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Last Post by Inq 2 years ago

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Inq

(@inq)

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Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 1900

Topic starter 2022-08-12 1:05 pm

@hinobot had a great project idea. I pitched the idea to our local library Maker's Group and they seemed excited about the prospects. We thought we could put it in the library by Halloween (we only do one meeting a month) for affect and possibly get more interest for our group.

His idea is to do an Animatronics set of eyeballs in a haunted picture frame. We haven't decided how we'll wrap the eyes yet, but we have members working different aspects.

We took a look at Thingiverse and started with this, but got a little disenchanted with the complexity. This guy even had a DIY joystick controllers. We definitely just want to "play" pre-recorder eye movement scripts and we'll handle all actions via virtual GUI and R/C anyway. No hardware controllers.

We're also thinking about making them as single eye units versus mechanically linked, dual-eye units. That way we can control them independently (winking, crazy glass-eye, cross-eyed) and use them in singles or multi-eyed monsters.

We'll see how it goes...

VBR,

Inq

3 lines of code = InqPortal = Complete IoT, App, Web Server w/ GUI Admin Client, WiFi Manager, Drag & Drop File Manager, OTA, Performance Metrics, Web Socket Comms, Easy App API, All running on ESP8266...
Even usable on ESP-01S - Quickest Start Guide

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ron bentley

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2022-08-12 1:28 pm

@inq,

I will be keeping an eye(ball) on progress!

Ron B

Ron Bentley
Creativity is an input to innovation and change is the output from innovation. Braden Kelley
A computer is a machine for constructing mappings from input to output. Michael Kirby
Through great input you get great output. RZA
Gauss is great but Euler rocks!!

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Will

(@will)

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2022-08-12 3:10 pm

@inq

Take a look at James Bruton's version

Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're talking about.

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Inq

(@inq)

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Posts: 1900

Topic starter 2022-08-13 7:10 pm

Posted by: @will

@inq

Take a look at James Bruton's version

That was pretty impressive and a lot nicer rig than the one I linked. Now that I can see the video, it runs very smoothly! Earlier, I didn't have enough Internet to surf and see if he had his 3D models available somewhere, before I just decided to CAD my own up. Besides, I have a student wanting to study doing his own models and copying other people's Thingiverse projects doesn't real cut it for him (or me either). We may crash and burn, but, we'll learn things along the way.

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Will

(@will)

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2022-08-13 7:19 pm

@inq

I wasn't expecting you to just copy it 🙂 I thought you'd be interested in his modifications to make the motion more realistic, more lifelike.

Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're talking about.

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Inq

(@inq)

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Topic starter 2022-08-13 7:26 pm

UPDATE

Work in progress, but I wanted to try and get at least one servo inside the eyeball. Seems like a waste of volume, not to try. So here is the status of our library user's group model.

Work still in progress...

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Inq

(@inq)

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Topic starter 2022-08-13 7:31 pm

@will - Oh! I know... but originally before the meeting, I really just wanted a download and print project. 🤣 Add software and bam. Scope creep is a problem of mine and using it in the library as a advertisement to our group and the library's 3D Printer kind of forced our (my) hand.

But while here at the library, I watched it and it was real impressive with the smoothness of the transitions. The head tilting also gives a lot more expression to the character than I would have expected.

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Inq

(@inq)

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Topic starter 2022-08-17 4:23 pm

UPDATE

The 3D CAD Model is Done
About half is printed and assembled
Might have a working example today.

Only roadblock might be I used too tight of tolerances. The eyeball and eyelids are only 0.8 mm thick and the gap between them is 1 mm. We'll see. It's all a learning experience and all big fun!