Frequent Questions
722 questions
6
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2
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How can I calculate the power and torque required for the motor on a wheeled robot/vehicle?
How can I calculate the power and torque required for the motor on a wheeled robot or vehicle if a particular acceleration or movement up an incline is required?
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15
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3
answers
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Can I use a ultrasound sensor to measure water level?
If I use an ultrasonic sensor will it detect the water level?
I was thinking about a product to read water level on water boxes (common in Brazil). I researched about instrumentation for this ...
0
votes
1
answer
505
views
Engineering Drawing-Projection of intersection curve of two standing cones
I have this projection of two intersecting cones, and I am asked to draw the intersection curve of the two cones on the projection. What is the right way to do it?
26
votes
3
answers
122k
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Calculating pitch, yaw, and roll from mag, acc, and gyro data
I have an Arduino board with a 9 degree of freedom sensor, from which I must determine the pitch, yaw, and roll of the board.
Here is an example of one set of data from the 9-DOF sensor:
...
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22
votes
4
answers
5k
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How does turning off electric appliances save energy
We all know if we use less electricity we save energy.
But the energy we're getting is result of burning (not necessarily the literal meaning) the fuel. Even if we don't use that energy that fuel is ...
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21
votes
3
answers
39k
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How does width and thickness affect the stiffness of steel plate?
I have a 2 mm thick steel plate which is 300 mm long and 30 mm wide, supported at either end. It supports a weight-bearing wheel that can roll along the plate. It currently supports the maximum weight ...
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2
votes
2
answers
526
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Cooling Hot Nitrogen with an aluminum block
I'm designing a cooling system to cool nitrogen gas stream at 300°C with a mass flow rate of 15.6 g/s moving through an undulating channel in a cylindrical aluminum ring block with external fins. How ...
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38
votes
2
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20k
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What is the purpose of these diversions in a natural gas line?
The campus where I work has a long covered walkway (~.5 mile) which has several labeled pipes running under the roof (chilled water, fuel oil, air...). All of the pipes run dead straight except for ...
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26
votes
1
answer
92k
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Understanding required torque for a motor lifting a weight
This is a continuation of me trying to understand torque and stepper motors in my other question. I'm trying to understand the torque a motor would be required to generate to lift a small weight, and ...
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20
votes
7
answers
62k
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Effective ways to drive a single shaft with multiple motors?
To head off the "why not use a bigger motor" question, I'm a high school mentor for an FTC (First Tech Challenge) robotics team, with a bit of a soft mechanical / hardware background. They're ...
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19
votes
4
answers
6k
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How should I position two shelf supports for the best distribution of load?
I'd like to mount a shelf on the wall. I have two shelf supports to do so, like this:
Relative to the shelf, where do I place the (blue) supports to achieve the best distribution of load?
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12
votes
3
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Thermoelectric Technology to Harvest Energy from Internal Combustions Engines
Background:
In an automobile, only 1/3 of the potential energy in the fuel is converted into mechanical energy and significant portion of the energy is lost as heat.
There have been previous ...
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10
votes
3
answers
2k
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Harvesting thermoelectric energy from computer graphics cards
During CES2015 a well know Graphic Processor Unit (GPU) manufacturer introduced a new GPU. These GPUs need complex thermal management to keep the processor cool. Most GPU accelerator card ...
- 7,145
9
votes
1
answer
10k
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Involute gear curve when root diameter falls below base diameter
The answer to a question on involute gear curve calculations shows how the gear tooth curve proceeds as an involute calculation from the base diameter.
If the pitch diameter is D = m.N where N is the ...
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7
votes
3
answers
12k
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What is Radial and Thickness Mode Vibration in a Piezo Electric Ceramic Disc Transducer?
I am trying to use a Piezo Electric Ceramic Disc Transducer for ultrasonic sensing measurements for fluid levels. A Piezo Ceramic Disc with a Resonant frequency of 215 KHz or 1 MHz is under ...
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