Mechatronic TipsEditor, Steve Meyer
Steve Meyer covers the world of mechatronics, design, renewable energy, robotics, automation, motion, sensors and featured commentary.
Steve Meyer covers the world of mechatronics, design, renewable energy, robotics, automation, motion, sensors and featured commentary.
Starting and Stopping – Part 2
Sunday, May 12, 2013
It seems trite to say that Newton’s basic laws of motion still haven’t changed. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, except when it hits something…
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Starting and Stopping
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Cars guys will sometimes say that the worst thing you can do is start your car. This is because after sitting still for any length of time, at…
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Additive Manufacturing in the Real World
Sunday, April 28, 2013
There is no doubt that additive processing will dramatically change the future of manufacturing. If you consider the original stereo lithography polymer proces, 3D printing, one example of…
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Mechanics of Control
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Just as mechanical definitions are critical in motion control systems, mechanical definitions have an incredibly important role to play in control systems as well. I was reminded of…
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Cars and Reliability – Part 2
Sunday, April 14, 2013
One aspect of reliability is simplicity. Simple mathematics. If there are fewer parts, there are fewer things to go wrong. Yet the internal combustion engine, not to mention…
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Cars and Reliability
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Today’s cars are extremely complex assemblies of all kinds of mechatronic systems. Toyota says their average car contains about 30,000 parts if you include all the screws and…
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What’s Next for Machine Controllers
Sunday, March 24, 2013
In the world of Industrial Controls, the traditional platform has been the PLC. This control was initially the by-product of decades of hard wired automation based on relay…
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Consumer Electronics and Industrial Control – Part 2
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Maybe the real answer is volume. Comparing the size of the consumer electronics market to the industrial controls market including motion control there is still a huge disparity….
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Electric Racing
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Lots of email this week about electric car and motorcycle speed records. My apologies to the many who corrected my errors, I was probably looking at old information….
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Keeping it Simple
Monday, February 25, 2013
The KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. Hopefully they still teach this in engineering school. It is the essence of good design. Reducing the complex to the most…
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