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Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

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Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#111

Post by Izmaki »

smalltalk7 wrote: post #27
morelikeborelax wrote: post #4

Don't post your age on the internet :) Project looks cool

This is a technical forum. One of the best traditions in engineering has always been taking beginners seriously and helping people who are trying to learn. Most of us are here because someone did the same for us. You come from a good place but I don't see why say a tech forum is a place you need to hide.

100% this. My favourite new colleague is an intern. Why? Because watching them grow just like I once did is worth every penny.

(Ps: yes, I'd rather have two passionate, eager interns under my wings than one burnt-out senior by my side.)

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#112

Post by mlyle »

WithinReason wrote: post #63
tomilan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It acts like a gearbox, allowing you to sacrifice rotational speed for higher torque output. What makes this gearbox type special is their low backlash, multiple points of contact, and high efficiency.

Might be worth adding that info to the README

:D Kids can do amazing things.

Adult engineers are already pretty bad at knowing with other people know and what's worth saying. This is the one area where students are markedly worse; "if I know it, everyone else must." Or just figuring out the important bit to explain.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#114

Post by cubano »

Anytime you can turn a deep personal interest, like designing and building this impressive gearbox, into something that lands you a paid gig somewhere, you have basically hacked the typical employment system and you should be happy and proud that you saved all the time and expense of a 4 year degree to get what you wanted in the first place.

Now, it remains to be seen if this project will land you a professional level paid job doing what you seem to love to do, so I think the whole "engineer" question is still up in the air.

Yes, anyone can call themselves an engineer but I believe, in the West at least, that until you graduate from an accredited University or have 3-4 solid professional industry experience, calling yourself an engineer might be considered premature.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#115

Post by fuzzfactor »

cosmotron wrote: post #12
two_handfuls wrote: post #11

What is it? Is this like a gear, where the output shaft turns at some fraction of the input shaft? Is better or worse than traditional toothed gears in some way?

They're pretty cool. They can be good in situations where you don't want any backlash and lots of torque. I believe they're very popular as actuators in robotics.

The cycloid you may not know you already have could often be found mounted under the chassis of vans and pickup trucks to compactly turn the takeup reel for the cable that lowers and raises the spare tire stowed underneath the vehicle.

The reel holds fast its position naturally when the cable is at any length, and allows a heavy truck tire to be lifted manually using the light-duty hand crank.

Notice in the Github animation that the visible rotor has nine lobes and the stator has 10 stations, this can be confirmed if you take a screenshot.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#116

Post by tomilan »

WithinReason wrote: post #63
tomilan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It acts like a gearbox, allowing you to sacrifice rotational speed for higher torque output. What makes this gearbox type special is their low backlash, multiple points of contact, and high efficiency.

Might be worth adding that info to the README

Its been added!

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#117

Post by varispeed »

cubano wrote: post #114

Anytime you can turn a deep personal interest, like designing and building this impressive gearbox, into something that lands you a paid gig somewhere, you have basically hacked the typical employment system and you should be happy and proud that you saved all the time and expense of a 4 year degree to get what you wanted in the first place. Now, it remains to be seen if this project will land you a professional leve…

[flagged]

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#118

Post by Projectiboga »

Rafert wrote: post #79
achenet wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agree. Do you engineer software? Congrats, you're officially a software engineer :) Start doing it for money, and you're officially a professional software engineer. Make software that genuinely improves peoples lives (like the Linux kernel currently running the computer I'm typing these words on), and you can call yourself a good software engineer ^_^

There are places (eg Canada) where engineer is a protected title like lawyer or doctor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_en...

"15 Year Old Wannabe" clearly differentiates him from any credentialed engineer.
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