Bringing out the engineer in you
I believe The Radical motion simulator project was a subject of interest for my of my juniors in the Singapore Polytechnic doing their FYP now. It been about 5 months since I graduated from SP as a Mechanical engineering student in Singapore polytechnic (SP), but that didn’t stop the fair bit of feedback I constantly get from my visitors, representatives from other educational institutions as well as commercial enquires from the public.

Furthermore, this project sparked interest of quite a few students researching to major in the Engineering field, and I am glad to be a mentor to this handful of prospective students considering engineering as a major (it is an interesting and fun field). It just make my day to share and light up these individual interests in the field of Engineering- making it hip and trendy to as opposed what people think of it (Engineering is not a boring field juniors!).

Personally, I never thought it to take so far off to be considered a case study by itself. This project was mainly kept secrecy at the request of my project supervisor while in development, so I never had a chance to share my experiences of the project which may prove invaluable to anyone out there looking to learn more about the project, especially for final year project students not to mention the story behind my project and the team behind it. However, since now it was featured to the public, papers and on TV during the Singapore Polytechnic Spinnovex Senior’s final year project earlier in February in this year, hey it’s no longer a secret anyone.

The simulator was featured just last month as a highlight in the Singapore Science center’s “Formula 1 Science of speed exhibition” so you might catch it there in action if you were there. So without further ago, finally got the time to actually sit down and write an entry about my final year project which was really the pride and joy for my team, the polytechnic and myself.

The finished simulator

Cockpit area and screen

Our display booth on the Feb 08 exhibition day

The radical project
This simulator was created with my team of 3 over a period of 14 weeks from scratch to finish (including testing, so technically we had like 12 weeks to build with 2 weeks to test). So without further ado, I will introduce my team members who put through the whole project thick and thin, the project will be never near what it was it it weren’t for them and their efforts.

Team Radical Members (previously known as Team Radicurl)

Lee Khowming
My course and classmate in my diploma in Engineering course. He has a technical education background in secondary school, which makes him a rather good fabricator when it comes to putting up pieces of the simulator together. On top of this engineering diploma, he is a diploma plus student who took a minor in computer programming, so that helped alot in lightening the software programming load (including the endless code debugging) where I could delegate my time to design refinement and the directional plans for the team. He is very loyal & focused to the team’s need & extremely hard- working- a very positive force to be reckoned, though sometimes you have to help point the force in the right direction at times.

Danson Han
Danson Han is the electrical guy in the team, having built and raced a mini solar car himself in this general elective modules, this guy is just one electronics guru- He can solder and fix up any electric problems as fast as a gun-slinging sheriff.

He is very much responsible of most of the electrical and lighting systems. This car crazy and racing fanatic is also our chief game analyzer and test driver who feels very much at home in school given the need to test the platform with lots of PC racing, flight and computer simulation games. This feedback were invaluable in the development and refinement of the project itself. After all, what’s better than coming to school everyday and having your job playing games everyday right?

Shaun Chng
Well I no picture needed here! My role was very much the driving force and chief engineer of the project. I was the team leader and mainly responsible of the design, concept, putting together all the design requirements and feedback from my lecturer and team on Pro-engineer CAD. I was also the one responsible for all the multimedia content as well as ensuring quality, it was a fairly hectic job which I strangely enjoyed doing. As I was fairly more experienced with designing and inventing contraptions, I have my side role there as a mentor for my teammates and teaching new things out of the book as well free-rein delegation and guiding them on their tasks if they needed any help, I picked out many new skills in soldering as well as metal work myself.

It’s a whole team effort working hand in hand and learning from each other. It’s this closely linked bond of teamwork and knowing the strengths and weakness of each of which really made this team go.

How it stated out- A car/boat you want? why not everything?
The project started out from a list of current industry need and school projects. One of the items was a force displacement motion simulator. We were allocated that as we initially highlighted to our supervisor that we wanted to build a twin seater amphibious electric Eco-racer, something like cross between a boat and a car with electric regenerative abilities- a clean energy vehicle, but we can only stick to the industry projects and that was the closest one we could see in relation to.

