Motorized Madness

[rendermandan]

Render - Don't give up man! I'm sure we can brainstorm something between everyone here! Honestly, I don't have any ideaon how to improve upon what you have already made. I doubt I could even get it to the point it is now! Maybe you should find an old camera, and take it apart. study the shutter and see how it is constructed. Maybe if you made less vanes? What if it were 4 or 5 main vains instead of 20? That would at least leave a little more room for error (as in - not needing to be laser-accurate..)

-Jeremy

Good suggestion Minty, However here is what happens with less vanes. The fewer vanes you have, the thicker they have to be to cover the gap from one vane to the other. So if they are real thick (wide) then when they open, they can only open as far untill they hit the pin of the next vane. This wil make the opening smaller because they are wider. That is why I went to 20 and they were very thin, I think I just have to find a happy medium between number of vanes and width to how large of an opening.

I have an idea about cutting a notch on the back side of the vane to fit around the pin of the adjacent vane though. I'm working on drawing that up
but I think I will still need the laser cutting. I actually isn't that hard to do, My friend is a teacher at a local high school, and they have a laser etcher that will cut through thin material. I might have to give him a call. They also have a rapid prototyper too. That thing is kick ass!

[rendermandan]

Thanks you guys, I talked to my buddy with the laser etcher, he said we should be able to do it but in a few weeks. they are just getting classes started and he wanted to wait till things settle down. So for now, I'll just work on another part of it.

I got he electronics from Lynxmotion.com and I have to say, I'm very impressed. The shipping was very fast! The packaging was impecable. they used very heavy clear plastic bags that had every part I ordered sealed in its own "pouch" and very clearly labled. -Everything was accounted for and in good order. -I would recommend buying from them to anyone!

Here is the hardware I purchased: there is alot!

here is a usb to serial cable I ordered from newegg.

Here is the pouch of 6 servos that I orderd. here are the specs:
Speed: 0.23 sec/60° @ 4.8V
Torque: 4.4 kg-cm (61 oz-in) at 4.8V
Length: 38.8mm (1.52")
Width: 19.8mm (0.77")
Height: 36.0mm (1.41")
Weight: 40g (1.41oz)

I couldn't find specs for 6.0v which is what I'm running them at. so the torque and speeds are actually higher than listed.

Here is it all put together. You see the SSC-32 Controller, The serial to usb cable, a power cable with switch that plugs into a 6V wall adapeter that I didnt' show, and 2 of the servos.

Programming it was very easy and almost worked the first time around. it didn't because I had the baud rating set wrong, but once I changed a jumper on the board, everyting started to work like a charm.

I sat down and wrote 2 text files. one called open, and one called close.
it was simple 2 line code that simply told the servo where to go and at what speed. thats it.

here is the open code:

#1 P1500 S1000
#3 P1500 S1000

the close is basically the same only with different numbers.

then I wrote two batch files that I loaded into the local computer policy startup and shutdown scripts. that simply send the open and close text files to the com port.

thats it. when I start my computer and it goes into the welcome screen to ask for the user name and password, the 2 servos go to the open position.

then when I shut down, during the time where windows says "saving system settings" there is another one now called running scripts. And that is when the servos move to the close position.

What is cool about this, is I can have it completly automated to open and close all doors automaticaly without hitting anything.

But If I wanted to control something indepentantly, i could. all I have to do is write a .txt file and a batch file. then when i click on the batch file, it will do whatever I want it to. KICK ASS!!!!

I do need to give the good people over at lynxmotion a very large THANK YOU! for helping me get this running and figure all this out. here is a link to the forum Thread I started so they could help me.
http://www.lynxmotion.net/viewtopic.php?t=2710
If anyone has any questions about motorization or robotics, these guys should be able to help you, they were just as friendly as the people on this forum.

I'm so glad this works... Now, let the modding begin!

[rendermandan]

should look great when you get some more of it together.

Thanks, I've been holding off doing alot of building untill I was sure that the servos would work. I'd hate to go through all that work only to find out I couldn't motorize anything at the end. But now that I know the servos work like I want, I can really start to build all the parts.

the first part of the build, just like the doors and iris is going to be building all the moving parts, doors and windows, I will also work on mounting the 240mm radiator. then I will work on dressing everyting up and making it look good. and lastly, like everyting will come the painting.

[rendermandan]

Edit: WOOT!!!! 500th post!

Here is what I got done last night.

This is the servo and hardware to actuate the doors.
It includes 4/40 threaded rod, (2) ball ends, and (2) ball joints that will screw into the servo arm and object to be moved. the ball joints allow a full swivel and IMO are the best solution.

