Unauthorized Sales of My Thesis

Lately I have noticed a few stores selling my published thesis, Tesla Turbine Torque Modeling for Construction of a Dynamometer and Turbine, without A) asking permission from me, the copyright holder, through oral or written means, or B) giving me royalties for the sales. 

As this is a document provided free to download on the UNT Digital Library website, I expect it to be shared to the global community free of charge. BUT should it be sold, I expect to gain royalties as a result of these sales (though I still dont want to sell it).

I have seriously considered sending a Cease-and-Desist Letter to all of the stores attempting to sell a copy of my copyrighted material, and have already begun with a few of them. I have filed a copyright application to get the ball rolling legally in case I have to take this to court (hopefully I wont have to).

The following websites have already received emails about this, and should be taking action shortly to take them down:

Amazon.com

Barnesandnoble.com

As it stands, if you see this document, Tesla Turbine Torque Modeling for Construction of a Dynamometer and Turbine, please PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT. I am not getting any Royalties, and these sales do NOT benefit me. 

You can download it for FREE from the original publishing location, the UNT Digital Library.

If you have any advice for me, please post away. I can use any advice on this topic.

Thanks for your understanding.

Slowed Pace, Little Progress

Well, the pace of the project has slowed down considerably since I settled down at my new job. As you can imagine, after a long day at work, one tends to just relax when one goes home, and side projects are the last thing on your mind. So this has become a weekend project pretty much. 

The boards returned from the Fab shop a few days after the New Year, but Ive yet to order the parts (or solder paste) because my work desk/soldering station isnt setup. Ive moved to a new place and I will have to acquire a proper work desk so to proceed with soldering in a safe manner. So pretty much the project is still on a hold until I can setup my work station.

Whenever I get a chance I may post some technical news posts, but until I get the work station, there wont be any updates for this project. Makes me a little sad, but my new job takes priority. 

Peace Out.

Google Code Page Online

Just wanted to update the latest and greatest on the project. For the moment, the entire project is on a temporary hold while I move to my new place and get situated at my new job. In the meantime, the boards have been at the Fab shop for over a week, so I should be getting them soon. My parts list is completed, so I'll go ahead and put that in my order queue.

For the moment at least, Ive got my Google Code page setup, so any code, updates, open source what not will all go there. If you have any input for this project, feel free to post in comments on this blog. I will investigate the need for a Google Group in the future, but as I see it, there is not quite enough of a following to justify that for now.

Dragonboard Update!

Dragonboard V1.0.5 is 99% ready to be sent off to the Fab shop. I just have to resolve an issue with OSH Park, and I'll get it ordered. I have selected and compiled a parts list and am ready to make the big order from Mouser and Digikey. I checked and verified a few things with viewing Gerbers to see that the board looks good, and I learned a few things worth mentioning here.

For those who use GerbV, listen up. Dont panic if you open GerbV and dont see your imported bitmaps. GerbV has a bug which doesn't allow it to show features imported with Eagle2BMP.exe, since the default DPI is 10k, and the viewer can only handle about 300DPI. The way to get around this is to use import-bmp.ulp, and manually enter in a DPI value. Its a bit time consuming, but it works. 

And FYI, if you have your Eagle library in the Eagle lbr folder (which is where Eagle is installed or me), you wont be able to generate the bmp.scr for your imported image. So be sure to import your images into a library that isnt in your Program Files, and then import the individual parts across from that library to the library you use regularly. Problem solved. 

However, I found a great work around to even needing a Gerber viewer. I can render 3D CAD files directly from my Eagle Board Layout, and save whatever view I want into PNG format. This is how it works: A clever combination of Google Sketchup, ImageMagick and EagleUp. Follow the tutorial at the link, and you'll be up and running viewing your 3D Boards in no time. This way you can view your Board Layout, and not only verify the parts layouts, but also the board view in 3D space. How exciting! If you're planning to use OSH Park to Fab your boards, I went with these two colors for the EagleUp.ulp script: Board color is 0x462f5b and Trace color is 0x663a93. Thats it! 

