Any good engineering forums?

[jkkkjkhk]

For anyone here who's an expert or has experience in technology/engineering, do you know any good forums to check out? I really don't know the industry but for most ideas I come up with at least a basic knowledge would be immensely helpful. In short what I'm trying to do is take a large number of sensors, I'm thinking retro reflective IR sensors attached to machinery to detect a person within roughly 1 meter. The data could be viewed from an website/app in real time to see what machinery is being used and at what time.

Sorry to be so vague but I don't want to give out too much information. So with the little information given does anyone have advice as to a forum or site to ask questions or even just learn more about this type of technology?

Thank you for any help

 

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[JasonR]

Pick. Up. The. F*cking. Phone.

You will learn more from calling 100 Engineering firm than wasting a year on a forum.

Source: Have done this before.

 

[jkkkjkhk]

I appreciate the advice, and for the record no I have not done that before. Not really a fear, just don't know who I'd be calling or really what I'd say. I'm not a very good speaker, even 1 on 1, but it's definitely something I need to get over. Thank you for the advice, I'll research some engineering firms tonight and I'll start making some calls tomorrow morning.

 

[Developmental]

Eng-Tips is a good one

but I too second what @JasonR said - I spent 4 years getting an engineering degree (Mechanical I'm afraid so I'm of no use with that electrickery-voodoo you speak of) and know that you will be far better off going finding a consultant engineer than trying to figure it yourself

My area of interest is failure analysis and I used to go to specialists for stress analysis - despite being an engineer myself and being capable of doing the calculations I still went to someone who was an expert as these topics are so diverse you could do a degree in a very niche area of engineering because there is so much to it.

That forum might be a good way of understanding how your idea might actually be used in industry though as there is a huge cross section of the engineering community on there - all from workshop techies to Phd lecturers/researchers

 

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[Blhhi]

Forums are for theories and ideas. What @JasonR is basically saying is contact people who build prototypes (on elance or something), ask them to build it, and ask what it'd cost. Be picky. Look for someone who will build it free and charge you only if they actually make it. No use asking if it's possible. The only way to know is to try and see.

 

[jkkkjkhk]

Eng-Tips is a good one

but I too second what @JasonR said - I spent 4 years getting an engineering degree (Mechanical I'm afraid so I'm of no use with that electrickery-voodoo you speak of) and know that you will be far better off going finding a consultant engineer than trying to figure it yourself

My area of interest is failure analysis and I used to go to specialists for stress analysis - despite being an engineer myself and being capable of doing the calculations I still went to someone who was an expert as these topics are so diverse you could do a degree in a very niche area of engineering because there is so much to it.

That forum might be a good way of understanding how your idea might actually be used in industry though as there is a huge cross section of the engineering community on there - all from workshop techies to Phd lecturers/researchers

Thanks for the link, I'll check that out as well. I'm going to call some engineering firms shortly, not sure what to say or who to look for but I'll figure it out. I agree it's better I talk to someone who knows vs trying to figure it out.

Forums are for theories and ideas. What @JasonR is basically saying is contact people who build prototypes (on elance or something), ask them to build it, and ask what it'd cost. Be picky. Look for someone who will build it free and charge you only if they actually make it. No use asking if it's possible. The only way to know is to try and see.

Thanks, but not quite at that point yet. I'm still at R&D, trying to get a better understanding of the technology I need to make my idea work. Once I know what I'm looking at and what I need I will then find a prototype builder.