My new earphones

Hi People!

I am posting things very late nowadays. I call this procrastination.

Now let me stop bitching about myself and come to the point. A month ago I bought a new pair of earphones. This one was much expensive compared to what I used earlier, but it is worth the cost.

What led me to buy new ones?
Ans: No quality sound and no more hacks left.

I ordered my first pair on Flipkart in the middle of 2nd semester when I forget my Samsung ones at home. Yes, Samsung was good then. A friend of me suggested Philips SHE1360 and it costed me 150 rupees. It had really good bass but less efficiency as my roommates could hear what I can(half the sound escaped from behind). As end of fourth semester was near, the left can stopped working. since using just the right one was uncomfortable, I brought another failed earphones from home whose right can was damaged, then I cut off the defective ones and connected male jacks to their respective females.

These two females are marked L and R. Now the corresponding Left and Right signals come from a male header, with common ground which goes into phone/computer. Essentially I made two different pairs of earphones to work as one(after clipping off dumb sides). The awkward part; this earphone's left one is in-ear and right is on-ear. These is again a problem since in-ears have lesser sound loss, hence needed to manually balance sound levels in system's settings.

This hybrid style served till almost end of exam week. Now there are no partly scrape earphones left as both sides failed at once. Now I have a real excuse to buy new pair. All my friends talk about Skull Candy, Beats and Bose(The starting price is Rs.5000). I was then looking in range of Rs.500-1000(with parents' consent). At home during summer, I used my mother's Transcend. It has excellent sound clarity.

After returning back to hostel, I often turned music loud(laptop speakers are a horrible way, they give you wrong impression of whats being played). Till then I didn't spent great deal on earphones. One day while I was studying, my roommate lent Sennheiser CX180, asking me to try it.

BHAM! Those sounded with incredible clarity, ear-thumping bass and priced reasonably. I already had good image of the brand. So I proceeded to order one the next night. I spent Rs.948 and no regrets till now.

 Goutham

My DRDL project

Hello!

I am posting this after a long time.

My college requires me to do summer training or project for few weeks at any workplace outside to gain some practical experience. I planned to do it outside Hyderabad and live on my own, but my mother insisted that I stay at home and join some place within limits of my reach.

With some contacts through my mom's department and endless pursuing, I finally 'earned' an opportunity to work at Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) at Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad. Well, very few students get to do their training/internship at reputed organisations like the above. I felt lucky and at the same time, bit scared as how would my first day go.

I joined on 5th June. The campus is really huge. It's main road stretches itself 6 km inside till back gate(never measured it though) and its highly secured at entry points. No electronic devices are allowed inside. The scientist I was assigned to sits in a lab near the back gate. I went there almost every alternate day by taking bus and get to the lab from main gate by asking two wheeler lifts. Believe me, now I can read your mind and make you allow me to sit behind you.

The lab I worked under develops support systems for Bramhos, the hypersonic cruise missile made jointly by India and Russia. At the time I worked, it housed the launcher truck and communications truck. Those were quite big.

My mentor was Mr. Shammas Mohyaddin. He described himself as an electrical guy the first time I met him and was then studying control of seeker's gimbal motors. He asked me if was interested in PID control. I happily said 'Yes!'(That was what I was aiming for with coreless motors of my tiny quadcopter project).The sad thing was I had to be well versed in control system concepts first of all and I opted out computer architecture as my 4th semester elective in spite of having control systems as a choice. Though I realized the latter's importance a bit later, I still regret.

My project was to study and simulate speed and position control of a armature controlled DC motor through Prorportional-Integral-Derivative(PID) control using MATLAB's Simulink. Mentor suggested me 'Control systems engineering by Norman Nise'. I should say, this is a great book. It got me interested in control systems in very less time(Just read the first chapter). I had three weeks time to finish it and my mentor being busy, spent an hour and half with me every time I visit to teach concepts and clarify doubts. Thank You Sir!

Though the staff does not allow you to use the hardware and facilities there at this stage, you can learn lot about things they work on. There is also a library there to help you out.

With this, I almost finished main portions of the book and could learn Simulink on my own to prepare submit my report on time(I could document only the speed control one). I learnt two things from this experience:

1. I have grown up and now it's my turn to learn and do things which I like. There is no time to be wasted.

2. 'I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul', quoted from 'Invictus' is very true.

Thanks for reading!
Goutham

My team won

Yes!

I am very proud to say that my team SRM VAIMAANIX won international 5th rank in annual CanSat competition held at Texas, USA during June 12-14. It is a very proud moment for all the team. We made SRM UNIVERSITY proud by standing first in India and Asia. Let me introduce my friends to you first:

From left: Tuhin, Abhisek, Bharadwaj, Arthesth, Rahul

Rahul Ramesh - Team leader
Tuhin Ranjan - Alternate team leader
Shivam Prakash - One awesome bro
Anirudh Shandilya - One more awesome bro
Abhisek Narsimhan - The little genius
Arthesth Aadhran - Egg protector
M V Bharadwaj - The fabricator

More details at http://www.cansatcompetition.com/winners.html
Reference blog is http://cansat-srmuniversity.blogspot.in/

It was a great experience working with you all!

