Here are a few projects I've developed, for both personal and business reasons.
My Big Tiny House
A place to live, a place to love.
A highly personalized design at 11ft wide x 40ft long, plenty of high-tech features and off-grid capable.
This tiny house is a (not so) small, move-once, portable dwelling unit with a (not so) minimalistic design that has all the fundamentals of a house, such as a kitchen, bathroom and living area, just on a smaller scale. It is built on a mobile platform and has ~500 square feet of living area.
Some people choose to live in a tiny house full-time as a way of downsizing, saving money, or being more environmentally friendly. Choosing to live in a tiny house means opting for a certain way of living. Certainly being mortgage free is compelling!
This tiny house is a (not so) small, move-once, portable dwelling unit with a (not so) minimalistic design that has all the fundamentals of a house, such as a kitchen, bathroom and living area, just on a smaller scale. It is built on a mobile platform and has ~500 square feet of living area.
Some people choose to live in a tiny house full-time as a way of downsizing, saving money, or being more environmentally friendly. Choosing to live in a tiny house means opting for a certain way of living. Certainly being mortgage free is compelling!
Early-stage PLC System physical layout assembled in smart-home control cabinet.
Building Code Requirements (IRC) list applicable to Tiny House Build
Result
A great place to live; a technical skillset showcase; proven ability to manage large programs and teams.
Clearly a healthy high-risk pursuit!
How
Personal evaluation, customer requirements (mine), scope set, into the weeds 3D modeling, research, scheduling, costed BOM, engineering iterations, PLC design, vendor support, IRC compliance, technical team building. This is an NPI effort at a personal level!
How
Why
A strong desire to design and build my own custom home, debt-free in the end, and challenge myself with such a large technically complex project.
High-Impact Test Stand
DUT -Specific Drop Testing
Purpose
High impact fully instrumented pneumatic test frame emulates product transport and installation forces.
Result
Significant pre-ship mechanical alignments, vibration and harmonic damping, BOM cost reductions, customer-facing system audio quality clean up.
How
Design high-capacity 250lb calibrated pneumatic drop mechanism with on-board control system, adjustable height/frequency settings, graphical force data, computer interface and script control.
A need to measure DUT impact forces in both stand-alone and within ship packaging, provide immediate feedback to both mechanical engineering, validation and packaging teams.
Why
Precision Dual Camera Fixture
Optimizing an optical test system
Purpose
Improve optical system test performance with integrated test fixture
These are a few presentation slides from my design review/signoff meeting.
Happy engineers locally and in our Taiwan office!
Result
Software team has now optimized scripting to capture parallel data streams under same environmental conditions.
How
Developed precision dovetail camera mount slide mechanism for IPD adjustment; smooth no-chatter camera slide action on rack gears; and universal quick-disconnect coupling.
Why
Improve engineering and factory data collection and test time by integrating multiple optical features onto one fixture; Simplify robot end-effector attachment process.
Jeep Outdoor Upgrade
120AC Power, Running Hot Water and a Frig/freezer!
Purpose
Enhance my car camping experience with comfort features..
Room for two!
This is how concept sketches turn into reality.
CAD files prepared, about ready to build, and the electrical components shown here just arrived!
What do you think, looks like fun to me!
You want to go camping?!
Result
Slide-out kitchen cabinet with sink, hot water and AC power to a portable frig/freezer will make me a very popular car camper.
I hear"Can I come camping with you next time?"
How
Casual doodle dreaming brought me to the imaginary campsite where I finalized all the details. The best way to design.
Why
Fellow travelers with in-vehicle solar power have comfort resources I would like to enjoy in my outdoor travels.
Therm Tracker Product Design
Non-invasive hot water temperature track
Purpose
Clamp-on bluetooth device captures temperature profile
Summary
ThermCheck tracks shower usage, temperature, event time and date. It clamps onto a shower pipe and records temperature and audio signature of flowing water. It records shower time and displays minutes up to ten on led bargraph.
Temperature, audio and induction algorithms detect water flow and temperature.
It captures all events internally, and transmits this over a wireless connection.
Self-learning feature filters out ambient conditions.
Internal memory collects events until radio connection is established.
Result
With physical model, Guide and exuberance, time for market-interest collection.
How
Researched product needs, drafted MRD, developed market proposal, 3D printed non-functional model, User Guide mockup for show-n-tell. Business plan lite draft.
Why
New product idea pitch.