A rollup of all the work I've done on Atronach's Eye since last year's blog update:
Making this thing work well has been more complicated than it probably looks!
Someone is fighting for you
- she/her
- writerofminds.blogspot.com/
Loving author of Acuitas the symbolic AI and other robots-in-progress. Aspiring fiction writer, video game appreciator. Satellite electronics are my day job.
I've been working on some special prototypes to nail down my tendon-pulled mechanical eyeball designs. This is the first one I've gotten fully assembled and the LIMIT SENSORS ACTUALLY WORK consistently. This video shows the eye running through a calibration sequence that finds the limits of motion. Notice that it begins rotating in the opposite direction immediately when it hits an edge, instead of stalling the motors, as always happened sooner or later with my older eyeballs.
The limit detection method in this case is "mechanical switch," with plastic paddles attached to the levers for a larger contact surface. You can hear them click when the eyeball's actuation bars make contact.
Other features included in this prototype include the actuation bars to attach tendons on the back side (a recent innovation from last year) and the "eyelid" shroud for the front side (brand new). Thanks to the shroud, this eyeball still works in a horizontal orientation, if I stand the whole test bed upright.
My dad asked me to make him a replacement for the broken collection funnel of his rain gauge - so here's a very practical 3d print (in PETG). Dimensions to object in just a few days.
You also get a glimpse of my tank salt shaker. Why do I have a tank salt shaker? Nobody knows, including me.