Locomatrix - 3D POV - a different approach

So I fought with blender for the last 3 or 4 days to get this video rendered and cut 50% out. I made a fatal mistake and recorded the whole thing in 50fps and had to find a way to recode it to 25fps - sad that I will have to use Magic Lantern just for the option to record 1280x720 at 25fps, but I will try it. This is unscripted and you can clearly hear me thinking :D There is a jump mark to get to the part where it's moving. Sounds like an old film projector, so I still hope I can get something 3D out of it.

I want to have some clean, new and updated prints - so I had to basically redesign everything, except the gear parts. The gear that is stuck on the motor is bought and still on there. The motor will be fixed with screws and the standard screw size is M3 now. It's currently printing in full with 140mil layer height of orange ABS. I will update this log, as soon as the prints are done.

• reprint parts that were not printed on the zortrax and that warped a lot
• use different / decoupled power supplies for each system
• add a click counter in software and test without mechanics

see for yourself...

I just thought about turning a rubik cube into an interface or lock by using 6 encoders as a way to grab the rotation and send those inputs to an rgb 3x3x3 cube or 8x8x8 rgb locomatrix, when ready ;) I'm still sidetracked by my continuum quantum device prop build, repairing and upgrading my printrbot simple and work of course but always try to come up how to integrate functions and interfaces into props and things laying around. 

Googe found me this:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671039/a-music-making-interface-that-riffs-on-the-rubik-s-cube

Ha, and this, so I'm not the first - good!

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131206-transform-an-entire-building-into-a-playable-rubik-cube.html

http://interactive.javierlloret.com/puzzlefacade/

The community voting today alarmed me to finally put in a contest entry to have at least a glance at winning something. This doesn't feel like the best choice for the contest to win it, but I could not come up with something really good "connected thing" and didn't want to start a new project so I felt the best would be to pick an existing. Let me go through the pros and cons of my projects.

Towani Lifesign Device

[http://hackaday.io/project/616-Towani-Lifesign-Wristdevice---Star-Wars-Ewoks]

it would be interesting enough to put this to a next level by connecting it to the internet somehow, since its health related and has a social component as well. But it's not unique and not my Idea in the first place - you've seen it in star wars. Sounds like way too much trouble to get the licenses. 

Sonic Screwdriver

[http://hackaday.io/project/972-Sonic-Screwdriver]

The same here for the licenses since BBC and Doctor Who are a big number and frankly my sonic is a colored flashlight with annoying sounds and a 433MHz transmitter. Why would I connect that with anything. 

Locomatrix 3D POV

[http://hackaday.io/project/1148-Locomatrix---3D-POV---a-different-approach]

So here we are, my contest entry. It is a unique way to display three dimensional data with LEDs. I'm able to display N x 8x8 datasets where N is limited by the interval I divide the z-axis. It's not a prop I put some LEDs and an arduino in. It's my design I put some LEDs and an arduino in ;) I'm gonna find something useful to show on my display, may be the weather forecast or depth scanner output device. Any ideas are welcome.

Yesterday i spent 5hours fixing my printrbot simple so I could go on my self with the gearbox and the new motor. I got almost the same motor speed as before with no smoking motors. But this time I blew off a capacitor on an arduino by not giving attention to the poles. Gladly I was able to rip it off and place a new cap on there. I still have to use a motor bridge or a pwm control.

So here are some pictures of the gears I imported from svgs me and someone on wikipedia did.

And the spacer for the gears. I think I have to reprint it though and make it almost closed on one side, so only the 4 toothed gear will stick out.

I used my soldering iron for welding.

So the motor was definitely the wrong choice. Or may be not the best for a directly driven gear. I have to come up with a gearbox, speeding down a beefier motor to make it work. The arduino was underfed with power when the motor turned so there was no way to get a satisfying light show :( I'm going to replace the arduino with an attiny45 later, but it was easier to get started with this setup. For the time it moved, there was almost no friction on the 3D printed parts. Any Ideas?

Here is a video of it not moving but glowing, a sonic screwdriver and me saying "crap".

I could not resist to put the printed parts together! This is my test rig, I intend to build a fancy looking one but not for now.

and this is why, already on the way: