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Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built
- WillMorr 2mo agoNice work!
- two_handfuls 2mo agoWhat is it? Is this like a gear, where the output shaft turns at some fraction of the input shaft? Is better or worse than traditional toothed gears in some way?
- cosmotron 2mo agoThey're pretty cool. They can be good in situations where you don't want any backlash and lots of torque. I believe they're very popular as actuators in robotics.
- fuzzfactor 2mo agoThe cycloid you may not know you already have could often be found mounted under the chassis of vans and pickup trucks to compactly turn the takeup reel for the cable that lowers and raises the spare tire stowed underneath the vehicle. The reel holds fast its position naturally when the cable is at any length, and allows a heavy truck tire to be lifted manually using the light-duty hand crank. Notice in the Github animation that the visible rotor has nine lobes and the stator has 10 stations, this can be confirmed if you take a screenshot.
- tomilan 2mo agoIt acts like a gearbox, allowing you to sacrifice rotational speed for higher torque output. What makes this gearbox type special is their low backlash, multiple points of contact, and high efficiency.
- WithinReason 2mo agoMight be worth adding that info to the README
- mlyle 2mo ago:D Kids can do amazing things. Adult engineers are already pretty bad at knowing with other people know and what's worth saying. This is the one area where students are markedly worse; "if I know it, everyone else must." Or just figuring out the important bit to explain.
- tomilan 2mo agoIts been added!
- themaninthedark 2mo agoThere is a lack of project justification documents, need a CAPEX proposal and what is the expected ROI? /s In a serious note, looks good and don't let the paperwork keep you down!
- REDA_MAH 1mo agoAs a 15 years old too, your work is VERY impressing and creative but maybe you should put more effort on the practical side
- m33pm33p 1mo agoIf you’re building cycloidal gearboxes at 15, the engineer title is fully earned!
- ddlsmurf 2mo agotry making something without AI too, it will be valuable
- speed_spread 2mo agoAI will be required to maintain the piles of tech crap we've built and that society now stands on. New generations are no longer as tech savvy, pushed toward being simple users and consumers. The rare individuals that develop curiosity for how things work have their work cutout and will need all the tools they can get to dig their way through layers of undocumented, organically grown software and hardware cruft left by "engineers" of lore.
- junon 2mo agoWhere do you think AI got its training material? Was it not from those very same "engineers of lore" and their respective "tech crap"?
- useiris 2mo agocycloidal designs are a great thing to have actually built rather than just read about. the eccentric motion is easy to follow on paper and then surprisingly fiddly once real tolerances show up. two things worth measuring if you have not: backlash, and how much it changes after a few hundred cycles. cycloidal drives are usually sold on low backlash, so knowing your real number turns this from a nice print into something you can quote a spec for. if you have a way to load the output shaft, efficiency under load is the other number people will ask about.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- t23414321 2mo ago[ the only 1 comment here actually about the drive :) ]
- morelikeborelax 2mo agoDon't post your age on the internet :) Project looks cool
- liamilan 2mo agoBrothers think alike ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17871313 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17871313
- plastic-enjoyer 2mo agoIt's crazy that in 2018 a cellular automata written in JS by a 12 year old was considered special (which it is) and today, nobody would even bat an eye because you can just vibe code this without effort.
- Izmaki 2mo agoHold up, are you the type of person wanting to fire software teams because we can just ask the Product Owner to vibe code the new features?
- el_io 2mo agoNo, I think the bar is just too high nowdays. The projects I built as teenager spending weeks, it's just would take half hour of vibecoding now.
- noduerme 2mo agoI'm going through this. It's demoralizing. I want to spend weeks coding something cool. The idea of asking an AI to do it in 30 minutes is like... what's even the point. I know I can, so why bother. I'd rather go get a beer. It's like getting all the cheat codes and then the game isn't fun anymore.
- mohamedkoubaa 2mo ago
- koopuluri 2mo agoyou're not a wannabe! you're an engineer! you made something awesome. wishing you the best :).