If you want a quick way to view your Gerbers, you can always use the online viewer at Circuitpeople.com.

For those interested in exporting a Bill of Materials List, without the hassle of doing it manually, theres an easy way through a script in Eagle, called BOM.ulp. This script gives you the option to group by name or by value. I usually group by value to make the BOM easier to read.
 
Heres a teaser of the Dragonboard:

I hope everyone has a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Finding Components in Eagle Schematic Design

I came across a good tip for Eagle and thought it would be nice to share with everybody. If you've just designed a rather complex circuit, with many parts (and possible many pages), sometimes Eagle will name things with odd naming schemes, and you're left wondering wheres the odd number left out of the number order. Ive run into this several times, and its quite annoying. So I discovered a unique solution, that the folks at Eagle already thought about.

Find.ulp will locate a part in your schematic based on an inputted reference designator or part number. Not only will it give you exact X and Y coordinates on your schematic, but it will zoom in on that part and highlight it. 

If you want to add a shortcut, as 'Control + F' to find components in your schematic, you can type in the Eagle Command Line:

ASSIGN C+F 'RUN find.ulp'; 

Additionally, you can modify the Eagle.scr file to add a button on the Eagle toolbar. This is well documented in the EAGLE HELP: Editor Commands > MENU.

Dragonboard V1.0.0

I havent had an update in awhile, so I figured I'd give a status update. The last few months have been hectic, but Ive managed to cram a lot of time towards my project, and am almost ready to finally get my first legit prototype board off to the fab shop. Ive christened it as the Dragonboard. 

Its a multiple-use microcontroller board meant for operating RFID modules and gas sensor modules (of which are in the design phase right now). Its a pretty nifty little device that only has a dimension of 3.25 x 2", with an on-board RTC, a 9-16V DC/AC power supply, a 3-Axis accelerometer, an EMI suppression circuit for USB programming, an XBee, and all supporting hardware for the circuits. It also allows for on-board programming of the XBee.

Once I get it back from the shop, I'll post some updates about programming it, operation and whether or not it passes my tests for operation. Im crossing my fingers that this thing works out like Ive planned. Anyways, thats about all I wanted to say about it for now.

Resistor Color Codes

Most people dealing with electronics these days know how to read a Resistor Color Code Value Chart, but beginners probably dont. This tutorial should walk you through how to read a chart to determine resistors in your projects. So lets get started.

A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element [1]. They come in many compositions, but there are three primary ones that people use: carbon film, metal film and wire-wound resistors. For more information about all other kids of resistors, as well as a detailed explanation of the three types mentioned here, refer to the Wikipedia page on resistors.

Classification of resistors consists of three main properties. Resistance, which is measured in ohms, is the actual value of the resistor. Without this, you cant tell one resistor from another. The second is the tolerance value, which is shown as a percentage, and is represented by a color band of its own. The last property is the power rating of the resistor, which is measured in Watts [2].

The value of the resistor, as well as the tolerance percentage can both be found by using the following chart.

Image Source: 300Guitars.com

For four banded resistors, the first band is the first number in the value of the resistor. The second is the second number in the value. The third is the number of zeroes behind the first two numbers, also referred as the multiplier. For example, Red-Red-Black, would be 220 Ohms. Similarly, 1K Ohms would be Brown-Black-Red.

For five banded resistors, the third band represents a third value, the fourth band is the multiplier, and the fifth band is the tolerance. These types of resistors are usually blue, green or brown, depending on the manufacturer.

The tolerance value represents what error the value known might be off from the actual value of the resistor. Most electronics use the standard 5% or 10% resistors, which is represented by a gold or silver band. Sensors and precision electronics require higher tolerances. Those come as actual color bands. Most precision resistors come with a 1% tolerance (Brown), though, other tighter tolerances can be found. So a 237 Ohm resistor with a 0.5% tolerance would take the 5-banded color code, Red-Orange-Violet-Black-Green.

The wattage rating of a resistor is determined separately by the size of the resistor. The larger the diameter and length of a resistor, the higher wattage it can handle.