The build process
Planning took a rather long time, a 360 degree rotating simulator was a rather cool idea to start off- minus the possibly of simulator-induced brain trauma. The 360 simulator was something my team including myself were very excited about. But there were many restrictions our project supervisor had in place for us- especially the ones on the compact size and weight he wanted, which was puzzling as that actually added to the project complexity and cost, which we had only a mere $6000 SGD in total. Later do we know the true meaning in the later of our project what our supervisor actually meant.

Some of the engineering drawings

One of the many assembly drawings

Our rapid prototype model

Trade-offs
So after almost a hundred hours on the drawing board, Pro-engineer CAD, material selection, finite element (stress) analysis, rapid model prototyping and 5 major design revisions later, we settled for a 4 degree of motion cockpit mounted on 2 axis with an intermediate coupling superstructure holding the top and base together. This will give it 50 degrees of rotational freedom for both the pitch and roll axis.

We used pneumatics for mechanical actuation in place of the favorable electric linear actuators due to cost and time constraints (our calculated force requirement will require a shipment of electrical actuators from Germany taking 8 weeks), so we settled for large 63mm dia coupled to Festo pneumatic 5/3 middle closed maxi valves who had their stock in their Singapore warehouse.

How it works
Ok since you know it runs on pneumatics (air power, the same stuff which opens and closed bus doors), everything which goes on was rather straight forward, and there was no turning back. With our planned an prototype model in place to confirm all the dimension and a serious lack of time, all the mounting points and component housing were all welded and pre-made to fit the dimension specifications of the cylinders and required components even before they were delivered. Then as everything made, it’s just putting them all together like a giant plastic model piece. The dual PC setup (ethernet-networked), the 24 volt, 12 volt power supply units, as well as the central relays and power distribution unit to run peripherals such as the monitors, speakers, lighting and cooling systems. Since many of the items are custom made to fit, we saw ourselves spending quite alot of time in the workshop fabricating custom mounts and brackets to get everything all in securely in place given the forces they may encounter on a moving simulator.

You can view more on how it works, in the promotional multimedia video I’ve created for the project below:

Murphy we have a problem!
There was a brief dark moment 3 weeks before the deadline during testing where a stray current shorted the whole simulator, that caused quite a major overhaul to find the source of the short, which was later traced to a burnt IC chip in our custom built USB-pneumatic control board for the valves. The incident taught us not only much on Murphy law, but also on effective cable management (which we overlooked) and catering for troubleshooting as well.

Homerun
It’s simply great pleasure having to see all your conceptualizations, drawings and work come up to life day after day. Each day is simply just a challenge of it’s own as the deadline draws near. Simply just seeing your project rise from the nada to something which makes people go “wow” at the end of the day simply makes it all worth it- and man we were finished, on time as well! We made few minor touch-ups and refinements on top of the usual testing just before the exhibition. We even sourced a budget but authentic blue Sparco seat to finish it all up, that included an air- compressor which we loaned within campus. Thereafter was the planning phase for the exhibition booth management, so that included the creation of promotional items such as brochures, our team video, posters, setting and planning up of booth, etc. So there was always work to do. The big day finally came!

Spinnovex Exhibition!
The simulator was actually kept small and compact so that it can still be used in the confines of the exhibition area. Later do we fully understand the space requirement. The exhibition was the thing we had been looking forward to even before we started the project, the dream of showcasing out pride and joy. The exhibition was an eye opener, yet a very tense moment for me and my team given any new problems we could possibility face in the heat of the exhibition given the last shorting incident.

The endless crowds

University visitors

Crowds love us

Moreover, it was also the first time which our simulator prototype underwent a stress test- 3 continuous days of operation for the public with riders always getting in and out (with at any one time a long queue) which was really test of the simulator built and design. Prepared for anything, we were ready with spare parts and always on standby for any problems, which unexpectedly, do occur- There was once where our compressor had condensation problems and some minor electrical problems, but we always got them all repaired on the spot with minimal downtime (most 10 minutes). The event tent power supply was rather quirky as well, as they were running on off-site diesel generators rather than the mains, so the occasional blackouts and unsteady current for all the projects at the main exhibition tent took quite an electrical beating as well. Glad ours went through without a hitch.

