Porsche Wind Deflector with Edge Lighting [from CAD, prototyping to finish]

[Nine8Six]

Just a quick update...

Managed to get some prototype parts done Friday late eve. Projector kits for friends here has priority atm so once the machine is avail, those sexy blades rolls I promise.

Apologies for the slow development :/

[Nine8Six]

You'd think CNC means "press the button" and you go pick up your shinny part at the other end when finished! Yea... it is the case occasionally! But very often (99% of the time lol) you have to machine your part using multiple operations. Some may also require you to design and machine custom fixtures completely from scratch. Fixtures are hard to make and in most cases... it's artwork at its best.

In the case of this simple 2D part, we only have the front and back to machine so the fixture is pretty elementary. But still, it takes a few hours :/ Those fixtures (some call them jigs) needs to be precision built & assembled if you want the tolerance to live up to your designs. That particular fixture & part tolerance's are both +/- 0.1mm (human hair?)



^ This is the fixture I've made to machine the back side of the blade. The part's profile was machined into the fixture at the exact same dimension as the top of the part. All you need to do is insert the part in that profile and squeeze it in there! That circular bore hole on top is where I set the machine reference relative to the part (digital probe finds the true center and pick up from there).




^ Those stainless steel hex screw is what secure (squeeze) the part in the fixture. Just needs a girly amount of clamping force for that part to stay snug and tight in there.




^ real life view of the fixture. No finishing, ruff on the outside but highly precise in the inside Adv manufacturing lol


All left to do is the CAM work and GCODE coding for the bottom fact of the part. This is actually done from the CAD software directly with the part inside the fixture model. Once done... output that gcode to your controller, ref to the circular bore, and let it shred metal for 3.7min!












^ And you get this. High quality 100% aluminum machined part up to 0.1mm precision (the blade I mean, not the Chinese coca cola tin can!)

Doing projectors all of this weekend but I'll have time during the evenings of this coming week to anodize a few of those. I'll be starting work on the laser at about the same time so I'll update then!

Super LEDs for Porsche cars coming soon, stay tuned lol

[JayG]

thats a lot of f-in work!

[Nine8Six]

Relaxing tho... you have no idea

1. CAM work 1~1.5hrs
2. Fixture design 30min (I did over a hundred of those... that was an easy one mate)
3. Fixture metal cutting & assembly 3~4hrs
4. Cutting parts (blades) 10~12min each for both sides

^ At my rate, I would have been able to afford 3x of those Japanese LED illuminated wind deflectors by now. Tech, LEDs and materials is additional to above; in all about 15~20hrs of R&D (personal time, hobby-pace)

Those flowers better be shining LOL


edit: if I may add, this is in the "0.1mm" precision/tolerance only. Possibly the easiest (imo) on the engineering & machining scale. You can multiply the time it takes for the same part by 10X for tolerance in the 0.01mm and below ranges (now that IS expansive! e.g. military, aerospace, etc)

[78F350]

As an (almost) old man, I generally don't like a lot of LED & plastic add-ons. I took a lot of 'rice' off of some Hondas I restored. I like clean lines and classic looks. I'm definitely going to want one of these though. Its a good upgrade from the original. Well done.

[Nine8Six]

Hang on there, we'll give it our best shot

Not appearing rice with oversized Porsche badges and stupid bright LEDs is the "real" challenge on this one I tell ya. Just hope those mini LEDs will do just fine... kinda you have to look at it to see it. Barely visible but shinny (you get the idea?!). The last thing I (we) hope for is a freakin window to "distract" others (and myself lol)... that'd kill it I think

Just got to be nice, nothing else

finger crossed x

[BruceH]

You are a very talented man, Fred! Very nice work, I have no doubt the finished product will be first rate I am actually in Shanghai right now, got in yesterday evening, back out this evening. Are you anywhere near the Wyndham Grand Plaza Royale?

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by BruceH

You are a very talented man, Fred! Very nice work, I have no doubt the finished product will be first rate I am actually in Shanghai right now, got in yesterday evening, back out this evening. Are you anywhere near the Wyndham Grand Plaza Royale?

Arrrggg BRUCE, let me know when you fly this side again mate, I'll take your stewardess's out for karaoke. Might have time for a coffee or two with you also but prefer the karaoke idea better No offence!

Flying a commercial jet airplane, landing it onto a dusty & wet runway with ATC speaking Chinglish to your headset... you don't need talent for that right??? lol

I'd love to meet with you, Captain, seriously let me know when you are back in town

[BruceH]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

Arrrggg BRUCE, let me know when you fly this side again mate, I'll take your stewardess's out for karaoke. Might have time for a coffee or two with you also but prefer the karaoke idea better No offence!

