RDP Garage

I designed and laid out the PCB's in Altium. PCB's and the stencil were ordered through dangerousprototypes.com (The new site for the guys at dirtypcbs.com)  The quality seems to be very good, especially given the cost.

Demo of how close together the LED's are going to be.  Required to achieve my objectives of no point sources seen in the counter top reflection.

Utilizing a modified fish tank pump and a SMD parts board, populating each PCB became much less of a chore and moved along at approximately 10 min from bare to pasted/populated and into reflow.

Here you can see the PCA in the extruded housing.  Also visible is the high/low setting resistors, dual Schottky diode, and the 0 ohm resistor, which allowed the circuit layout to be one layer.

Fun picture showing the fitment of the LED PCA into the extrusion before the diffuser is added.

Always a happy moment when you mount the first mock up and it looks great! 

Populate PCB, Install PCA into extrusions, rinse and repeat until complete. Installed all the lights under the cabinets.  Quickly realized that a bar above the sink was necessary.  Que, the next picture.

One switch is an ON-ON, changing the lights to either high or low.  The other turns the power supply on or off.

I had installed cheap under cabinet lights in this kitchen many years back.  Overtime the output dropped to a useless glow, even at night.  Clearly a good time to upgrade! Results are in the picture above and pictures below.

Utilizing a drill press vice as a bench vice.

The initial frame was not square.  Adjustment of a few tack welds and it was back to square.

Cross cut sled is being built in this picture.  Push sticks complete

There is a lot to finish still, but I had to get a mock up going for encouragement as sanding, staining, painting and final details always take forever.

Staining the top and varnishing the drawers.

Testing the first 2 drawers to confirm measurements.

In attempt to make space in the garage and organize the living room the entertainment center moved inside.  Still to be completed is the drawer fascias, center cover for the electronics and a center shelf.

In progress is the completed center cover and the unit will be complete.  Better pictures to come after completion.

Made from Red Oak, this 6-pack holder has a laser etched family name and logo on one side and a bottle opener on the other.  Other subtle design notes are the ends which resemble the shape of a bottle and the bottle holder design which allows the labels to be seen.

Additional view of the laser engraving and the bottle design for the end plate.  The strap is made from 10 oz veg tan leather with snaps.

Singer base shown after being widened, and top shelf height extenders installed.  Vertical supports are adjustable for fine tuning of counter height adjustment.   Since this picture, the Treadle has be re-installed and made functional again.  

Picture highlights the 4 machined extensions, widening the base for additional space.

Machined aluminum insert holds the clock movement in this piston/connecting rod clock.  A set screw in the piston holds the connecting rod upright while a layer of cork on the bottom protects any surface it is placed on.

Laser etching a logo onto veg tan leather.

My involvement in this item was only the laser etching of the logo but the result is too cool not to share.  These holders are made by Alan Harrington (captain.alan.harrington@gmail.com) if you are interesting in one.

Card wallet/sleeve designed to hold 3-4 normal sized ID's or credit cards. 

Using a rotary table on a CO2 laser you can easily etch wine glasses.

This inlay in done in 2 stages with a CO2 laser.  The first is getting the pattern and etching you want on the inlay. In this case Walnut veneer is used for the inlays.  The second step is getting the correct fit and cut depth in the main wood of the sign.  You can see these are a little proud, however they are not held down or secured in place. 

This walnut veneer inlay is cut and then glued into the pockets.  All cuts were done with a CO2 laser.  

My hatchet did not have a sheath.  I probably could have purchased one but I thought it would be more fun to learn how to make one.

Once the snap is opened the hatchet can be easily removed.

Clutch made from used jeans with floral patterns laser marked on both sides.

Clutch made from used jeans with floral pattern and a leather wrist strap.

Not installed yet is the 4 shelves to hold the speakers and to act as cup holders.

Made from 2x4s glued together and trimmed square.  They were then beat up and stained dark to match the desired look.

Accelerating the rust on the leg brackets to make them look older.

Checking the height and mocking up leg locations.

Without the correct sized hole saw or cutter, I cut the fish mouth in short sections, rotating the tube as I went. Not the cleanest but close enough since it will be welded anyways.

This bracket will not only keep the lower legs from wobbling, it also acts as a leg rest for the user.

Before cutting metal for the 90° bend, I mocked it up with cardboard.

Cut, taped and pretty darn close to a square 90° bend.

Flanges on the bottom shaped similar to exhaust flanges. The cross bar is cut to allow wires to pass down the pipe and below the desk surface for a clean wire free look.  Additionally, the plows down both rear legs (One stained, one not) for hiding wires, are visible.

Utilizing a piece of stretched pipe, and flat bar stock, this mount allows for easy adjustment of vertical rotation, side to side, and height.  The combination of the off the shelf and tube mount provides all the necessary degrees of freedom to adjust the monitor into the perfect viewing position.   

Brought the desk home and installed.  Note the adjusters on all the legs.  These were critical in this apt as the floor sagged about 0.75"/ft away from the walls.  All the wires are successfully hidden with the monitor mount tube and the plows in the back of the rear legs. 

