Where young engineers ship together.
Not just code. Electronics, robotics, mechanics, and programming — one moderated feed for what the cohort builds this week.
Line follower v3 — finally smooth
Tuned PID kp from 0.6 → 0.4 and the wobble disappeared. Logged the run with sensor traces.
First custom PCB — solder log + reflow notes
Designed a 4-layer driver board for the Vecta motors. Reflow oven at 230°C, no shorts on the test rig. Photos attached.
Red cup classifier — Python + lightweight CNN
Trained on 40 photos. Works in mixed light, struggles at dusk. Next: data augmentation + brightness jitter.
3D-printed gripper, take 4 — 65% lighter
Switched to PETG with infill 35%. Compliant fingers print without supports now. STL in the share folder.
Sensor fusion sandbox — IR + ultrasonic
Combined IR + ultrasonic. Got false positives down by ~70% with a simple weighted average. Open to peer review.
Maze runner — wall-following with two ToF
Wall-follow finally stable around inside corners. Recorded a 12s run on the lab maze.
Refactor: state machine for the arena bot
Moved from spaghetti if/else to a clean SEARCH → APPROACH → GRAB → DELIVER state machine. Easier to debug.
Custom chassis — CAD + laser-cut acrylic
First Fusion 360 part. Rebuilt the Vecta chassis to fit a bigger battery. Cut on the lab laser at NYA.
This week's disciplines
- Electronics2 posts
- Robotics2 posts
- Mechanics2 posts
- Programming2 posts
Snippets & schematics
while running:
l, r = sensors.read()
error = l - r
motors.drive(BASE - kp*error,
BASE + kp*error)VBAT ──┬─► VM (TB6612)
│
GND ───┴─► PGND, SGND
PWM ──────► PWMA, PWMB
DIR ──────► AIN1/2, BIN1/2Cohort leaderboard
- 1. Mei1820 XP
- 2. Devon1640 XP
- 3. Liam1490 XP
- 4. Aria1450 XP
Showcase ribbons
Approved projects from any discipline appear on the public showcase. Mentors curate weekly.