Clockwork Fairies
Here's a little something I constructed as a holiday gift for my daughter. Wooden box with acrylic front and prismatic flowers, leds, "clockwork" fairies, etc.
The leds cycle through various patterns; the leds inside the box cast insteresting reflections around the inside of the box. When the user waves their hand in front of the IR emitter/detector pair, a small gearbox motor cranks the fairies back and forth for a random time.
A small photoresistor detects when the lights have been shut off -- in that case the box shuts down with the leds dimly twinkling and nothing will start the motor. In the morning it "wakes" up after several minutes of daylight.
The circuitry is built around an SX, which is used for driving some of the leds, the IR pair, and sigma-delta ADC on the CDS cell. A ULN2803 sink driver runs the motor and the led bank inside the box.
The SXB/assembly code cycles through the patterns at different speeds; a flag set by the main state machine lets the leds either be run in a bitmap "pattern" mode (each led is on/off) or pwm mode, where each led can have pwm brightness level and ramp speed set. The effects are quite striking -- at high speeds the bitmap patterns approach "solidity"; the pwm random modes are very "twinkly".
The fairy art was created by me and printed to high-quality matte photo paper (the kind with plasticized finish), and mounted to air-craft plywood cutouts and trimmed. The rest of the construction was just from bits I had lying around.
Build photos, schematic, source, art template attached to this post.
Very short and crappy video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=As3hEiGaM_s
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
create bitmap data tool: 1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
resistor ladder tool: 1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
convert images to ascii art: 1uffakind.com/apptoys/convtoascii/
Post Edited (Zoot) : 6/30/2010 11:42:44 PM GMT
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1964 x 1259 - 677K
Comments
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
Something interesting to me is the mechanics. How did you go about designing the mechanics? Not only does your figures turn, but are also lit, thanks to your hollow shaft.
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
I've read that some spray paints are conductive so its kept me from doing something like this.
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
This REALLY ought to be featured in a magazine article!!
Vern
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
Vern
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Whit+
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney