Looks cool, but if you want people to judge your project on its merit, then don't post information about your age; it will make honest feedback difficult both for you and the sender.<p>PS: anyone who can keep their focus on a project for more than a few weeks and complete it can become a fine engineer so don't worry about that.
It's cool that OP is enthused by engineering, it's a cool little thing they made, and it's great that the next generation of mechanical engineers are starting out seeing software as a tool in their armoury. Those are the merits I can see here, and in my judgement they're all awesome.
I feel the age here helps I’ve context for the feedback. like you aren’t going to recommend they go get a 5k worth piece of machinery or say this is absolutely amateur and is a simple concept and doesn’t deserve discussion
I think you can drop the wannabe label. Of course you have a long way to go and much to learn but I think you are already an engineer, just one at the very start of what might be a great career.
agree. Do you engineer software? Congrats, you're officially a software engineer :)<p>Start doing it for money, and you're officially a <i>professional</i> software engineer.<p>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 <i>good</i> software engineer ^_^
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I'm Canadian as well and type this while wearing my ring, but I've come to accept that Americans use the term differently from Canadians and that's just fine. The Canadian definition is directly downstream of the Quebec bridge collapse, it's a pretty neat bit of Canadiana.<p>Just like writing favorite instead of favourite, while I'm here, I think the right thing to do is respect the customs of the country which welcomed me. It would be very ignorant of me to pretend I'm more of an engineer than my American colleagues with CS degrees.
Of course you can call yourself an engineer without formal training in the US.
<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/man-fined-dollar500-for-crime-of-writing-i-am-an-engineer-in-an-email-to-the-government/" rel="nofollow">https://www.vice.com/en/article/man-fined-dollar500-for-crim...</a>
<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/oregon-unconstitutionally-fined-a-man-dollar500-for-saying-i-am-an-engineer-federal-judge-rules/" rel="nofollow">https://www.vice.com/en/article/oregon-unconstitutionally-fi...</a>
I don't get the down voting. This dude is correct. An "engineer" is typical like a "doctor".
Yes I also carry the "system engineer" with me, and yes I have university background, but it's far far away from any serious engineering what's usually done by computer people.
I would also argue that an engineer more or less knows what he's doing and can predict the outcome. Most people I observe while they use a computer it's literally a monkey beating metal with flesh....
Note to the OP: Mechanical engineering textbooks that are two editions out of date are dirt cheap. If you can't afford them, email me and I'll send some.
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?
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.
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.
Cool!
you're not a wannabe! you're an engineer! you made something awesome. wishing you the best :).
Nice! Can it output SVG files for cutting w/ a CNC?
Don’t listen to people telling you not to post your age on the internet. This is solid work and you did this instead of being stuck in one of the hundreds of +1 dopamine traps in Roblox or yelling at other (often times much younger) kids in Fortnite like many of your peers did.<p>You did something meaningful, you even waited to share it with the world until version three, and you learned a ton doing it. Well done, dude!
You’ll certainly enjoy the “Not an Engineer” channel: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJJkZm796I" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJJkZm796I</a>
Nice.<p>I'm an over-40 year old wannabe engineer too, except I didn't get as far as you on my little pet project: designing a 'universal' gear, based on professor Jack Phillips' work "General Spatial Involute Gearing." So far I can model the basic helicoids in Siemens NX, such that they touch along the ISA (Intermediate Screw Axis) which passes through the CDL (Center Distance Line) in between the gear axes. I have no clue how to proceed from there with actual involute teeth.<p>My idea is to at some point write an NX Open script/module, which takes in various parameters (like selecting the shaft/axes vectors; inputs ratio, pitch, etc.) and spits out something structured like my model.
You are on track ! at the age of 15 you building fantastic, just one word, "Keep Moving Sky is not the limit anymore"
Congrats! You are not a wannabe engineer, you are an engineer.<p>If you have the motivation to chase your passion to build these machines, you are already an engineer. Keep going!
Hey, you should join Hack Club! I was just at an event where a high schooler designed and built a continuous variable transmission (<a href="https://outpost.hackclub.com" rel="nofollow">https://outpost.hackclub.com</a>).<p>You’ll meet a ton of interesting, friendly teens who are all helping each other build awesome projects.<p>Cool project!<p>(Hack Club is a nonprofit and I’m the founder of it)
try making something without AI too, it will be valuable
AI will be required to maintain the piles of tech crap we've built and that society now stands on. New generations are no longer as tech savvy, pushed toward being simple users and consumers. The rare individuals that develop curiosity for how things work have their work cutout and will need all the tools they can get to dig their way through layers of undocumented, organically grown software and hardware cruft left by "engineers" of lore.
What is it?
I built this because I wanted a better way to use multiple AI models during development...
I didn't even know what a cycloidal gearbox was! Good work—you've kicked off an exciting career.
wannabe? there isn't a guild, or a test, its a choice.
you're an engineer by doing, whereas wannabes don't! very cool project
Seriously impressive, you should be proud of yourself! As another (software) engineer your age, being able to be creative is always a thing to be happy about.
Nice work! Great to see you’re having fun with the projects. As we get older we focus on being productive. Never lose the creativity!
it is pretty cool, but posting your age + an (likely) AI project on hacker news is probably a bad idea.
Great project! Keep pushing, do not pay attention to anyone saying that AI will replace all software engineers.
Nice work!
You are a very talented 15 year old engineer. Not a wannabe. Just getting a head start on the imposter syndrome!<p>Welcome to the club
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There is a lack of project justification documents, need a CAPEX proposal and what is the expected ROI? /s<p>In a serious note, looks good and don't let the paperwork keep you down!
Don't post your age on the internet :)<p>Project looks cool
Brothers think alike ;)<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17871313">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17871313</a>
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.
Why not?
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cycloidal designs are a great thing to have actually built rather than just read about. the eccentric motion is easy to follow on paper and then surprisingly fiddly once real tolerances show up.<p>two things worth measuring if you have not: backlash, and how much it changes after a few hundred cycles. cycloidal drives are usually sold on low backlash, so knowing your real number turns this from a nice print into something you can quote a spec for. if you have a way to load the output shaft, efficiency under load is the other number people will ask about.
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