Personal Projects
Battery Powered Subwoofer
Design Specifications:
3D-printed transmission-line enclosure, design heavily inspired by HexiBase
4" 30W Tang-band Subwoofer
Transparent side panels
Custom-built 16.8V 120Wh battery pack
Aux-in, bluetooth and two-way USB charging at rear
EQ and battery life indicator on front
Top handle folds outwards to hold Minirig
Pre-paint preperation of V2 transmission line enclosure
Testing cell-balancing and charging system
First test of side panels and enclosure sealing methods
Final integration of sub-systems and sound testing
Beanio
DIY Espresso Machine specifications:
In theory the world's first fully digital espresso machine
16 bar max pressure, 20kHz PWM motor control
Fully custom CNC-milled heat-exchanger with 600+ watts of heating power controlled via cascade PID and MOSFETs
Sub 5-minute warm-up time
User-adjustable temperature via smartphone app
Wi-Fi connectivity for remote start and monitoring
Transparent top for viewing the espresso making process
Early prototype of the custom heat exchanger
Testing the custom break-out board at max power
Test assembly of housing
The first espresso
Debugging the first 3D printed dial prototypes
Render of first CAD model
Start of final assembly
Painting of wooden housing and trim installation
ÆIRBi
A portable, smart-phone connected, air pollution sensor
30-hour battery life
Measure's particulate matter (0.3 to 10 micron), NO2 & VOCs
Dual-purpose as smart bike-light & safety light
Low-energy Bluetooth connectivity
Android app for visualising and logging air pollution data
First Android App interface
Concept evolution
AEIRBi in night-mode
Bicycle rear-brake light concept
Bloombox
Internet of Things connected indoor farm for year-round creation of the famous Genovese basil pesto
2x 60W custom-PCB LED panel
Highly integrated air-cooling system
WiFi connectivity for remote control and monitoring via IoT Thinger App
Temperature and humidity monitoring
PWM controlled light panel allows for infinitely adjustable brightness
The first prototype with an older logo being tested
The first prototype box assembled for the first time
Texas Instruments Launch Pad attached to custom break-out board using pwm'ed MOSFETs
Assembling the custom PCB LED panels
Modular Linear Motion Module
Developed as a concept based on a previous CNC milling machine project
Each linear slide can be bolted to another in a number of different ways
Designed to use only 6-series aluminium extrusions, 3D-printed components, a lead-screw and stepper motor to keep costs low
Unique fully-constrained linear slide design with 4 adjustable bearings at a 45 degree angle to each other
No precision components or manufacturing required
Rigid enough for light milling, 3D-printing, pick and place, or any other automated motion application you can think of
Pedal Powered Irrigation Pump
Shortly after I graduated in 2015, I travelled to Malawi as a volunteer for Engineers Without Borders UK, in order to design and test a pedal powered irrigation pump that we had been working on for over a year prior.
Whilst manual irrigation pumps were already in widespread use in Malawi, we believed that using a bicycle for mechanical work, that many villages already owned, could greatly reduce the pump cost.
The design itself and the testing process was a success, and we published useful peer-reviewed research, however setting up a self-sustained manufacturing base in Malawi was much harder than anticipated, something that future cohorts of students are working on.
Local manufacturing
Testing with stakeholders
More local manufacturing
More testing
Our quite excellent colleague and agriculture research co-ordinator Mr Msisika
Even more testing
Testing on Lake Malawi
DJ Flight-case
Laser-cut Plywood Box
Aluminium profiles for edge protection
3D-printed corner brackets
Laser-engraved and hand-coloured logo and text