient was responding when a certain thing was executing.
Once that is finished, my next task is to start automating the controls that are available to me. whats nice is that my main interface is the 2009+ control system, the cRIO (except i get access to the FPGA =D )

its really interesting what is able to be done with labVIEW and the RIO contollers.

[Protronie]

Wow... you sure your only 18 and thats your summer job?
I'm impressed! Thats really amazing !
Job like that, right out of high school... explain to me what you need with college again? Seems you could make a good living doing that.
Well great work Q, keep up posted on new stuff!

-p

[CarterM]

Nice job/(Job)!

How many yards of wire did you use?!?

[Qbranch]

Thanks for all the + feedback!

Finished the automatic operator's code today, so now it's operated by a downstream machine that me and another guy built last year that tests modules and does gasketing. All it has to do is pull up the "GIVE_ME_A_BOARD" pin (yes, that's what it's defined as in code )

Best part is... now I have to build the machine that does the reverse... yank the finished boards off the line and rack them back up on the other end... unfortunately, though many mechanisms are similar... it's not an exact copy since the modules gain about twice the weight during the production process... yay 5" timken bearings n worm gears!

If I have anything else cool I'll put it on my youtube channel as the summer goes on.

Uberbots: Wow that sounds like heavy stuff. I'm guessing this is data that's entered by operating room staff? Very very cool. Oh... and what I'm most intrigued about... what on earth are you automating with a cRIO?

I'm working a little closer to the hardware... ended up using the 18F8722 processor to run the magazine loader since I'm kinda familiar with the part (well... three years...)

It was AWESOME getting to drive with you all. I'm so glad our teams could share our first time on Einstein together... don't take that the wrong way!

Wish you all were coming to IRI.

Protronie: Thank you, but... I still have a lot to learn to become an Electrical Engineer... don't let the display and it's accompanying voltage kickup module fool you... it's nice but it won't buy groceries.

But, nonetheless thanks for the vote of confidence.

CarterM: Yards of wire? Jeesh I have no idea. It's really not all that much... well... at least I don't think so... I guess aht I'm trying to say is I really don't know. It looks worse than it is thanks to the ribbon cables. Once the HPC explorer board is mounted up to it's spot on the main board, it'll look a lot neater.

Have fun in China! What takes you there?

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Thanks again everyone,

q