Ciao UDOOers, welcome to another Strager talk. This time we have a fellow Italian answering our questions. It’s Enrico Reticcioli, a UDOOer that posted an interesting project on our Facebook page. Get t know him and his project better! This is Stranger Talks – Enrico edition.

First, the basics. Who are you?
I’m Enrico Reticcioli, from L’Aquila, In Italy. I have a master’s degree in telecommunications engineering and am currently a second-year doctorate student.

How did you first learn about UDOO?
I was looking for an on-board PC to use within a monitoring and control project of buildings through the SCADA systems for my master’s degree final thesis. So I backed my very first Kickstarter project, the UDOO X86 ADVANCED.

What was your first UDOO product?
The UDOO X86 Advanced was my first product, now I’m looking into purchasing the UDOO BOLT.

How are you using your UDOO board(s) at the moment?
At the moment I’m using it as an SDN network to experiment with new machine learning algorithms. In the past, I used it to collect data coming from a SCADA system in a uni building through LabView.

What are your future projects using UDOO BOLT?
I’ll keep using it to experiment machine learning techniques and new SDN networks applications(??) for sure, but I’d also like to mount it on a drone with a USRP to look for missing persons

How long have you been working with 3D software?
I’ve been applying small changes to projects designed from other people for roughly 3 years, ever since buying my first 3D printer. I’ve designed just a few projects starting from scratch because they require a lot of time.

You’ve designed a unique case for the UDOO X86. Why choosing a thermal filament?
I liked the idea of seeing how the heath distribution around the UDOO X86 is like, and mostly I was tired of “static” cases.

How did you design the case? The future readers of Stranger Talks – Enrico need to know
I based it on another Thingiverse project and using SketchUp, after a few tries, I managed to achieve the final result you can view at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3683547

Can you confess a noobie mistake you did in the past that you learned from?
I must admit, there are many. I happened to invert the polarity of a few SBC and burn them as a result. A double-check is always welcome, never give anything for granted.
Regarding 3D printing, I have failed to print many times. The worst failures happen when a part of the print gets detached from the plate and the PLA pours out, creating a sort of cocoon all around the extruder breaking every support around the hot-end.

Did you overcome a tech challenge you’re proud of? Would you like to tell the tale?
For sure my thesis’ project gave me the same amount of troubles and proud moments*. I managed to interface with two proprietary SCADA systems (so with no documentation) already integrated with a building hosting the department of Human Sciences here at L’Aquila.
I managed to recover data coming from all the sensors and actuators in the local network, applying machine learning algorithms to create a model of the building and apply a controller to optimize power-saving options and checking some system framework.

Do you have any suggestions for people that are just approaching the 3D-world?

Get informed before starting up. Going from the first print to the first successful print is going to take some time, independently from the initial cost of the 3D printer. Don’t give up and don’t be afraid to ask for help to forums or friends and colleagues with more experience.

Do you have any IT unrelated hobbies?
I’m a board games aficionado, I especially like miniature games. Painting miniatures relaxes me.

Is there a dream piece of software or hardware you’d like us to create?
I could really use some miniaturized USRP based on FPGA with at least 3 USB input. Maybe the next UDOO could be a project like this, instead of an Arduino.

Your last words?
Keep on developing increasingly performing boards! And keep giving small satisfactions to other makers, as you did with this interview. Thank you!

So that’s it for now. We’ll be back with another interview soon! Thank you for reading and remember: there’s nothing you can’t do.

The UDOO Team