Mini 6 dof Arm. 3D printed planetary gearboxs & more… [📍GitHub link below ] A mini 6-axis arm driven by stepper motors with custom 3D printed split ring planetary gearboxs and an inverted belt differential wrist with custom bearings, driven by low-cost stepper motors and TMC5150 drivers. Custom firmware was written in C for the STM32 MCU on an BTT Octopus board, to allow for full closed loop PID control using AS5048a encoders daisy-chained over SPI. The controller takes joint targets and returns joint states to a Raspberry Pi 5 streamed over CAN bus. All credit to @JamesGullberg: 📍GitHub: —— Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free:

Hot take: putting real precision gearboxes and actuators into series production is the bottleneck. China is pumping out volume, yes. From what I hear, the high-precision things are mainly still not there. So now the question... do you think that’s where Europe’s hidden champions come in? Wrong answers only. (Video is mine. After all the Astra hype the last few days I just wanted to play around with it too. Not affiliated with Schaeffler or Bosch.)

HPDM-180R • Electric motor + inverter + reduction gearbox • 180kW (240hp) continuous • 3000rpm • 16.7kg What enables this performance + High thermal conductivity, low-AC-loss stator winding + >99% efficient integrated SiC inverter + In-house manufactured advanced magnetic core lamination stacks + DMLS additive housing with synergistic cooling architecture + Single-stage planetary gearbox with titanium carrier

🚀 PRODUCT LAUNCH: HPDM-180R - Highly integrated system — Electric motor + inverter + planetary gearbox - 180 kW in a 16 kg package (11 kW/kg) - 3000 RPM shaft speed — ideal for propeller-driven applications - Peak system efficiency of 94.6% #deeptech# #electricmotors#

THIS GUY BUILT A MANUAL SHIFTER TO SWITCH BETWEEN CLAUDE MODELS LIKE SHIFTING GEARS IN A CAR instead of clicking through a dropdown, you use a physical gear stick to change which model youre running it maps to a real gearbox, low gears for the light fast models, high gears for the heavy ones: > 1st gear is haiku, the quick little runabout > 2nd is sonnet 5, 3rd is sonnet 5 with the 1m context window for bigger jobs > 4th is opus 4.8, and 5th is fable 5, top gear, the most powerful > reverse just drops you back to your default model > theres even a token usage gauge on top like a speedometer, and of course he built the whole thing with claude, for claude its completely pointless and thats exactly why everyone (including me) loves it its the kind of thing you make just because it would be funny to code with a stick shift im wondering what happens if you throw it in reverse

Demand for compact megawatt-class diesel gensets is exploding in marine & industrial sectors - thanks to US shipbuilding, AI datacenters, and oil & gas. In response, we're building a modular 2MW genset system built around our HPDM-500 generators and a custom developed gearbox. Our first implementation is with a CAT C32B engine, but the system can bolt up to any engine from 500kW to 2MW with an SAE 0 interface. Key value adds: -Compact footprint: C32B system is ~9 ft shorter than conventional gensets at this power level - critical for hybridized ships where weight and space matter - Native high-voltage HVDC output (600–800 VDC): Integrated power electronics provide direct DC output, eliminating standalone rectifier cabinets and reducing conversion losses (~99% efficient). This architecture is well-suited for modern DC-distribution systems, including emerging 800 V-class data center platforms. - Fault-tolerant architecture: The multisector design of the HPDM-500 enables graceful degradation and continued operation in the event of component-level faults—critical for mission-critical marine and industrial applications.

Production @Tesla Semi. The one so called “experts” said was impossible: • Travels 500+ real-world miles fully loaded (82K lbs), and about 600 miles half loaded. • 1.7 kWh/mile efficiency. ~7x less efficient than a Model Y despite being ~20x heavier (loaded). • Does 0-60 mph in 12.5 seconds. 24 seconds fully loaded. • The first Tesla with a power-coated exterior. • The drive unit is based on the Plaid motor (from S/X), but the carbon fiber sleeved rotor has been swapped for a steel-caged rotor. It makes it cheaper, lighter, more efficient, and more reliable. Total output is 1,073 hp. • The gearbox and motor share the same oil. Semi can last onwards of 250K+ miles without a fluid change vs 30-50K miles traditionally with diesel. • Semi uses fully electric power steering (there’s still a physical connection), it’s said to feel like a sports car rather than a typical semi. • Semi's thermal system was designed together with Cybercab. It shares the same pumps, compressor, and heat exchangers, and the Semi just has a bigger radiator. • Just like other Teslas, the driver profile carries over settings, seating positions, media, etc. All through their phone. Such a beast.

Robotics essentials: HUMANOID ROBOT COST Ask what makes a humanoid expensive and the instinct's answer is the AI. It isn't. On a Unitree G1 teardown, the entire compute stack, the chip the robot thinks with, is about 3% of the bill of materials. The joints are 66%. Actuators run half to two-thirds of what a humanoid costs to build: motor, gearbox, encoder, thirty-odd times over. Hands are the next lump, roughly a fifth on their own, which is why so many robots ship with a claw. Sensors and battery are rounding errors beside the motors. The cost curve is falling faster than the people modelling it expected. Goldman penciled in 15 to 20% a year. It fell 40% in a single year, and they pulled their consumer forecast forward by two to four years. This is no longer a projection: Unitree's IPO filing shows its average humanoid selling price dropping from about $85,000 in 2023 to about $25,000 last year, at a 63% gross margin. A G1 lists at $13,500 today. The R1 is $5,900. The reason is a supply chain, and it is in one country. Morgan Stanley priced the same Optimus two ways: about $46,000 built with Chinese components, about $131,000 without. Roughly triple. China holds around 63% of the world's supply of the mechanical parts, the motors, the reducers, the screws. Every high-torque joint needs a magnet, and every good magnet needs dysprosium and terbium. China's export controls on exactly those elements have been in force since April 2025, and the truce covering the rest expires in November.