Varshith Reddy Solipuram

Stove Controller

Turn the heat up or down from your phone via Bluetooth/Wi-Fi

A one-day DIY build to control my stove with my phone via WiFi/Bluetooth. Designed and printed a servo mount that can just snap onto the regulator board. Glued the servo to the horn adapter so that it can turn the knob. Now I also can set it to turn off in whatever pattern I want it to. High for 5 mins, then simmer for 15 mins and turn off. Since it also has manual control, I can sit in my room working on my homework and just turn the stove off without moving an inch.

• Winter '18
• Detroit, MI

Dihedral Synchro-Helical hinge

3D printed version of the door hinge that is used in the Koenigsegg cars. 3D files can be downloaded here.

• Summer '19
• Detroit, MI

2D - Plotter

A simple retrofit to convert a 3D-printer to a 2D- Plotter.

A holder clipped on to the extruder to plot any G-Code onto anything. Useful to mark holes or pick up points accurately on parts. Can also hold a precision knife to cut an outline on a sheet or a cardboard. Image converted to svg in Inkscape and the path is exported to G-Code. G-Code can be calibrated using Repetier.

• Summer '19
• Detroit, MI

Composite Laminate Analyzer

A brute force script that analyzes all possible laminate combinations with a pre-defined increment to find the best possible ply combinations.

The task for the final project of my 'Mechanics of Composite materials' course was to design a 6-ply composite for the top spar cap of a wind-mill. After deciding on the loads, I decided to use our university's high performance computing grid to run around 5 million combination of plies and the and it resulted in a ply combination that was stronger than anyone else's by at-least a factor of 7. The .m files can be found here.

• Fall '18
• ME 5720

Ronin: Zero

Full space-frame formula student car.

After completing our first formula student competition in 2015 successfully, we set out on a journey to build a better, faster car for the SupraSAE India '16 competition. I spearheaded the Chassis, CAD/CAE part of the vehicle and designed and analyzed the vehicle in SolidWorks. With many wild ideas and the knowledge gained from our seniors, I also got a to work on some off-beat concepts. You can read more details about it here.

• Fall 2016 2016
• Ampere Motorsport India

Iron Helmet: Mark 42

I'm. Not. Iron Man.

Arduino Nano controlling four-bar linkage actuated by a single SG-90 servo. Has programmable WS2812b LEDs and is activated by a touch switch. All components are integrated into a single wiring harness that can all be packed into the helmet. Powered by 4x1v2 NiMH batteries and controlled by an Arduino Nano.

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1-D Music Visualizer

A reactive LED Strip for my work Desk.

A hobby project to decorate my desk. A 41-Pixel WS2812b LED strip that lights up with music. More details here.

• Summer '18
• Detroit

Spheron

An omni-directional autonomous spherical rolling robot.

Inspired by Goodyear's Eagle-360 and BB-8 from Star Wars, I decided to build an omni-directional autonomous spherical robot. Built the casing by laying fiber-glass and 2 layers of Carbon-Fibre over a 15-inch beach ball. The drive unit inside was coupled to the sensor unit on the top by Neodymium magnets and the communication was enabled via a radio transmitter-receiver unit. The sensor had two ultra-sonic ranging sensors which pings the distance to ground and will detect an obstacle of a given height(I put 5cm) and stop the drive unit inside via the radio. More details here.

• April '17
• Hyderabad

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TARS

The bulk being.

Am making the robot from Interstellar with three axially mounted servos. Designed the parts and printed it with PLA. It was featured on Hackaday.io. Yay! You can read more here.

• Winter '18
• Detroit

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Live Racing

A hacked RC car with a camera mounted on top controlled over the internet via a Raspberry Pi

Control the car with live video stream anywhere on the planet. Find more here.

Cone-Screw SuperCharger

An electric prototype supercharger.

A senior's idea to extract more power from our RE 500cc engine. A double helix wrapped around a cone with inlet and outlet at the opposite ends and the motor would be mounted to the head of the cone. Flow-Simulation resulted in 6psi boost at 1000rads/s and 0.75N-m of torque. Theoretically, this would boost the engine's naturally aspirated 25hp to ~32hp peak power.here.

• July 2016
• Hyderabad

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Graphic Design

When words fall short.

Being in a Formula Student team and a student association has allowed me to acquire another powerful skill and tool: Graphic Design. I found my interest in this field in my second year of under-grad where I designed websites and posters for an event called AutoCognizance, a technical festival in my college for all things cars. I continued to put these skills to supplement my technical work and kept improving along the way. I primarily use Gimp and Blender, both of which are free and open source software for Image and Video editing.

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