I cut a hole in the side of the drive support to allow the actuator arm to extend through to where I am going to mount the servo.

here is the servo mount I made:

and here it is installed:

after adjusting the length of the actuator arm, here it is in the closed position:

and opened position:

Then I started on making the frame for the flip down switch panel:

that is all I got done last night.
Later!

[rendermandan]

Last night I worked on making the flip down switch panel.

here it is in the closed position:

and here it is opened.

I then mounted it in the case:

You can see i used the drive mounting slots to mount it.
I also cut a notch to allow the actuator arm to extend into the space beside the drive bays for the servo:

Here it is in the case opened:

I cut a hole to mount the servo in the case:

Then I connected it with linkage the same as the doors below:

Opened:

Then I mounted the DVD burner above it. -ONLY I realized when I assembled the case at the start, I installed the drive rails upside down. So the screw slots did not match the drive. Oh well, since I only have 1 drive, I just drilled my own holes to mount the dvd burner.

Up next is the 240mm radiator mount, cut a hole in the side of the case for it, and making the louvered shaft for the air vent at the top. FUN FUN!!!!

Edit: I also gave a couple sample pieces of plastic to my friend with the laser cutter to test and see how hard it will be to cut out parts for the Iris. Keep your fingers crossed!

[rendermandan]

hi,

i like so much the idea of the motorized IRIS. I have found a link i think will be usefull. they produce metal iris and they show in their web site how the iris work. You can see the design to improbe your iris.

http://www.wilkes-iris.com/flashIris/iris.htm

dont stop modding

Wow, Nice find! Those are some pretty cool Iris designs. I'm not sure exactly how some of them work. in all the examples the part that moves with the handle makes sense, but it passes over the top of another pin. -confused on that, How does a pin pass through the blade below it? and the other end seems to be free floating. I don't understand what makes it move the way it does. almost moves in a circular pattern. But nice find anyway. Thanks! +rep


As for the other suggestions. Thanks, I really appreciate your guys input. I have redesigned the blades so they have 3 times more overlap than before and will still yield the same size opening. I designed them wider so there would be more material that overlaps each other. that way it should account for the "Slop" in the pins. I am still going to laser cut them when I get back from a work trip on week of the 10th. I've been working on the radiator mount and fans for the top. I should have some pics up later tonight. I'm still undecided about the door for it.

Later!

[rendermandan]

i also see that the iris dont close at all.

It is impossible to make one close clompletly due to the thickness of the material. at the center the more layers there are the hard the push against each other to form an overlapping circle. Think about it this way, if you were to lay a bunch of quarters in a circle and have the first one overlap the last one, then by the time you got around to the beginning, everyone would be slanted, or sloped (hope that makes sense).

Don't worry guys, I'll figure it out! That is a promise!!!!

[rendermandan]

Finally, an update! this is a big one.

I've been working on this the past few nights, so its more than just one's nights work.

I cut out a mounting plate for the radiator:

then I built the air box that will direct the hot air out of the case:

Here it is in the case:

Installed some fans:

Cut a hole in the drive bay mounting bracket so the air would flow throught:

Then I cut 14 louvers for the door:

here are the louvers in place:

Opened:

Then i cut and drilled a piece of plastic for the actuator arm:

closed:

Opened:

here you can see all the small pieces I had to make with the actuator arm:

I had to heat and bend the actuator arm to fit in the case:

I had to mark and cut an area out of the case to make this work:

and here it is sitting properly:

Closed, you can see the servo I mounted to motorize this:

opened:

[rendermandan]

Wow, only allowed 25 images per post. -That sucks.

Then I added some panels to cover the gaps in the front. The front will be kit bashed so having multiple levels and layers will work to my advantage:

Then I mounted the radiator to the fans:

Lastly I placed the side cover on to mark for the hole I have to cut. the hole will fit around the radiator as it sticks out of the side slightly. -this is intentional, I'm going to make a cover that goes over it and will be mounted to the side panel. but I want to make the side panel removable without having to take the radiator out.

here is a shot with the defunct iris approx where I'm going to install it. the Idea is to have the iris over the cpu area.

thats it for now.

[rendermandan]

Mate that looks fantastic, all the hot air wont warm up the components, great idea. Is that Barbie I see on the T.V :0, You don't have a secret do you dan? lol

LOL, I have no idea what that was. probably a commercial or something. my son was watching Sponge Bob Square pants while I was working. I don't really pay attention to what is on tv, I just have it on for background noise.

-funny that that caught YOUR interest though!