We’ve got some trade visitors on exhibition day, some from Japanese universities as well as some from New Zealand. It interesting to note that few university professors who came to the exhibition were surprised at the size and complexity of the project, also considering the 14 week timeline and tight budget to get it all built from scratch. Many were commenting that this project even exceed what some university students do even on their Final year project (and we were only diploma students).

Actual life video at Spinnovex

Project judging
The project judging lasted the 3 whole days of the exhibition, where judges will pop by randomly at planned random times during the day in the public and industry visitors to ask questions and a demonstration of the project. They can catch you at anytime, even during lunch. Luckily our simulator was always up and running without much downtime, so that didn’t hinder us much one bit. The press was around as well and interviewed few of the project groups as well. I was even featured in the Channel News Asia’s “Emerging Asia” programme for the project as well!

At the end of the judging round the bronze and silver awards were given out, the awards signify the tele-ed votes from all the judges over the whole exhibition duration and is award to the best project showcase. To our amazement my project came in the Gold category!

What I learned from this build
This project simply just sets a new milestone in my contribution to the polytechnic and this new engineering design course which many jokingly say “I helped build”. This engineering design course when I studied on my last year of specialization was still a rather new course, which never really saw the light with a disappointing intake my engineering design, but it was through my recommendations (e.g use of software, multimedia etc) and contributions to this new course which propelled it beyond it’s infant stages to what it is brimming with enrollment today.

I can’t deny the project is not perfect- the were few areas that were no built the way we wanted, some LEDs in the lighting system blew, the rear surround speaker don’t sit straight, even the boarding steps and wires were duct-taped instead of drilled or cable tied, but it is what that works effectively which matter. The project really made me overcome the perfectionist in me.

This project also taught me few rather new thing sin life, is that you can lose the battle to win the war. Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices in light for the good. Minor things like staying in school from 8am to 9pm every day, even coming back during public holidays and weekends just to get the project finished are just part and parcel in the darkest weeks of our project. Though our project is nothing within international standards, I am glad that we produced an engineering creation built within our own steam and ingenuity- and that is what we were proud to accomplish at the end of the day.

It simply just made the engineer in me and it will always be my passion. I am glad my project will be a continued source of motivational for anyone looking to study in the engineering field.

Every visit back to SP now is always like a treasured moment- something I do not do very often much as taking it for granted for everyday when I was a student there. Whether it is saying meeting my lecturers and student officers there or catching up on happenings around campus, it seems that things are very much different from what it was previously seen as a student and the contacts you make will go a long way.

Infrastructure wise, it seems that much has changed around the area now, especially with the new rebranding efforts around the campus. From the new signs flaunting outside every corner of campus, to the new improvement works around the area such as Food court 1, food court 2 and now, food court 3. The campus is really taking quite a major face lift bit by bit. Food court 3 was particularly interesting as it will be the 2nd and next food court to be air-conditioned. Also considering that the only food tendants there being KFC and Pizza hut (who already have their own enclosed air-conditioned area), the new food court spots new relocated dedicated washing areas previously where the garage area. Presumably all the eating areas will be open and shared between Pizza hut as well as KFC just like those 3 in 1 KFC-Pizza-Taco bell restaurants we see in town. The area might offer new glass windows all round and views of the pool area. With shared air-conditioning, the popular book shop as well as the stores lined along FC3 will definitely see open door policies from now on.

Happened to drop by Track training over one the active days. Training is still all largely focused on specific training for events, especially with the IVP currently on. You can still make out the few distinctive groups training all round the track, each having their own dedicated space around the track area for their respective group training.

I can say that training is rather more focused now, and the degree of specialization offered by each of the coaches for specific events is far better than what it was previously done with only one coach. So rather than having training like a jack of all trades, now we can see the team doing more events than what it can do previously such as more field events like discus, high jump an javelin- events we didn’t even consider doing many years back. Everything looks promising and I believe we can seniors can leave it in the hands of the current coaches and juniors too.

My previous blog posts has been talking about the chalet last friday but not in detail, so this post will fill up the part about it as I feel this should deserve it’s own post.

Track and field BBQ 3th October
So what other better way to ease up on the friday-weekend but to go for a chalet organized by the Track team? At least that kept me about a day away from work haha. Though organized by the seniors, everyone was invited to the rather small by cozy chalet at Pasir-ris coasta sands resort with about an estimated 30 people turning up for the BBQ night. Got the chance to try walking from Pasir-ris MRT to the venue with a cup of green tea for hydration after my NYAA prize presentation.

