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Posted by Kevin Gomez on July 22, 2006, 10:23 pm
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Rich the Dad,
One thing to consider (if this is the "right track" to lead the
daughter...;), is that spinning objects have angular momentum - which may
not be an issue when rendering still images. With video, there should be a
minimum speed and this should be factored into the mechanical design to
minimise inertia and into electronics - spinning down fast is a little
harder than spinning up fast.
My vote would be to use servos (like other posters mentioned) which cost
under $10/ea. Forget linkages. Keep the output shaft stationary and use the
body of the servo to mount your aesthetically pleasing material of choice.
Keep the modules small and self contained like Legos. Use a controller like
the one offered by Lynxmotion - which controls 32 at a time (and allows for
synchronized group moves..) and costs ~$40/ea viz a little over a dollar per
"pixel".
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx?productID=395&CategoryID=52
Hope you have a fun and memorable time.
Kevin
>
>> Or.. the motor could be variably spun, producing many subtle states of
>> appearance.
>
> I like this idea a lot. Use centrifical force to move "something"
> farther as the motor spins faster, and a spring to retract the
> "something" as the motor slows down. The "something" could open
> and close around a ball possibly containing the motor, it could open
> a "fan" like item like a peacocks tail feathers, it could make something
> larger or smaller, or many other types of changes in shape and color.
>
> You might need to feed the very small computer signal to a "transistor"
> for each motor to control the higher current for each motor, but the
> cost is almost negligable. I quoted "transistor" because many
> different semiconductor devices could be used, not just transistors.
>
> Interesting project.
>
> HobbyBot
>
>
>
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> appearance.