u/holo_mectok

I tried using perlin noise and then cutting contours , I get the random contours but i dont any idea how to get the droopy surface

I built a simple torsion spring winder for my clock kits as I needed to wind a lot of them. The number of turns is preprogramed for this particular spring. The pcb is a custom board with a attiny84 and a 4988 stepper driver. The motor is a pg25L wit a weird gear ratio. The gear ratio is 2:1 to speed up the shaft as the speed of the motor is limited by the attiny84. The board is programmed in the arduino ide.

The torlo was born out of the idea of using a simple oscillating motor as a power source. The Voice coil of a scarp laptop HDD fit the bill nicely. The Voice coil with its powerful magnets has enough brunt to push a bunch of 3d printed gears .The basic idea of the torlo was adapted from the previous holo clock and taken further. The gears of the clock hang to one side and the rings to the other side of the frame. The voice coil is located in the center of the drive train and is driven by an attiny pulsing it every 2 seconds. The balance wheel when pulsed pushes a cam and a ratchet to turn the clock 2 seconds further. Rest of the clock is a simple drive train driving the minute and hour rings which display the time..

I am having a hard time rendering a birds eye view in d5 pro. It always tends to have these dark shadows. I tried cloudy sky but that is very flat. Also i put shadow highlight to the highest and still the shadows are dark. can you please suggest some strategies to fix this . Photoshop shadow highlight is a way but that makes things flat. Any photoshop wizs can chime in.

The clock consists of the tops arms and the bottom base. The long arm contains 2 stepper motors, The arduino and the stepper drivers. The Stepper motors although being small consist of a gearbox pulled out of big servo motors. This gives them enough torque to lift the arm . Motor - A is directly linked to pivot of the small arm and rotates it directly. Motor - B is rotates the bottom drum which is linked with belts to the central drum and top arm. If the arm is anchored with the bottom drum then the arm rotates  about the bottom drum .When it is anchored to the top drum the arms pivot around the bottom drum via the belts. The arms can anchor to the top, center and bottom drums depending on what kind of movement is required.

The drums have a small magnet mounted on the pivot . The angle of the magnet is sensed using a As5600 rotary sensor which gives the angle feedback to the arduino about the arm location . This avoid unnecessary crashes into the base. 

The base consists of two servos which act as the anchors to the arms as well as provide power to the arm. The servos consist of two metal hooks which power the arms with copper clips in the top bottom and center drums. The arms and the base communicate wirelessly using nrf24l01  radio modules. The arms contain the master arduino which does the heavy lifting and sends command to the base to open or close as needed.

The tricky part was power distribution though rotating joints. The power is run though diy slip rings and brushes on every rotary joint. Developing reliable ones out of copper strips and 3d printed parts was a major PITA. 

Another big problem is error handling in case when the arms don't anchor properly. This one is something I am still working on. The anchoring is a bit unreliable and sometimes the arms crash and halt the clock completely. The drums are not very durable and cannot take the repeated abuse of closing and opening and need to be ideally out of aluminum .That is next target

i attached a 3d print to the head of a old 3dr delta printer and had a little fun with it using custom gcode to blow soap bubble for my daughter. Completely a over kill

I built this spirograph using 3 stepper motors and a arduino cnc sheild and 3 potentiometers to control the speed of the motors. 2 motors turn the arms and a third one turns the base table with is a big plywood disk .The stepper motors are 35mm tin can stepper motors for the arms and the base has a geared 25mm stepper motor turning a 3d printed gear screwed to the wooden disk.

My 13 year old daughter got tired of her generic mouse and turned it into her whale character called "Whaley". She used the parts from her donor generic wireless mouse.

My 13 year old daughter got tired of her generic mouse and turned it into her whale character called "Whaley" . She used the inside of her mouse and designed and 3d printed a body around it

made a simple sculpture based on a mobius strip. The only cheat is that the center ring is a steal ring with a open joint so that the pieces could be inserted in the ring. The sculpture is driven by a dc motor in the base via a spur gear train