- shuwix 2mo ago[flagged]
- shuwix 2mo agoHAHAHA. Couldn't even imagine someone being offended by reference of using motor instead of engine. But HEY, it's 2026. Open-minded Americans I've encountered on IRC are long gone. Nowadays it's a different breed. I have to keep silent, else even more people would get offended.
- iwontberude 2mo agoAmericans on IRC likely to be from a handful of cesspools that encourage racist worldviews or other “open-minded” discourse which ends up being a recurring hate-mongering episode.
- shuwix 1mo agoThis is the most concentrated compilation of retardation I've seen in months. So retarded, you wouldn't even get job via Libtard DEI qouta.
- kbuchanan 2mo agoI didn't even know what a cycloidal gearbox was! Good work—you've kicked off an exciting career.
- bunchy7s 2mo agoit is pretty cool, but posting your age + an (likely) AI project on hacker news is probably a bad idea.
- zachlatta 2mo agoHey, you should join Hack Club! I was just at an event where a high schooler designed and built a continuous variable transmission (https://outpost.hackclub.com https://outpost.hackclub.com). You’ll meet a ton of interesting, friendly teens who are all helping each other build awesome projects. Cool project! (Hack Club is a nonprofit and I’m the founder of it)
- tomilan 2mo agoI was actually looking to join hackclub, how should I approach it?
- kaladin-jasnah 2mo agoAs a teenager that spent some time somewhat around Hack Club things, I felt that being a part of Hack Club pressured me to live live faster than I was ready to (like 16 year olds doing summer internships / cohabiting with their partners). I want to say a lot of the people I knew online on Hack Club Slack went to places like MIT, so I guess there's that, but there is some beauty in taking life more slowly. I also didn't want to be boxed into running my school's club with what Hack Club provided. I think they do good things (eg. Hack Club Bank helps students run events before they can financially) and I interacted with a lot of really cool people. But if it is anything like the past, I wanted to share this.
- poopiokaka 2mo ago[dead]
- bunchy7s 2mo agoThanks!
- dyauspitr 2mo agoI hope your username is not a spoiler for wind and truth. I’m about a third of the way through it.
- callbacked 2mo agoyou're an engineer by doing, whereas wannabes don't! very cool project
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- eleventen 2mo agoYou’ll certainly enjoy the “Not an Engineer” channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJJkZm796I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJJkZm796I
- herewulf 2mo ago"Degrees are expensive, just make stuff." From the channel description. I love it!
- poopiokaka 2mo ago[dead]
- welcomezhangjun 2mo agoI built this because I wanted a better way to use multiple AI models during development...
- Sovereign34 2mo ago[flagged]
- toplinesoftsys 2mo agoGreat project! Keep pushing, do not pay attention to anyone saying that AI will replace all software engineers.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- nicechianti 2mo ago[dead]
- cubrift 2mo agoSeriously impressive, you should be proud of yourself! As another (software) engineer your age, being able to be creative is always a thing to be happy about.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- Arshad-Talpur 2mo agoYou are on track ! at the age of 15 you building fantastic, just one word, "Keep Moving Sky is not the limit anymore"
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- shalom1112 2mo ago[dead]
- Izmaki 2mo agoDon’t listen to people telling you not to post your age on the internet. This is solid work and you did this instead of being stuck in one of the hundreds of +1 dopamine traps in Roblox or yelling at other (often times much younger) kids in Fortnite like many of your peers did. You did something meaningful, you even waited to share it with the world until version three, and you learned a ton doing it. Well done, dude!
- mathgeek 2mo agoThere’s no need to put down others to raise up OP. We can praise merit in one pursuit without acting like we are objectively better than others for it. How folks choose to spend their time is a fundamental part of personal freedom.
- ninalanyon 2mo agoI think you can drop the wannabe label. Of course you have a long way to go and much to learn but I think you are already an engineer, just one at the very start of what might be a great career.
