Sskki

Taguchi Array Generator

Most scientific experiments are designed to test the effect of changing a single independent variable on a single or multiple dependent variables. However, sometimes the effect of simultaneously changing multiple interdependent input variables is required and this is called multivariate experimental design. For example, maybe doubling the amount of one chemical doubles the yield of a reaction but adding a catalyst makes doubling that one chemical triple the yield instead. Multivariate Experiments Instead of a list of every possible combination of variable settings, a Taguchi array (also called orthogonal array) can be used to create a minimal list of experiments…
Lightning McQueen Car Keys

One day, I noticed that my car key had a crack on the bottom and I got the idea to rehouse the internals in a custom 3D printed enclosure. I thought it’d be funny to have car keys in the shape of a car and when I came across a little Lightning McQueen Hotwheels at the supermarket, and confirmed it was about the right size, I knew what I had to do. KA-CHOW Disassembly of the car key was pretty simple. Most small pieces of electronics these days are housed in snap fit enclosures, and sometimes screws. Mine had no…
Air Raid Siren Alarm Clock

I used to have a problem trying to wake up to my alarms so I tried to think of something that no one could sleep through. How about an air raid siren? The Alarm Clock On Aliexpress, I found a small 12V air raid siren which upon second viewing, is probably intended for cars but for what purpose I don’t know. Regardless, I found that the iconic British WWII Blitz airstrike warning signal uses a 2-tone sound created using sirens in pairs. So I bought 2. I designed very minimal additional 3D printed pieces to house the equally minimal electronics…
Australian Health Star Rating Calculator

The Australian Health Star Rating system is a government initiative to label foods with 0.5 to 5 stars to indicate how healthy they are. The calculation is very convoluted so I created a web app to calculate it from nutritional information. As each section of the form is filled out, it also shows the relevant section of the official guide so you can fully understand the calculation process as well as clarify some definitions. The Health Star Rating calculation is broken down into 7 steps: I’ve tested this on a couple of foods including ones that had surprising ratings and…
3D Printed Glasses

Back in 2022, I went out drinking with my partner at the time, waiting for the New Years fireworks. That day I had worn a brand new pair of glasses I’d gotten a few weeks prior. We had a lot of fun but had a bit too much so we decided to go home early but at some point during the evening I had removed my glasses without noticing. After searching the beach, my partner regretfully handed me a broken pair of glasses. An arm had snapped off behind the hinge but the lenses were completely pristine. Being the engineering…
Bluetooth Nunchuk Mouse

The hierarchy of laptop pointing devices puts external mice above touchpads but perhaps a joystick belongs on a tier even above that. I often find myself in situations where I have just enough space for a laptop but not enough for a mouse, so I decided to make myself a Bluetooth joystick mouse. Part Selection The Wii Nunchuk was the perfect base which I could use for the project. Genuine Nintendo Nunchuk’s contain an analog joystick, accelerometer and 2 buttons. Even more conveniently, it uses I2C communication with the Wiimote which can very easily be tapped into. While it was…
Anime Subtitle Generator

Space Dandy (not Da Nde) is an anime about a dandy guy in space. Upon revisiting one of my favourite shows of all time, I was excited to learn that there were a series bonus episodes I’ve yet to watch. I was less excited to learn that there were no English subtitles for it anywhere on the internet. So I got to work. Code Explanation The python script I wrote can be broken up into 5 steps: Most tutorials for machine transcription and translation use online services such as Google’s APIs. I loathe online subscription services. Instead, I found some…
Wiimote Control Car

Mario Kart is THE party game to play when you have friends over and Mario Kart Wii is THE definitive Mario Kart Experience*. While I’ll concede that no one who plays competitively will ever use motion controls (and neither do I anymore), the intuitive skeuomorphic controls of the Wiimote makes the game accessible to even the most lives-under-a-rock non-gamers. That got me thinking, why aren’t there RC cars that use tilt to steer? *I’ll also admit that the Wii version is incredibly unbalanced but the courses they introduced are absolutely iconic and beautiful. I’m talking Mushroom Gorge, Toad’s Factory, Coconut…
TV Remote Control Robot

My little brother had a little robot toy that was controlled with a wired remote which I was really annoyed by. What’s the point of a tethered walking toy? When he was gonna throw it out, I wanted to modify it to be remote control and thought it’d be interesting to use a TV remote. Beep Boop TV remotes use infrared (IR) light to communicate. The remote has an LED that flashes IR light on and off in a binary sequence (an IR code) that can be detected by an IR sensor and translated in the TV. My robot needed…