Got to meet some of the new trackers, especially those I know largely by face but do not have the chance to interact with them and catching up on the latest developments in SP track, considering the absence of most of the seniors in regular training since we graduated. Come to think about it, it had been about 1 year since I went for active training since last year’s FYP, man time do pass.

Track drifting apart?
Many of them are closing their first year in track, but it seems that the club was not as cohesive as what it was before, comprising of 3 coaches training different parts of the team which is though focuses on each member’s key area of the sport and diversifying rather than lumping everybody in for generic mass training, it seems that the club is now segregated in 3 distinctive “clans” who will most of the time only come together in the teams formed to represent SP.

True that the juniors will get the specific training they deserve, so the strong can improve with tailored training for them, but I find the atmosphere largely “selfish” now with everyman for themselves- which I find largely is against the spirit of sportsmanship and competition even which could be a breeding ground for internal conflicts. Not to mention the obvious gap between the juniors and seniors.

The thing lacking now a certain form of “track spirit” which is unique and had always been a uniting factor of track and field for generations.

Speaking from a graduate perspective, sometimes you need to come to realize that your time in track as a CCA won’t last forever, but the friendships you make and cherish over the years of training together which gives you the homely feel and belonging to the group, sometimes these can far outweigh what you win in competitions, let be even a medal in the IVP, after all that is just a medal- period, one which will always be received by someone in the same event again every year. Whether you see it as a more important thing in your life as to being a sports man and bagging achievements, I think no medal can buy the unity and friendship you have, after all as the saying goes “no man is an island”.

For this generation, only one can only look back and reminiscence the glory days where track was all together in one family, or let be capable role models not pulled into power just based on favoritism or lack of options or successor. I feel that it had been a failure on our part to retain the culture within the Club after we left which is track and field- the one which we all come to know and grown into a family. Personally, we are not doing justice or just being it’s simply unfair of depriving our juniors of that culture.

However, there is the possibility of the culture only existing within the people who created it- Is the bond and culture so strong that it is one which just leave the club the moment we pass out? We must understand that with change comes major change as well. which too involves the revamping and killing of all existing culture with it. Faced with resistance and change (especially with the new coaches) that was too a major contributing factor to the present segregation. Something beyond our reach and authority of intervention given our graduate statues, but that of course is not an excuse for negligence on our part either, we still have the interest of the club at heart.

Sometimes but as what my ex coach once said, it’s very difficult to please everybody, so sometimes what we see now could be an inevitable result of “survival of the fittest”.

Looking at the start of the week, it had been a very hectic start for me, namely with work and stuff, even my horoscope is telling me to get out and exercising more, something which I see myself doing less often these days.

Nevertheless, I was on the news again, together with my mugshots on the SP website on the DSTA scholarship prize presentation ceremony. You can read the article here dated on the 15th July. Apparently, our Principal was very proud of us 4 graduates who clinched the defense scholarship in numbers, even with the standard and number comparable to the other “branded” junior colleges such as HCJC and RJC. The other interesting notable fact is that, there were no other Polys who had a presence as strong or bonded as ours there, with the exception of a few commendable 1-2, but I won’t make any conclusion from there as there may be the possibility of the lack of applicants on their part.

This news came much of a surprise for me, laughably I didn’t know about it till I was informed on it by some of my Poly friends. Later do I know, got another call from Fullstop magazine asking to do another interview again for their next month’s publication. Busy busy.

Oh yes, for the record, umm I “would” be running Poly 50 this year again, my official 3rd Poly 50 race.

Yesterday (Saturday) night was our planned coach birthday celebrations and it was a secret very well kept in place for our “host” friend who faked her birthday so that we can deceive our coach into attending the party last night. Everybody knew that, except well… coach until last night haha.

Held in home premises at the Holland area, the gathering saw the reunion of new and old track and field members (about 30 of us) all either while serving army or working. It’s was a good time to meet up with everybody and keep ourselves updated as a whole. Got to know how many of our track mates are doing in the army now, especially those who are starting their Pro-term after completing their service term in OCS. So for the guys, it’s mostly army talk while it’s mostly university and plans for the girls.