- ant6n 2mo ago[flagged]
- _bernd 2mo agoI don't get the down voting. This dude is correct. An "engineer" is typical like a "doctor". Yes I also carry the "system engineer" with me, and yes I have university background, but it's far far away from any serious engineering what's usually done by computer people. I would also argue that an engineer more or less knows what he's doing and can predict the outcome. Most people I observe while they use a computer it's literally a monkey beating metal with flesh....
- viccis 2mo ago"Engineer" is a floating signifier and there's no reason to pretend it's anything otherwise in the US.
- LtWorf 2mo agoThere's at least tens of people who aren't born in the USA.
- firesteelrain 2mo agoOP is in the US where the term “Engineer” does not convey the person is certified or has professional training. That doesn’t mean that certain professional engineering disciplines exist that are regulated in the US. Systems Engineer, Computer Enginner, etc are not in that realm. In the US, engineering is regulated only where public safety is directly at stake. Most engineers work for companies that assume liability for their work.
- bluelightning2k 2mo agoYou are a very talented 15 year old engineer. Not a wannabe. Just getting a head start on the imposter syndrome! Welcome to the club
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- rustcleaner 2mo agoNice. I'm an over-40 year old wannabe engineer too, except I didn't get as far as you on my little pet project: designing a 'universal' gear, based on professor Jack Phillips' work "General Spatial Involute Gearing." So far I can model the basic helicoids in Siemens NX, such that they touch along the ISA (Intermediate Screw Axis) which passes through the CDL (Center Distance Line) in between the gear axes. I have no clue how to proceed from there with actual involute teeth. My idea is to at some point write an NX Open script/module, which takes in various parameters (like selecting the shaft/axes vectors; inputs ratio, pitch, etc.) and spits out something structured like my model.
- fho 2mo agoGood luck with that. NX is such a pain to use compared to other alternatives (commercial and free/open source). NX Open being even more painful because it's basically 90% guesswork.
- rustcleaner 2mo agoI love NX (10-12), it feels very intuitive to me and it's absolutely rock solid compared to Inventor, Solid Edge, and SolidWorks, and it seems like it could run performantly on a literal potato (currently an offline Windows Server 2022 qube with 8GB RAM and 2 vCPUs, no GPU passthrough). If only it were free for minors to play with as a toy, beats Minecraft as a builder!
- fho 2mo agoVersion 10-12 is 10-ish years ago. They switched to yearmonth (e.g. 2604) release names long ago. Let's just say things changed since then. There is also a difference between intuitive and familiar. I learned to CAD on Fusion 360 with no formal education and it just worked. I can use FreeCAD sufficiently well to be productive (it really has become better over the years). I tried OnShape and just started working. I like using OpenSCAD and CadQuery... ... but I still struggle to get spline extrusions to work in NX because you just have to know which buttons to press in which order.
- deleted 2mo ago
- jbs789 2mo agoNice work! Great to see you’re having fun with the projects. As we get older we focus on being productive. Never lose the creativity!
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- WillAdams 2mo agoNice! Can it output SVG files for cutting w/ a CNC?
- xrd 2mo agoCNC uses SVG? I am only familiar with 3d printers and assumed SVG would be too primitive and CNC would use STL or something like that?
- WillAdams 2mo agoSome of the CAM tools, esp. those oriented towards hobbyists will import an SVG --- Vectric Vcarve notably, and (ob. discl., I work for the company) Carbide Create. Ages ago there was a Flash file, PartKam (also forked to MakerCAM) which used SVG as its native format.
- tomilan 2mo agoI do not believe so. It is a python script for autodesk fusion and I am not aware of any way to export SVG's from fusion.
- WillAdams 2mo agoNot an issue though, since Fusion 360 has CAM.
- tim_tairov 2mo agoCool!
- amelius 2mo agoLooks cool, but if you want people to judge your project on its merit, then don't post information about your age; it will make honest feedback difficult both for you and the sender. PS: anyone who can keep their focus on a project for more than a few weeks and complete it can become a fine engineer so don't worry about that.
