During my study abroad at University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland, I decided that I wanted to decorate the common room of my apartment with individually adressable RGB strips. Since I didn't have much resources, this was controlled simply by an arduino uno and a single button that I used to cycle between different modes that I programmed onto the arduino.

After settling in to Northeastern's Boston campus, I made some upgrades to my RGB strip setup. I added more buttons to my controller, connected an LCD screen, and connected a joystick. Instead of just cycling through different modes using a single button, I used multiple buttons and the LCD screen to display a small menu for the user to be able to select a given mode. I also used the joystick to allow the user to control the brightness, hue, and color saturation of the RGB lights. To supply more current to the RGB strip, and in preperation for the addition of more LEDs, I connected everything to a 300w power supply. (the joystick and power supply and not shown in this photo)

Returning home for spring break, I had access to my family's 3d printer, which I took advantage of, printing a to hold new buttons and 4 linear potentiometers. I included mounting holes to mount the box either underneath a table, or on top of a table. To connect the two sections together, I used flaps that would click into place when connected. This worked well initially, but I accidentally broke 2 of them off because the PLA was too brittle for the application.

Going to Northeastern, I realized that it would be good for me to have a case to store my mouse in, since I would likely be spending a lot of time studying in the library, and would need to bring things to and from my dorm room. So, I designed a spring loaded box to store my mouse inside. In the design, there are lofted cuts that allow the shaft to bend when rotating. This means that there are two stable equilibrium positions for the lid, open and closed.

This is an up-close screenshot of the hidge from the side, with hidden lines showing the lofted cuts around the hole.

After assembling it, I realized that the bending force of the shaft is not enough to keep the lid sufficiently shut, so I 3d printed mounts for magnets that I glued to the inside of the box. If I were to print this box or something similar in the future, I would include the mounts for the magnets in the box part in the first place.

This was a project in which I installed 12v RGB lights in my family's kitchen. The lights that were previously installed in the kitchen were underpowered, and also were not placed in all the places underneath the cabinets. In this project, I did a lot of soldering work, and set up power transformers to supply power for the RGB controllers. For power, I removed the previously installed lights and used the power cables for the 12v transformers. This way, power to all the RGB lights would be controlled through the old light switch.

The shower handle in my bathroom had fallen off, leaving just a spline shaft. To fix this, I first taped an old pair of pliers to be able to turn the shaft, but realized that this was not an elegant or good solution, since the spline teeth were slowly getting stripped by the pliers. To solve this, I 3d printed a shower handle, which used a champing shaft collar to clamp over the spline shaft. This solution is not intended to be permanent, but works well as a stop-gap solution.

Seeing how expensive settlers of Catan sets are, I decided to 3d print my own. While it turns out that the time and material spent printing it has a similar cost to just purchasing the set, this was a good learning experience for me. The CAD models were taken from thingiverse, and printed with PLA on a Creality Ender 3 V2. Inside, magnets are placed so the pieces snap into place together.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1238980

After getting my 36in Kris Holm unicycle, I quickly designed and created an aluminum pannier rack that also included a fender and handlebars. I moved the brake handle from the standard position underneath the seat to handlebars where it could be more easily reached. To create the fenders, first cut out a curved piece of plywood to serve as a guide, then hammered the aluminum sheet into shape with a mallet. It is attached to the upper frame using 4 10-32 bolts, and then to the lower frame through 2 rods, which are then attached first using tape to prevent scratching, and then with hose clamps. The main pannier frame is made with 1 1/4" aluminum slip on framing, and connected to the unicycle seat post with a set screw cross through hole connector. While this first iteration works well, it is very difficult to disassemble which would hinder transportation and maintenece. For the next iteration, I plan to use 3d printed parts to mount the fender support rods in a way that would allow it to be detached quickly.