My name is Tom Page, and I am a third year Mechanical Engineering student. I am also pursuing a minor in writing with an emphasis on technical communication. I joined OSHE in the fall of 2017.
Enterprise Spring 2018[edit | edit source]
This semester, I was on the Lasersaur Rebuild subteam with Zach Arnold. The Lasersaur has been in a limbo state of uncertainty for a long time, and nobody was sure if all of the components worked or not. This semester, I verified that all of the subsystems were working on it, including the stepper motors, gantry system, laser tube, and the electronics. I found out that everything does indeed work on the Lasersaur, but more work still needs to be done to get it into full working condition.
I spent most of my time working with the Smoothieboard. I was apprehensive about working with it initially because I don't have a good track record with control boards, but Smoothieware has very good documentation on their website to use their Smoothieboard for many applications. Using their guides, I was able to interface with the Smoothieboard through Pronterface to both move the gantry in the x and y axes and also to fire the laser.
I wasn't able to finish the Lasersaur in the semester that I worked on it, and it still needs to have the wiring organized and refined, the mirror mounts need to be finished and installed, and the outside covering needs to be installed as well.
Enterprise Fall 2017[edit | edit source]
I am on the Recyclebot subteam, and I redesigned the Recylebot control box to accomodate the new and updated control system. I plan to rewrite the program for the spooler as well.
Interests[edit | edit source]
I enjoy working with Arduinos and circuitry, as well as 3D modeling.
Experience[edit | edit source]
I was awarded a Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship grant during the summer of 2016. My project that I designed and built was a motorized linear traverse for use inside Michigan Tech's Cloud Chamber. I 3D modeled a pressure-sealed motor housing for use in atmospheric conditions, and I programmed an Arduino through Matlab to control a stepper motor using a motor control shield.