Weekly Progress Fab Academy 2019

Principles and Practices

◾ Plan and sketch a potential final project.

Project Management

◾ Work through a git tutorial.

◾ Build a personal site in the class archive.

Computer-Aided Design

◾ Model (raster, vector, 2D, 3D, render, animate, simulate, ...) a possible final project.

Computer-Controlled Cutting

◾ Characterize your lasercutter, making test part(s) that vary cutting settings and dimensions.

◾ Cut something on the vinylcutter.

◾ Design, lasercut, and document a parametric press-fit construction kit, accounting for the lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways.

Electronics Production

◾ Characterize the design rules for your PCB production process.

◾ Make an in-circuit programmer by milling the PCB, program it.

3D Scanning and Printing

◾ Test the design rules for your 3D printer(s).

◾ Design and 3D print an object (small, few cm3, limited by printer time) that could not be made subtractively.

◾ 3D scan an object (and optionally print it).

Electronics Design

◾ Use the test equipment in your lab to observe the operation of a microcontroller circuit board.

◾ Redraw the echo hello-world board.

◾ Add (at least) a button and LED (with current-limiting resistor).

◾ (Extra Credit) Simulate its operation.

Computer-Controlled Machining

◾ Test runout, alignment, speeds, feeds, and toolpaths for your machine.

◾ Make something big.

Embedded Programming

◾ Read a microcontroller data sheet.

◾ Program your board to do something, with as many different programming languages and programming environments as possible.

◾ Compare the performance and development workflows for other architectures.

Molding and Casting

◾ Review the safety data sheets for each of your molding and casting materials, then make and compare test casts with each of them.

◾ Design a mold around the stock and tooling that you'll be using, mill it (rough cut + (at least) three-axis finish cut), and use it to cast parts.

Input Devices

Contents will be updated.

Output Devices

Contents will be updated.

Applications and Implications

Contents will be updated.

Networking and Communications

Contents will be updated.

Mechanical Design

Contents will be updated.

Interface and Application Programming

Contents will be updated.

Machine Design

Contents will be updated.

Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income

Contents will be updated.

Project Developments

Contents will be updated.

Project Presentations

Contents will be updated.