Hey everyone, remember me?
It's been quite a while! Last post with March 30th, and I probably didn't visit since early April
. I just went through about 500 of the most recent threads here (selectively of course) and some others of importance as well.
My excuse for such a delayed visit: last school year I joined the rowing team at UCI, so everyday from 6am-8am I was occupied with practice. Our season started in March so I was busy with races also. Then in April I got an internship at a small engineering company.
This company basically picked me from the start, because of what I had on my resume. And guess what that was... BRUSHLESS
. Many of this companies current projects revolve around brushless motors and controllers, sensored and sensorless. Since I have had a good amount of experience with brushless applications and am a mechanical engineering student (senior now at UCI
) I guess I was a natural choice for them. So I've been working there since April, on quite a few different projects.
One of the more recent projects is a concept which the company has never dealt with before - precise autonomous motion control using geared brushless motors (essentially creating a servo system). This is pretty much MY project - I spent countless hours on research and came up with a proposal (with the Chief Engineer's help) for a scaled-down prototype version. In the end my estimated budget came to $10,000, quite a bit of money for an intern at my pay level. And guess what? the president of the company accepted my proposal and wants to move ahead with the project
So, RC has definitely been on the back burner... But I still work 12 hours/week at the LHS, been there over 4 years now. Thing is, since the end of January I have a new toy/DD to play with:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...811101651a.jpg
Basically all of my money goes to her ("Tricia"). If anyone here has owned an Audi, you might understand
. Here's what I've got:
1998.5 Audi A4 1.8T FWD 5-speed (no real need for QUATTRO in SoCal IMO)
Just hit 120K a week ago
Chipped with GIAC (pushing about 16psi now, ~195HP and 200ft.-lbs)
19x8 wheels with 235/35/19 Falken FK452 tires ($400/2 tires!)
Larger front brake rotors
Lowered on Eibach springs
Custom installed aftermarket projectors into headlights for impressive night-time visibility
Short shifter
Magnaflow 14815 muffler - came with no resonator and a loud/not-so-good-sounding muffler, now it sounds excellent
Etc.
Then there's my social life, which pretty much exploded this past year, whether for better or for worse. Not to mention I turned 21 back in April...
Free time isn't nearly as much of an abundance as it used to be. A couple months back I did finish my HV Savage project though, to a point where I might finally be satisfied with it
How's everyone else doing?