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Holy FBD, Batman! Using Engineering Analysis to Improve Your Designs

A new engineer, I was getting used to the “excitement” of cubicle life when something (finally) happened. We’d stiffened part of our flow meters a month prior, and one of our customers started complaining about breakage. The graybeards upstairs were defending the change, while my engineering partner was struggling to explain why the minor tweak […]

Teardown

Alpine Headphones Teardown with LUNAR

We recently hosted an awesome live teardown event with Andrew Zee, Engineering Director and Terence Kwan, Senior Industrial Designer at LUNAR. Throughout the teardown, Andrew and Terence share their insider’s perspectives on the product design secrets behind the development of Alpine Headphones. During the live online teardown, Andrew and Terence walk through the unique industrial design […]

Teardown

Nintendo Switch Teardown

At 8pm on Thursday, March 2, 2017, a long line of loyal Nintendo fans and eBay resellers already formed around the block at San Francisco’s SOMA Best Buy. The new Nintendo Switch dropped at midnight on March 3. Naturally, we got in line, but unlike most fans who went home and played Zelda all night […]

Article

Intro to Haptic Technology: Vibration Motors

Remember the days of flip phones and physical alpha-numeric keys, where you pressed physical buttons to enter phone numbers and send text messages? We’ve come a long way since then, with modern smartphones and replacing buttons with capacitive touchscreens. Despite the technological advances, there’s something I miss about those physical keys. Maybe it was the […]

Article

PCB Design: How to Balance Functionality in the Context of Mechanical Constraints

As data and connectivity continue to be popular themes in tech, engineers are increasingly tasked with packing more features into smaller products, which often leads to deeply integrated electromechanical designs and complex assemblies. This guide aims to outline a framework for electrical and mechanical engineers to identify easily overlooked PCB design issues, minimize revision cycles, […]

Article

Designing for the Unknown: How NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab Engineers a Mission on Mars

We humans have turned our faces heavenward since we can remember—no doubt at the same time as we painted animals in caves and learned to make fire. Thousands of years later, we stand at the incredible moment in our history when we’ve successfully landed a creature of our own making on another planet: the Rover. […]

Teardown

Playstation VR Aim Controller Teardown

We are intrigued by how friendly-looking the PlayStation VR Aim game controller, designed for playing First Person Shooter (FPS) games on the PlayStation VR system, is. Stylistically, it certainly matches the futuristic looking PlayStation VR headset. There are plenty of FPS controllers out there that look like real machine guns, so we appreciate that the […]

eBook

Competitive Teardown Report: Fitbit Charge 2, Samsung Gear Fit 2, Garmin Vivosmart HR+

In this 34-page report, we investigate how three top-tier fitness wearables each showcase engineering innovation in four areas of interest: 1. Design for Assembly (DFA)2. Waterproofing Techniques3. Band-to-Body Attachment Mechanisms4. Space Management Complete Bill of Materials In addition to our in-depth analysis on each of these areas of interest, the report includes a full BOM […]

Article

Ready, Set, GO! Drone Design Through Rapid Iteration

If you’ve ever been to Fictiv HQ, either to pick up parts for one of our events, or simply just to say hi and chat about hardware, you may have seen our drone prototypes. For those unfamiliar with them, these prototypes are a series of material samples in the form of mini drone bodies and […]

Teardown

SpaceNavigator 3D Mouse Teardown

Today, we’re tearing down a popular 3D mouse, the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator. For folks producing and manipulating three-dimensional CAD files, using a standard mouse and keyboard can be tricky. Welcome to the world of controlling rotation, position, and height using one hand! We’ll take a look at the components that make this mouse both highly usable and […]