Ferrari 458 Slot Car Light Upgrade

I recently bought a 1:32 scale Ferrari 458 slot car to run on my slot car track. It is a Carrera Evolution analog car. Unlike the 132 Digital version, this car does not come with LED front or rear lights. I thought it would be a fun project to buy an aftermarket light kit and install some myself. After a lot of surgery, I must say this was a complete waste of time and I would not recommend anyone do this ever. The analog cars are decent quality for the price, but they are not “tuner” friendly. The wires are very delicate and the plastic screw holes that hold the body to the chassis are not meant for repeat tightening. However, if you do choose to take this road, here is how I managed to squeeze all of this together.

lights

 

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Past Work: Large-Scale Mirror Actuation

When I was an undergrad at Georgia Tech, I worked on a research project for a year. I worked part of the time while still in school and continued after I graduated. I didn’t really have a senior design project and most undergrads didn’t do actual “research”. So, I felt pretty lucky to be involved in a real research project, especially given the level of my involvement. I worked with Dr. Harvey Lipkin and his grad student Russell Marzette Jr. Russell and Dr. Lipkin had developed a new way to actuate (bend and position) really large telescope mirrors and it was my job to develop software to model and test this technique. I wrote some MATLAB and ANSYS code to automate all of my tests. What was really cool (and unknown to me prior) was that I could use ANSYS from the command line and write scripts which match a normal GUI work flow in the 3D environment. I could create structures, apply loads, mesh structures, and run simulations all from scripts. This allowed me to create a MATLAB GUI to set parameters (or sets of parameters), create and execute custom ANSYS scripts, and format ANSYS-generated image and text results. I could set a span of parameters and run an entire batch of ANSYS simulations back-to-back. Continue reading “Past Work: Large-Scale Mirror Actuation”

Slot Car Track Layout Editor

When I was a kid I was gifted a vintage slot car track. Its was an early 70’s Riggen brand 1/32 scale set : two cars, two controllers, and a decent amount of track. I still have it and I occasionally pull it out and play with it. Last weekend the weather was pretty nasty outside so I decided to have some fun with it. I thought it would be cool to make a little MATLAB app that would let me create and edit track layouts before I put everything together.

riggen pro-am

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Seedling Grow Light

I really enjoy cooking with fresh herbs or making the occasional side salad. However, I hate going to the grocery store and buying a huge container of field greens or basil, only to have half of it rot in the refrigerator before I get to eat it. I thought a much better solution would be to grow my own herbs and greens and then pick them as I need them. This way I would always have the very freshest ingredients, without any waste or extra trips to the grocery store.

shelf grow setup Continue reading “Seedling Grow Light”