Flying a commercial jet airplane, landing it onto a dusty & wet runway with ATC speaking Chinglish to your headset... you don't need talent for that right??? lol

I'd love to meet with you, Captain, seriously let me know when you are back in town

Thanks Fred! I'll definitely let you know next time!

[jaykay]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

Haha yes, better enjoying SW because HQ is making it redundant by 2015 :/ We're moving to AutoCAD Inventor seats (only) both at the R&D and manufacturing ends. No more him on SW, her on AutoCAD, them on Catia, etc.... e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y will need to cope with Autodesk by mid 2015. Go figure....

RE Simulation. I have the SW Simulation module running on my workstation however the Flow Simulation is not (needed for air cooling type sims). I do my own simulations however but mainly to gauge designs/shapes/parts vs their types of materials (e.g. fatigue, stress, etc). A thermal analysis coming from me would be totally redundant in this LED application. All I could do is highlight how heat is transferred from one end to another. Plain thermal loads, convections and/or radiation per material in both transient and steady states. Boring and rather useless... without air. Given aluminum dissipate heat 2,000x faster than any other composites (e.g. plastics)... we can call it a safe $3 worth of LED strip investment (I think!)

Beside, try asking a Chinese manufacturer what are the "convection coefficient" values in BTU of their super High Tech LED strips. Luck with that mate....lol

Wow I thought SW was the best out of the lot? What gives?

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by jaykay

Wow I thought SW was the best out of the lot? What gives?

I couldn't really comment on the move JK but let's just say there is nothing bad to say about any of those modern 3d solid software. Wouldn't want to be any senior mgt signing off on these changes/decisions - for whatever reason they may be

Today's solid software are all equally good - key players' of anyway. Autodesk, Dassault, etc... Don't under estimate Siemens NX and its add-ons, sinumerik ctrl tech i.e. design for manufacturing (ouch, game changer)

The're all excellent lol

[rfuerst911sc]

Nice work and my vote is still for a simple clean Porsche crest with no Porsche lettering.........I know it is a Porsche !

[Slate 01]

Just thought I'd check on the progress, Nine8six. Okay actually I didn't want this thread to get bumped from the main page.

Good luck

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by Slate 01

Just thought I'd check on the progress, Nine8six. Okay actually I didn't want this thread to get bumped from the main page.

Good luck

You rushin' ?!

Nx time you do this I book you on a flight from CA to SH so you can come over to give me a hand for a full week. Rice, or noodles on me

Update is: this week's parts (projectors, etc) are anodizing today so in between ano runs I've turned on the laser and.... ruined a nice plate of pmma lol

Seriously, I had no choice. And why a HUD? Well that is one of the nastiest visual the laser will see here so that will help to gauge the intensity required for all sort of patterns/lines/thickness/width etc. You got it all in this HUD. We are getting as narrow as 0.2mm precision when 'burning' pmma with a laser.... it's pretty damn impressive in fact. Got 3 other panels to scrap over the weekend for trials, I'll post them up












^That's subtle, no?! LOL

Next: Got a few of those LED modules anodizing as well as other parts atm so I'll have a fully functional (look & feel) prototype during the coming weekend. Well, aiming for that anyway.

[kjc2050]

Looks great. Superb work!!!

[78F350]

A little off topic, but speaking of lasers and HUDs reminded me of one of my former investments that didn't work out well: MVIS
Cool laser projector product, but not the best implementation.
It might be useful to project a HUD from an Android or IOS device to the lower windshield. Lots of good driving apps are available.

[Nine8Six]

Really hard to throw a close-up in HD of what the quality of the graphic is. Sorry about that. LED fuzz the pic as well... photgrx skills lower than mediocre maybe

That badge is slightly bigger than your thumb nail (less than an inch). Looking at it from a normal reading distance (15"), and not magnified x5 lol, it is absolutely impeccable. Love it, we're good on that part

[Slate 01]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

You rushin' ?!

Nx time you do this I book you on a flight from CA to SH so you can come over to give me a hand for a full week. Rice, or noodles on me

888
I'm in, just for the noodles alone would get me there. I used to work in SF for a very large Chinese private school and got spoiled with my real white boy introduction to Asian food.

Put down the chopsticks and get back to work, lol

888

[Nine8Six]

888 lollll......

[rfuerst911sc]

Keep up the GREAT work !!!