Tube size was selected from the beginning to be a very close match to the bearing size of the connecting rods from a GM L36/L67 3.8L engine.   With just a piece of paper as a space they clamp tight to the pipe.  After cutting the circles and welding the wrist pins to them, they make perfect little shelves. 

A little wire adjustment on the speaker wires and this project is finished.  Used jeans not only make nice mouse pads but you can see some laser testing for a different project on that piece.  Cork was later applied to the lower shelves to prevent glasses from sliding around.

My 2000 Buick Century.

The beginning of a parts upgrade and maintenance weekend.  This included larger rear sway bar, upgraded end links, and a conversion from rear drum to rear disks. 

Removing the rear drums in favor of a rear disk setup.  The new rear caliper also includes a more modern integrated parking brake design.

This change required new rear knuckles, some adapting of the cables used to operate the parking brake and all new brake parts.  Also visible is the new and larger sway bar and end links. 

Before everything was mounted my backseat because the test platform.  Running a stripped down version of windows XP with Centrafuse as the UI for the 7" touchscreen.   This setup could play music, movies, navigation, Wi-Fi, and more!

The stock double din radio opening wasn't quite large enough to hold the 7" touch screen with the buttons accessible.  With a little bit of cutting and careful epoxy work, the touch screen bezel fit well into its new home.

Touchscreen, radio, and HVAC controls stacked in the dash.  There was still some paint, wiring, and general cleaning to be done when this picture was taken. 

Keyboard and mouse were removed after install.  Neither were needed once the setup was done. Wires were also hidden behind the carpet after this picture was taken.  Also peeking out is the 1.4cuft ported sub woofer box I made. 

My first ever etched PCB!  Laid out with paper and pencil transferred to the copper clad FR4.  Etched with muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide.  Picture is before the etching mask was washed off.

Home reflow soldering.  Treating an old skillet and the stove as a hot plate I was able to reflow solder these 3 pad Cree XR-E's

This first PCB was trimmed post soldering.  On the final bulb, the PCB was trimmed prior to assembly as my process for assembly was refined.

Left side is the incandescent festoon, right side has the LED bulb in it. 

Couldn't wait to get them installed, so the final install was on a rainy day.

This mounting method allows for vertical adjustment relative to the high beam.  The stock adjusters were utilized to adjust the reflector/projector assembly.

I needed something to hide all the guts of the install.  For this I vacuum formed some thin plastic over the projector and reflector assembly.  Since I didn't have a vacuum pump I used my vacuum cleaner and a bowl.

Trimmed shield.

In this picture you can see the 3 point mounting system.  The 2 on the center line provide stability and vertical adjustment in relation to the high beam reflector.  The 3rd point is mounted via a custom block and provides rotation adjustment.  This is used to fine tune the rotation of the projector as the headlights can sit slightly different when installed in the car.

The connector originally exited the hole in the bottom right of the picture.  This space was now used by the projector for clearance.  As a result the connector was relocated to behind the turn signal bulb.

The wide and even light provided by the projectors was a huge upgrade from the stock halogen bulbs in a reflector.

Using WS2812 LED strips combined with an arduino for really fun shoes.  

Using clear RTV to glue the LED strips to the shoes.  Being careful to leave enough unglued area to not have the strips kink at the flex point of the shoes.

In addition to the shows, we made our own shirts for the Electric Run!  The strips on the shirts were made from individual WS2812 LED's soldered onto conductive ribbon and then sewn into the shirts. 

The shirts were made from LED's soldered onto conductive ribbon.  The ribbon is composed of 3 separate conductors, 5 wire strands each, with a non conductive fill woven between them all.  This was significantly more work than using flexible LED strips, but it also flexed much better with the shirts they were mounted on.

Using silicone encased LED strips and a 14.4v battery this provided additional light to my headlight and taillight.  The green light provided a "pool" of light on the ground in addition to lighting up my legs.  The reaction of pedestrians and motorists, this proved to increase visibility at night. 

One of my early PCB projects.  Utilizing all through hole components, I did the board layout with pen and paper and then cut the top and bottom layers of copper with a Dremel.

Center high mount stop light (CHMSL) or 3rd brake light mounted into its housing and ready to be installed. 

Senior design project on developing an LED tail light retrofit kit.  This was one of a few LED PCA's I designed, etched and built.

Driver to alternate between brake light and tail light levels of brightness for the LED tail light retrofit kit. 

Utilizing pre-existing LED PCA's, optics and cover lens I put this set into an Aluminum U channel extrusion to act as an LED work light.  The other end of this light has a sealed boost puck driver connected to a 12v accessory plug.

Model was modified to have under glow, head light and tail lights.  Additionally it was modified to raise the front to give the appearance of modified suspension.

This model was made and attached to a strobe controller so that it could do the same patterns that a real police car can.

LED PCA's salvaged from another project and put into this housing to be used as stairwell lights.