I joined the aero design team at U.D. in the fall of 2017 and helped design the first version of a solar powered electric airplane for long endurance applications. Our design included a camera for surveillance applications and a data logger with an intelligent flight control system for pattern holds and other pilot hands off or autonomous functions. Our spring 2018 semester was spent building and modifying the plane until its maiden flight. Unfortunately the landing of the maiden flight damaged the wing more significantly than we realized and the wing failed under typical loading during the competition flight. Load testing before each flight and spare wings will have to be used in the future to prevent this type of error from reoccurring. Below are some images and videos of the plane and its flights.
Category: Engineering
The process of designing and building things.
Lights and Sounds
Drummer for Son Lux
The Silicon Valley of China.
A glimpse into the hardware giant that is the city of Shenzhen and how it came to be.
Quadcopter (will update as I go)
Recently I have become interested in flight/aerodynamics and while my schooling is oriented in mechanical design, it doesn’t really delve into this realm of knowledge or design of aerodynamics, unless I Continue reading
Competition Is Not About Secrets
On June 12th of this year, Elon Musk released a statement from Tesla Motors explaining that they will not pursue lawsuits against anyone, who in good faith, want to use any of their patents. This company is flipping the Continue reading
Science and Art
This is a really interesting perspective on art and science. For me, it has opened up a new spectrum of thought on the two fields.
Gregg Stock – Strymon
Interview: Strymon Co-Founder Gregg Stock
Gregg Stock is the Senior Analog Engineer and Co-Founder of a company that makes digital effects units for guitar and general music use. This interview, done by Daft Paragon, is a pretty cool insight into some of how he approaches the discussion of analog vs. digital audio processing in the music world and obviously in the design world. These types of people are incredibly motivating to me because as a musician and electronics tinkerer, I some times get caught up in these paradoxes that revolve around what “should be” and I end up losing sight of what “can be” with my projects. The truth is, if Gregg Stock thinks that digital will soon be harder and harder to distinguish from analog, then ignoring coding and DSP processing projects is probably a bad call.
Inspiring
Some of the things brought about by our advances toward space research and exploration using science and technology to the best abilities we know how… Continue reading
CNC Machines Part 1
One of my previous jobs was to program and run files on a pair of CNC machines. These machines were pretty cool, they would take a little bit of time to setup but they were amazing tools to get to use. I was part of a program at my college that produces guitar kits. These kits consist of all the materials to build a guitar, including the pre-cut body neck and hardware. You can check it out at guitarbuilding.org. My job was to design procedures and software to produce the body’s and necks of our existing and new guitar styles. At first we only had a small CNC machine made by the company ShopBot. Continue reading
TV Stand
I built a stand for my TV. For cheap. (Bad Pics)
So a couple of months ago when I moved into my new apartment I bought a huge TV for really cheap. Its a 60″ and it literally weighs 90 pounds. It didn’t come with a stand… Most TV stands that are designed to accommodate such a mass are pretty expensive, especially the ones that look good enough to be worth buying. I opted to build my own based off of an idea I had to make my own mount for the TV as well. What I came up with was a credenza of plywood and galvanized piping that does a pretty good job of holding my TV in place. Continue reading
Elon Musk
One day I want to work for this guy. He is pretty much this generations Thomas Jefferson.
Steam
My Other Job
I made it so that our big CNC router at work could bolt mount pieces of wood for production. Check it!
MICHAEL MONGIN 