Agenda:
12:00: Assignment/Website Review and continued introductions.
12:30: Power, motors / Soldering. Safety reminders:
- Wear eye protection.
- Use fume extractors.
- Don't touch hot stuff.
- Lead waste goes in lead waste tubs.
- Wash hands after soldering.
Labs:
Build mechanisms using the Automata Tinkering Kit.
Work on kinetic sculpture assignment. Make sure you're comfortable with the skills covered in class.
Readings:
Mechanism design, Principles of mechanical design, chapters 4 and 8 of Making Things Move.
Power, motors, soldering.
Review Ohm's Law and Analog vs. Digital inputs
Assignment:
- Create a kinetic sculpture. Include circuitry to move your sculpture.
- Use a multimeter to measure the voltages in your circuit. Use Ohm's law to calculate current through the circuit.
- Document your work and learning. Include at least one video/gif of your sculpture.
Some good precedents include Sophie's flock of birds, Kassia's dancers, Chris's Geneva drive, and Megan's bird. Some examples of kinetic sculptures made with common household supplies can be seen from last summer's course, especially Silvia's clever use of string, Michelle's method of making circular cams, and Avi's automatic highlighter.
Resources:
Modeling gears in Fusion360 from scratch is a useful exercise. But you can also use a script to help automate the process. The first half of this video shows you how.
Look up artists like Arthur Ganson and others. These pieces probably took more than a few days to complete, but likely many of them started with study models made from things like cardboard and simple DC motors.
Here is a fun old reference for mechanisms: 507 Mechanical Movements, and offshoots.
Rob's example of using simple materials and joining in a prototype. And some extremely rapid prototypes
Adhesive advice at thistothat.com
Drilling a centered hole for a motor coupler.