Looks absolutely stunning, but the behind the scenes looks masively over-engineered. Its a "screen" mounted horizontally and each "pixel" is a ball on a string wrapped around a stepper motor. . instead of colour (color) information each has a distance. That doesn't need a bank of computers to control,I feel experimentation with Raspberry Pi and/or Arduino comming on!
Paul stevenson Yes. Yes, I do. Seriously not a joke. Each sphere is like a pixel in a display. it's actually a very low resolution display 56 x18 (I counted the 18 rows, how sad am I?). Like a monochome display each pixel has a value. Not brightness but highness (Or lowness if you prefer). as long as the stepper motors, spool, thread and balls are identical co-ordination is no problem. An arduino integer is 16 bit so there are 32,767 positions available for the Z axis. Say the distance from fully retracted to fully extended is 5 metres then the vertical resolution would be 0.14mm. The shapes are just a "greyscale" animation. Mostly looks like visualisations of mathematical equations. The tricky part is the chaotic begining, because it's not easy to model mathematically. I concede power distribution may be a challenge. even if each stepper motor only drew 100mA then thats a possible 100A required. Then, if you're in the business of selling this the more hardware you can pile in and the harder you make it look the better you can justify your fee (and deter DIYers from showing how easy it really is). Yes, I have ordered some stepper motors (Not 1008 though 0_0 ) just because I believe I can do this and i've never done anything like this before. Wish me luck?
Paul stevenson Challenge accepted. :-D It will only be a tiny model, I'll grant you. In fact it will start as a 1x1 matrix. Then I'll expand it as large as my hobby money lasts or I can scrounge parts. LOL. God's not needed; this is science, technology, mathematics, logic and engineering. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C Clarke IMHO this is no longer particularly advanced technology, You can get it all off ebay for under £100!
Looks absolutely stunning, but the behind the scenes looks masively over-engineered. Its a "screen" mounted horizontally and each "pixel" is a ball on a string wrapped around a stepper motor. . instead of colour (color) information each has a distance. That doesn't need a bank of computers to control,I feel experimentation with Raspberry Pi and/or Arduino comming on!
Paul stevenson Yes. Yes, I do. Seriously not a joke. Each sphere is like a pixel in a display. it's actually a very low resolution display 56 x18 (I counted the 18 rows, how sad am I?). Like a monochome display each pixel has a value. Not brightness but highness (Or lowness if you prefer). as long as the stepper motors, spool, thread and balls are identical co-ordination is no problem.
An arduino integer is 16 bit so there are 32,767 positions available for the Z axis. Say the distance from fully retracted to fully extended is 5 metres then the vertical resolution would be 0.14mm.
The shapes are just a "greyscale" animation. Mostly looks like visualisations of mathematical equations. The tricky part is the chaotic begining, because it's not easy to model mathematically.
I concede power distribution may be a challenge. even if each stepper motor only drew 100mA then thats a possible 100A required.
Then, if you're in the business of selling this the more hardware you can pile in and the harder you make it look the better you can justify your fee (and deter DIYers from showing how easy it really is).
Yes, I have ordered some stepper motors (Not 1008 though 0_0 ) just because I believe I can do this and i've never done anything like this before. Wish me luck?
Paul stevenson
Challenge accepted. :-D
It will only be a tiny model, I'll grant you. In fact it will start as a 1x1 matrix. Then I'll expand it as large as my hobby money lasts or I can scrounge parts. LOL.
God's not needed; this is science, technology, mathematics, logic and engineering.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C Clarke
IMHO this is no longer particularly advanced technology, You can get it all off ebay for under £100!
:-)
@@patmanrob 4 years later. Did you ever finish your Arduino code?
@@Zardox-The-Heretic-Slayer ^^
Halfway through they started to play Vectorman music