Mechanical - parismolver.com

Aquaflex Manufacturing

pmolver — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:18:19 +0000

Aquaflex Manufacturing

What is Aquaflex?

Aquaflex is a novel solution for capturing the soil moisture for use in Agriculture. Multiple can be used to provide additional information about how deep the water is. Unlike the majority of sensors on the market which are cylindrical and installed into a deep round hole, the Aquaflex is installed into a trench.

The advantages of the Aquaflex are that there is more soil measured and therefore you are more likely to get a realistic representation in your recorded data.

Manufacturing Excellence

When tasked with manufacturing the Aquaflex, I was given an outdated procedure, and a blank slate for how I set up the work space. Whilst I was given a manufacturing document, it detailed the steps, but now how best to perform them.

PCB testing using sound

The Aquaflex test jig is an old piece of software and hardware. It uses a 12 position dial with each dial performing another test. Some tests were seconds long, whilst some were up to 30 seconds long. Using Python I created a simple beeper script that would await the pop up messages that the test software generated, by using short and long beeps to indicate different testing stages I could perform tests without looking. This method required less attention to the pop ups that showed on the screen, and reduced fatigue when PCB testing, and increasing speed.

Cutting 10 meter cables made quick.

The 10 meter cable is a digital signal cable to connect the sensor PCB to the datalogger. Drums came in 100M lengths and length didn’t have to be exact. By reframing the problem as trying to get 10 equal lengths from the data cable I could significantly reduce the amount of physical labor required, and time required. I did this by 3D printing a span of 10 U shaped groves that could be glued to the original cable drum. By wrapping the cable around the cable drum, and using the grooves to count the wraps I could simply spin the drum to a certain point, cut, release tension, and zip tie. Another advantage is that by wrapping the cable around a drum the cable was already coiled up which is the state it needed to be in for final packaging.

3D printed solutions

I leveraged my ability to create 3d models heavily in the manufacture process.

• Slots and guides for the cutting of the sensor cable. This had to be as exact as possible and the slots and guides ensured the cable was as straight as possible.

• Potting jig, the potting jig had to be reconstructed but I was able to create an O shaped slot for potting cups to sit into and a router cut guide. I could use a router to rough cut the holes needed, and then glue in place the slots to perfectly seat the potting cups.

• The Aquaflex has software to measure the sensor in certain states and from this information it can create a trimming profile. I found that the orientation of the sensor in the water bath could dramatically effect the sensor readings. By creating a U shaped slot that would sit in the water bath, I was able to fix the sensor block in place for all sensors and create more accurate readings for the trimming process.

Recording results, reducing recalls

I improved the process of the final quality assurance step. By recording the sensor in a variety of states I was able to enter this into a google spreadsheet which allowed us to track the average performance of each individual sensor, it’s serial number, as well as identify outliers. This information is key as it acts as another resource when trying to diagnose data issues as this spreadsheet can referenced against a customers serial number. It also allowed for the creation of metrics to evaluate batch results between batches.

The post Aquaflex Manufacturing first appeared on parismolver.com.

Stainless Steel Enclosure

pmolver — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:17:08 +0000

S.S enclosure for PCB

The Task

This enclosure is designed to be mounted on a variety of different pipe sizes, providing a water proof solution to housing both power supplies and PCBs to be mounted onto an irrigation pivot for individual dripper control.

Considerations

– Finding box dimensions that would best accommodate PCB’s and power supplies with dimensions that could not be changed.

– Ensuring that there were enough cable for a variety of configurations, and that they were positioned with space for tool access.

– Branding, how was the device going to carry the company image?

– How would it mount to the pipes? Was the bracket strong enough? Could it clamp without rotation in high winds?

– Assembly, how were the contents to be installed and assembled, and finally the complete unit installed?

The manufacturer of this unit was a specialist box manufacturer which helped simplify the design as I didn’t have to design the door. However, depth turned out to be a key dimension. DIN mounted power supplies were narrow but very tall. Additionally, height needed careful consideration for cable entry as routing over 30 DC pairs into the box required space for the cables to flex.

Features

The enclosure features two holes on top, weather sealed and required for the solar panel and GPS antenna.

On the bottom are cut outs for large glands for the many DC pairs required, and smaller glands for power, antenna and communications wiring.

Inside are 4 posts allowing for the use of a gear try, allowing for assembly and testing outside of the box. Once all the gear is assembled on the tray, it can be tested before final installation.