Thanks!
Goutham

Abhisek's fairy tale

Yes

The same Macbook Abhisek whom I mentioned earlier. Here is his fairy tale(worth mentioning again).

My team was all set and two days to take-off.

Abhisek, one of the team was wary of difficulties he was going to face then. He called the first flight carrier, Etihad. He was advised to cancel his flight tickets or he would get trapped at immigration on arrival at Dallas,US. He didn't like the reply at all.

Abhisek spoke all night. Same was the reply from other travel agencies. Shit shouldn't happen this way. Below is the excerpt from what we talked that evening. It was clearly evident from the screenshots that he already cancelled his tickets by that time.

We all worked hard. Our Cansat was packed for flight by then and shopping done. Five out of seven members booked tickets. Others were Shivam Prakash, my senior(more about him later) and me. Four of the high-five spent nearly INR 70,000.

We all were silent and dumbstruck for an hour. How can one cancel flight ticket(miss a golden opportunity) just because he/she felt something might go wrong with a slightly different name in ticket from that of passport?

After an 45 mins of last conversation I had with him:

Miracle happened! Even he did't believe it for a while!

Next... All enthusiasm back to normal. As of this writing they are in Dallas, Texas. All the five... working hard to win for the launch tomorrow.

Wishing them clear skies and Best of Luck!

Goutham

I am free now

Hello!

I post this kind of stuff every time I am done with my exams. Finishing them is like breaking free.

Last time for almost half vacation I was bedridden in my uncle's place. Now I started working on the following stuff:

1. AVR C programming
2. Project Compound Eye

The first one is still in progress as I paused it in middle of 4th semester. Now I continue, at my own pace. Someday in my life(not too far) I yearn to master atleast one microprocessor architecture to learn and apply embedded systems.

Project Compound Eye is still in conceptual phase. The name suggests it all. Its about a wide curvature array of LEDs, just like a bee's eye which sense light, noted as Mims effect. This is used to create an image(possibly more than visible spectrum), by means of amplifying, processing and mapping output voltage from each LED in a spatial manner . Will say more about it later.

I got two more exciting things to share:

I am a part of team SRM VAIMAANIX, representing SRM University in annual CanSat competition to be held at Burkett, Texas during June 12-14. I could not be with my team for long and go with them to USA this time but I will next year. I did electronic fabrication and camera motor start technique and also helped in initial testing. Wishing my team Best of Luck!

Next, I will be starting my summer training at DRDL tomorrow. DRDL is one of labs under DRDO which is involved in design and development of all kinds of  missiles. I will share my experience there soon.

Goutham

Wow! I had a chance to use a Mac!

Hey!

This post is written with a Macbook Pro. It belongs to my friend Abhisek.

The interface is quite simple, though 'technical' users of Windows may find some time getting adjusted to touchpad and desktop interfaces, finding it surprisingly different. Screen of this Mac is incredible. I am really enjoying what I am writing now but still it was just 20 minutes since I switched this thing on.

All the text and graphics are far better than my PC. I mean it looks more lively. Everything about display is completely customisable. The track pad has just one button and I am not sure if this thing has got left and right clicks separately. Keyboard is quite ergonomic. This is just about how it feels.

Looks are great. This Mac is just about the size and weight of my laptop PC except this is silver and mine black. I really love the lighted apple logo, caught my imagination from a very long time. It even has got a row of battery indication LEDs, just press the button beside it and you get to see how much is left.

The best thing I think is it looks like a one piece, complete package, a computer when you close the lid. Quite compact outside and versatile inside.

After all, Its Mac.

Goutham
  

What a great game!

Hello!

Its Age Of Empires III again and we had a great time (Arvind, Kritin Vs Akshansh, Goutham)!

My team won. Below are the stats shown. I am blue and my partner purple. It was for nearly 1h 40m. Suspense and thrill filled.  

I couldn't believe my eyes after looking at the blue line. Beautiful!

Goutham

Camera Pics!

Hello!

Two recent pics taken with my tiny phone camera.

In front of my college

Rippon building in front of Chennai Park station

Goutham

Catchy lines and ironies about SRM University!

Hello!

And hello to all of you studying in SRM University, Kattankulathur.

Disclaimer: No offence intended. Just for fun!

1. No.1 private university in india
2. Best hostels ever
3. Glossy prospectus, beats Autocar.
4. Excellent front views(of buildings)
5. More exams, less studies
6. Most buses owned by
7. More fees, less books
8. Many routers, slow internet
9. China among universities
10. No idea whats being taught till end of semester

Strange(r) conversation

Hello!

