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Thread: Project: Motorized Madness!

  1. #41
    Modders block rendermandan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Quote Originally Posted by MintyMadness View Post
    Render - Don't give up man! I'm sure we can brainstorm something between everyone here! Honestly, I don't have any ideaon how to improve upon what you have already made. I doubt I could even get it to the point it is now! Maybe you should find an old camera, and take it apart. study the shutter and see how it is constructed. Maybe if you made less vanes? What if it were 4 or 5 main vains instead of 20? That would at least leave a little more room for error (as in - not needing to be laser-accurate..)

    -Jeremy
    Good suggestion Minty, However here is what happens with less vanes. The fewer vanes you have, the thicker they have to be to cover the gap from one vane to the other. So if they are real thick (wide) then when they open, they can only open as far untill they hit the pin of the next vane. This wil make the opening smaller because they are wider. That is why I went to 20 and they were very thin, I think I just have to find a happy medium between number of vanes and width to how large of an opening.

    I have an idea about cutting a notch on the back side of the vane to fit around the pin of the adjacent vane though. I'm working on drawing that up
    but I think I will still need the laser cutting. I actually isn't that hard to do, My friend is a teacher at a local high school, and they have a laser etcher that will cut through thin material. I might have to give him a call. They also have a rapid prototyper too. That thing is kick ass!

  2. #42
    Post count? Get over it. Drew's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Gutted for ya man, absolutely gutted.

    This is the point where I lose the plot and sling the lot in a corner and stamp on it.

    Fair play, you'll get there.

  3. #43
    Modders block rendermandan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Hey you guys, I received my servos and controller yesterday. I should be able to play around with it tonight!

  4. #44
    Thinks spherical |NQ|Squelsh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Hey Renderman,
    I rendered an scene for an intro-video with a door that works like your Iris... And I needed some hours just to make it work in virtual-reality. I admire you for turning this into reality
    I really hope that you get this to work with laser-cut parts!
    How thick is the material you use for the fins?
    My CaseCons:

    -=| The Orb |=- - - -=| CUBE 2 |=- - - -=| Reactor |=-

  5. #45
    Fresh Paint
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Very impressive.

    I caught wind of this through the Lynxmotion forums you posted on. This is something I would like to get into if I had the time.

    A suggestion on the iris: the control of the vanes needs to be moved closer to the end points to eliminate slop. I'm not clear on what your idea is for a fix, but I would try adding a small piece of tube at the end point of each vane and passing some fishing line through each loop. Though this may limit the size of the opening a bit..

    Another suggestion would be to make/use 3 or so compound vanes, which may offer the stability of less vanes with a larger opening.

    Whatever you do, I can't wait to see what comes next..

  6. #46
    Goobe danthegeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Eveen if it does have some gaps it looks awesome. I say, play with it and it may get close enough to your standards. Freakin awesome job Dan.

    +rep if I could


    Click here for the Battlefield 2 L.A.N. Pc worklog.

  7. #47
    Modders block rendermandan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Thanks you guys, I talked to my buddy with the laser etcher, he said we should be able to do it but in a few weeks. they are just getting classes started and he wanted to wait till things settle down. So for now, I'll just work on another part of it.

    I got he electronics from Lynxmotion.com and I have to say, I'm very impressed. The shipping was very fast! The packaging was impecable. they used very heavy clear plastic bags that had every part I ordered sealed in its own "pouch" and very clearly labled. -Everything was accounted for and in good order. -I would recommend buying from them to anyone!

    Here is the hardware I purchased: there is alot!


    here is a usb to serial cable I ordered from newegg.



    Here is the pouch of 6 servos that I orderd. here are the specs:
    Speed: 0.23 sec/60° @ 4.8V
    Torque: 4.4 kg-cm (61 oz-in) at 4.8V
    Length: 38.8mm (1.52")
    Width: 19.8mm (0.77")
    Height: 36.0mm (1.41")
    Weight: 40g (1.41oz)

    I couldn't find specs for 6.0v which is what I'm running them at. so the torque and speeds are actually higher than listed.



    Here is it all put together. You see the SSC-32 Controller, The serial to usb cable, a power cable with switch that plugs into a 6V wall adapeter that I didnt' show, and 2 of the servos.



    Programming it was very easy and almost worked the first time around. it didn't because I had the baud rating set wrong, but once I changed a jumper on the board, everyting started to work like a charm.

    I sat down and wrote 2 text files. one called open, and one called close.
    it was simple 2 line code that simply told the servo where to go and at what speed. thats it.

    here is the open code:

    #1 P1500 S1000
    #3 P1500 S1000

    the close is basically the same only with different numbers.

    then I wrote two batch files that I loaded into the local computer policy startup and shutdown scripts. that simply send the open and close text files to the com port.

    thats it. when I start my computer and it goes into the welcome screen to ask for the user name and password, the 2 servos go to the open position.

    then when I shut down, during the time where windows says "saving system settings" there is another one now called running scripts. And that is when the servos move to the close position.

    What is cool about this, is I can have it completly automated to open and close all doors automaticaly without hitting anything.

    But If I wanted to control something indepentantly, i could. all I have to do is write a .txt file and a batch file. then when i click on the batch file, it will do whatever I want it to. KICK ASS!!!!

    I do need to give the good people over at lynxmotion a very large THANK YOU! for helping me get this running and figure all this out. here is a link to the forum Thread I started so they could help me.
    http://www.lynxmotion.net/viewtopic.php?t=2710
    If anyone has any questions about motorization or robotics, these guys should be able to help you, they were just as friendly as the people on this forum.

    I'm so glad this works... Now, let the modding begin!

  8. #48
    Overclocked Remy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Well, I'm glad to see that you got that working. I had planned to do the same thing on my mod. Nice to see that it's so easy.



    I reject your reality and substitute my own

  9. #49
    Spam Sniper SgtM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    It's looking GREAT Dan! +rep.

  10. #50
    Post count? Get over it. Drew's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project: Motorized Madness!

    Nice job, getting into writing batch files and stuff is something I find a bit scary, well done for sticking with it and sussing it out!

    +rep that man.

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