The Result

With careful planning, this design ended up as a robust piece of gear that could house a variety of components and be mounted anywhere on the irrigation pivot. Correct manufacturing procedures resulted in complete water tightness even with cut outs at the top of the box. The stainless steel material ensures that the gear inside is protected through all seasons and for many years to come.

The post Stainless Steel Enclosure first appeared on parismolver.com.

Field Servcing

pmolver — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:15:30 +0000

Field Servicing

Roles & Responsibilities

During my time at OnFarm Data I had to perform a variety of roles, one being field servicing for a variety of products.

• Servicing and install of data loggers and control which required PCB upgrades, or needed GPS, 4G, or LoRa connection troubleshooting.

• Troubleshooting sensor failures such as weather stations which were no longer recording pulses. Sometimes this would be due to a cow ripping the cable out and solving the problem with better cable routing and protection.

• Servicing and install of post irrigation control units. These were LoRa based and could sometimes be fixed without replacing the entire unit.

• Servicing, adjusting, and troubleshooting base stations which bridged large LoRa networks to the cloud.

Process Improvement

Sometimes servicing was a constant back and forth between people in the office, and people on site. Using a Raspberry Pi I was able to create a package that would act as a reference unit, being able to simulate a base which acted as the central unit in a star based LoRa mesh. This had several advantages.

• SD card swapping allowed for the same software to be transported to a different physical unit quickly and efficiently. This meant you could quickly test if it was a hardware problem, or if the location was an issue.

• SSH based LoRa sniffing. This allowed the engineers at the office to have an additional source of truth when trying to diagnose issues. If one unit saw an incoming message whilst another didn’t you can at least confirm that a unit had missed the message. All of this could be done via SSH reducing the need to verbally communicate over the phone.

Creating Service Flow Charts

Whilst I was given minimal training for servicing a LoRa based product in a large scale network, I managed to find out what the most common problems were and what was the potential on-site solution. Using this information I have gathered, I was able to make a simple flow chart which could be agreed on between me and the senior engineers for what the potential problems could be. Navigating the flow chart allowed us to better communicate what trouble shooting steps had been undertaken and allowed this information to be used as training documentation for future employees.

The post Field Servcing first appeared on parismolver.com.

Solar Installation

pmolver — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 04:27:50 +0000

Solar Panel Installation

Pictures are of systems I helped install. Above, Byron Bay, below a commercial chicken farm in Brisbane surrounds.

Background

Prior to studying Electrical Engineering in New Zealand, I live in Brisbane Australia and was working as an Electrical Apprentice. This role had me working in primarily domestic installations but I also had the opportunity to work on commercial and industrial systems.

Variety of work

Domestic jobs were generally straight forward, they often consisted of;

– Getting onto the roof and measuring out the space, ensuring that the solar panels could be installed.

– Cutting rails and installing brackets. Tiles were tricky as they needed to be kicked up, shaved and pulled down using a specialist tool my dad made for me.

– Installing cable runs, DC panels required an isolation switch on the roof and conduit runs from the switch to the inverter.

– Switch boards often required modification due to the addition of the new inverter circuit breaker. This modification meant that the board had to be brought up to standard and because of this, almost every switch board required a main fuse to be installed

– Installing and running cable tray in industrial settings.

– Calculating voltage drops for long cable runs and knowing when to size up the conductor size.

– Occasional switch board work.

– Training at a registered training facility twice a year.

The training I received at the training facility was what inspired me to study Electrical Engineering. It’s here that I found that I was already studying topics that were taught in second year university such as power factor and the difference between real power and imaginary power.

Challenges

Whilst commercial and industrial jobs had a very similar installation procedure, they also had some of the most dynamic installations and challenges.

– Technical challenges such as long distances from metering switch board from inverters. The farm installation required radios and repeaters so that control equipment at the switchboard could communicate with the inverters elsewhere on the farm.

– Thick cables, having to pull copper cable where the conductor was as thick as my thumb through a buried conduit bend had me sweating. We all think of cables as being fairly flexible but at such thicknesses the cable required a lot of effort to pull through the bend.

– Working at heights. Roofs are a potentially dangerous work space. These risks can be mitigated with proper technique such as avoiding areas under constant shade as slippery algae can grow yet not be visible. Additionally, if the surface is lacking grip, or the roof is too steep safety harnesses can be used. They also have a set of risks such as trip hazards and the potential for harm if one does fall off a roof, instead of being able to catch your fall you may incur more harm as you swing into the side of the building.

The post Solar Installation first appeared on parismolver.com.