I'd like to share a conversation happened with me yesterday. I don't know why but middle and old age strangers say they like me, wherever I go.

I was returning to college by train in sleeper class coach. As the train got pulled away from the origin station, I plugged in my earphones and was enjoying music for almost an hour. Little did I notice that a middle aged man sitting opposite to me was observing. I felt bit uneasy. 

Soon my ears got saturated as there's no new music in phone. I put my phone inside and took out a printed copy of college lab record and glanced at it. The man now started talking. First he asked where and what do I study. Then he asked my branch(specialization). Then he asked my name(you know my name? Its written somewhere on the right).

Then he obliged me to sit on the opposite side as I was facing bright evening Sun. 

The man asked me "Why are you very serious at this age?". 

Huh! Do I look serious?! Even my profile pic doesn't look so.

Yeah I am 18 now and within two weeks I'll be an year older. "This is time to be serious(I admit)", I replied. He started defending himself. "You need to balance everything in life and at this stage you should stay calm and happy as you don't get your teenage years back after becoming adult". 

I  really doubt what triggered him into starting conversation this way. Was it my lab report or was it the way I look? I look a bit nerdy, people say.

"I do not feel liking for anyone soon, but I liked you", he continued. "You have a nice and decent behavior... unlike others, you look intelligent".

"Thanks! I simply like what I do. I love what I learn, so I always feel good(yes..... almost)".

I feel it is not possible to have a good impression of the other person within an hour. Was this person trying to butter me? or is it true that all the above hold good?

Well, "Action shows a man's worth". That's what Lord Buddha said.

Goutham 

  

This is how you wake up early in the morning

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the 

fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes 

up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will 

starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle. When the sun 

comes up, you'd better be running” 

-Anonymous

My first answer on Quora!

Hello!

The question was:
 I want to make a Quadcopter but my budget is low. How to proceed?

My answer:

When surfing several RC hobby websites, one can find motors, frames, flight controllers, propellers, RC transmitters and receivers. Brands like Turnigy, Spektrum, Futaba, Hobbyking offer wide range of the above parts. Do not import them from international websites. Shipping and customs charge you extra. You can buy all the parts from local hobby websites. Refer to http://www.rcindia.org for links. This is a great forum for RC lovers.

If you plan to make a quadcopter whose rest mass is below 300 grams, please go for coreless DC motors(I will come to this category later). Brushless motors(BLs) are preferred for quads of 300 grams and above. To run a BL, one needs electronic speed controller(ESC) which is essentially a 3-phase oscillator that runs the former. 

For a quadcopter, you need four propellers. So, you need four BLs and four ESCs.  On Ebay the lowest range is about Rs.700-900 for a BL, Rs.600-800 for a ESC, Rs. 500 for good ABS propeller set(2 CW and 2 CCW). Flight controller starts from somewhere around Rs.2500 and the cheapest Radio control Tx and Rx is around Rs.2500. LiPo battery of  2000mAh(good flight time) costs Rs.1500-2000. You can either buy a frame or make one using aluminium channels with fixtures and base plates for motors and electronics. Overall it costs well over Rs.10,000. 

The best way to cut cost is to compromise on weight(below 300g). This way you can go for much cheaper parts like coreless motors of Rs.200-300 each. (No ESC required, driven by PWM through high current MOSFETs like IRF150), 3.7V LiPo battery costing Rs.1000 which can give 15-20 minutes of flight(you can even try button cells), tiny and sturdy frame which can be made at home, tiny propellers of 5-6 cm length of Rs.200-300/set and the same flight controller and radio set mentioned above. All this costs below Rs.7000. Note:Above costs are just estimates. You can get the parts for much cheaper prices by doing some research on hobby sites, Ebay and even visit some shops if in same city(to avoid shipping costs). It took me atleast a month to assess all these details. You can bring down the net cost to about Rs.5000.

To see how small a quadcopter can be search for "Husban H107L", "Micro Aerial Vehicles by DARPA, MIT, University of Pennsylvania's GRASP lab flying swarm robots".

However, there's a catch:
Coreless motors and short propellers are a bit hard to get. If you can, buy four small vibration motors(ones you find in mobile) and remove the uncentered masses from their shafts if you can(those cling on tight). Propellers....... searching is only option(make sure you buy perfect ones made with good quality plastic). There is good chance that motor's shaft may not fit with propeller's hole size, so buy propellers with hole adapters that help you to insert shaft tight enough.

Talking about flight controller, if you are really serious about 'how quadcopters fly' you should learn the theory behind its stable flight like motion algorithms, embedded control, sensor data acquisition and flight dynamics. You can make a flight controller with self-written firmware and add your own choice of sensors(apart from accelerometer, gyro) and even GPS at bare minimum cost. 

Obviously, I cannot explain the working and circuitry here as there are many websites you can look up to. Just google what you want.

Please comment if you want to say or ask something.

Goutham