- HtmlProgrammer 2mo agoI feel the age here helps I’ve context for the feedback. like you aren’t going to recommend they go get a 5k worth piece of machinery or say this is absolutely amateur and is a simple concept and doesn’t deserve discussion
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- gnfargbl 2mo agoIt's cool that OP is enthused by engineering, it's a cool little thing they made, and it's great that the next generation of mechanical engineers are starting out seeing software as a tool in their armoury. Those are the merits I can see here, and in my judgement they're all awesome.
- bulk_thumbnail 2mo ago[dead]
- bilsbie 2mo agoWhat is it?
- tomilan 2mo agoIt acts like a gearbox, allowing you to sacrifice rotational speed for higher torque output. What makes this gearbox type special is their low backlash, multiple points of contact, and high efficiency. It is also unique for not having any teeth and just working due to its specific cycloidal geometry.
- Quarrelsome 2mo agowannabe? there isn't a guild, or a test, its a choice.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- loloquwowndueo 2mo agoBeing pedantic, in many countries, engineering disciplines are regulated and you can’t officially call yourself an engineer until you’ve complied with some requirements etc. So there’s kind of a guild in many places.
- FabCH 2mo agoFYI - There literally are guilds in some countries regulating who can use the title engineer. Although they prefer „chambers“ as a name these days.
- yitchelle 2mo agoCongrats! You are not a wannabe engineer, you are an engineer. If you have the motivation to chase your passion to build these machines, you are already an engineer. Keep going!
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- throwuxiytayq 2mo ago> You are not a wannabe engineer, you are an engineer. And never let anyone tell you otherwise.
- mohamedkoubaa 2mo agoNote to the OP: Mechanical engineering textbooks that are two editions out of date are dirt cheap. If you can't afford them, email me and I'll send some.
- sota_pop 2mo agoImpressive work for someone of any age! - any project that involves hardware or physical objects (especially ones you are manufacturing!) is impressive - the craftsmanship - references to established standards - documentation - actually publishing As others have said here you can drop the “wannabe” tag (or don’t, we’re all wannabes at heart :)) Nice job and keep up the good work!
- once-in-a-while 2mo ago[dead]
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- moustache_hn 2mo agoCool man, really nice project! Awesome that you built and documented the whole thing. Following to see what you build next.
- souravsspace 2mo ago[dead]
- cubano 2mo agoAnytime you can turn a deep personal interest, like designing and building this impressive gearbox, into something that lands you a paid gig somewhere, you have basically hacked the typical employment system and you should be happy and proud that you saved all the time and expense of a 4 year degree to get what you wanted in the first place. Now, it remains to be seen if this project will land you a professional level paid job doing what you seem to love to do, so I think the whole "engineer" question is still up in the air. Yes, anyone can call themselves an engineer but I believe, in the West at least, that until you graduate from an accredited University or have 3-4 solid professional industry experience, calling yourself an engineer might be considered premature.
- varispeed 2mo ago[flagged]
- elsaicequeen 2mo agoV2 to V3 iteration was actually impressive regardless of age
- OldSchool 2mo agoExcellent example of a creative effort that even includes the physical satisfaction of building a physical object! Sometimes that makes it way more fun (motivating), and actually probably helps you learn and understand whatever you're doing more completely by involving another sense. I think in general, there are too few people putting in the deep time that prepares them to be an engineer in their near future. You're practically there already: it will feel the same after perhaps you decide to call yourself a degreed "engineer" but you will have more mental tools, broader knowledge, confidence from having been able to make what you envision, understanding across disciplines. You have a lot to look forward to! As I told my kids: don't let imposter syndrome take hold of you for a moment! You are a rarity in any group.
- nomadfreejobs 2mo ago[dead]
- Cameri 1mo agoYou are an engineer
- ethannam9022 1mo agoThis is awesome. Really impressive that you’re building stuff like this so young — can’t wait to see what you make next.