Much of the early part of the day is spend lazying around by the house pool and garden swing with Ahlong and Elrick while waiting for the rest of the Alumni track team to finish training in SP and make their way to Holland Rise. No one wanted to swim, so our other variant of “pool” in the basement kept us occupied for most of the time.

A day by the pool, swings and durian trees

Some Pool to spend the time

And oh no our cake is discovered!

The girls did an excellent job on the cake as well as the presents all done up so nicely. Everyone chipped in a sum each for both the catered buffet dinner as well as the cake and presents as a whole. We got everyone in a room together with coach where we sang the birthday song to HIM, at first he didn’t know how did his name Robin came into the birthday song, till he later found out that the purpose of the whole celebration was for him! Man was he surprised! Cake was served together with dinner thereafter.

We present the cake for the night!

The cake is for me?

Birthday group shot!

The rest of the night was spent with games and slacking in the home cinema room. Alvin and Alec came as well, but not till later. Jonathan and Elrick was there with their fair share of army Commando experiences from their side, especially with their interesting topic of heli and air-borne operations.

Derrick was just, well being himself most of the time and did quite a good job in giving us the impression of technician work in the SAF being more prestigious than it really sounds.

Weijian is now studying in PSB and KC’s stories of police life in the ops room paints so much of how complaintive Singaporeans can be with our 999 hotline over the slightest things, let be the flux of dumber than dumb calls from the public on Mas Selamat.

Richard who lived nearby came as usual in his yellow Ferrari F430 convertible, making his usual loud entrance by the house gates and joined us for the cake cutting session and dinner before staying for some chats before promptly making his departure, he’s always a busy person.

Well wishes going out to Alex who cannot make it down for today’s celebrations as he’s recovering from a viral lung infection and was previously in ICU. We wish him all the best in speedy recovery.

Met up with my old workshop TSO on my last Tuesday’s visit to school and since the Segway debate is still under the wraps of being a legal car alternative in Singapore, I will just touch on abit of the issue here, elaborating and stating the facts on how I find much our current country-wide strict regulations still being a strong deterrent factor for our youth to flourish their ideas and creativity.

Let be an isolated case, I was together with few current students there working on their final year project in the project area. Was told that they are working on a Segway pram project which involves modifying one together a speed regulation control as well with, yes you guessed it, with a baby pram attached. Knowing about the Segway, I told them about my concerns of it having children on board and the safety measures they can take on top of how it actually works and ride, together with the locking key for beginners and the unlock for maximum speed.

As fun and promising that project can be, actually half the battle of that project was already lost with our current Laws and Regulations in place- It’s also a fact that for the project to be successful, they have to get the green lights from the LTA and NEA for the Segway to be used on our sideways and parks, as laughingly worldwide, it is still not legal to ride a Segway human transporter in Singapore, go figure.

Their product can only see life within the confines of private parks and properties for now, even if their project is completely marketable, it will be a marketing nightmare to sell it here now. There seem to be more than it meets the eye, but it looks like they have to get the authorities to be aware of the Segway problem before moving any further in such developments.

In the meantime, we can always bring the ideas out of Singapore, after all, “foreign talent” can always take our places.

As part of the Open House on this week, I will be giving a short talk segment from 1 to 1.30pm at the Singapore Polytechnic Convention Center tomorrow. I thank the SP media communications department for inviting me to speak. It will be focused mainly on the life and experiences of choosing the Polytechnic route compared to JC with my experiences to share, having gone to both of them. It will cover largely from a student’s perspective.

We will be expecting an 1,200 odd full house in the convention center for this part of the day, also being the last day of the open house. So if you are an ‘O’ level leaver this year and still at the cross roads between these 2 routes between JC or Poly before University, feel free to drop by for a free tip or two which will help you decide on your choices.

The official photos of last week’s SP Graduation are out! Haha these are the few good ones I’ve picked up. You can view more on the SP grad day photos gallery as well.

Institute winners group photo shoot

Institute winners group photo

Nice view of the convention center

Some photos shot during the post graduation food reception with my family:

Family Photo with RAdm Lui Tuck Yew

With our Principal Mr Tan Hang Cheong

With our previous SP Principal Mr Low Wong Fook