Saturday October 11th 2008, 10:50 pm
Filed under: how-to,school news
It’s Mori’s birthday next week and he requested a Tinkering Birthday Party.
Any project in particular? asked his Mom.
Yeah, he said, bristlebots!
the parts
A cork (which ended up being unused), a switch, a couple of brushes, a motor, and batteries. Not shown: one penny, drilled.
testing the wiring
Decided to go with an on/off pushbutton instead of a momentary switch. Used a penny, in which I drilled a hole slightly smaller than the motor shaft, to create the off-center weight.
motor detail
Pounding the shaft through the undersized hole in the penny was easier than I expected – I expected to break a motor or two learning how to do it right.
duct tape before hot-glue
Complete assembly. The handle turned out to be perfect for stabilizing the motor. I’m pretty sure that the most important factor in a vehicle powered by vibration is to transmit the vibration into the chassis – the handle pinches the motor very effectively.
checking the street-level view
It’s not pretty, but it has a certain je ne sais quoi – non?
alternate configuration
My nephew Mori likes projects that involve cars, so I tried the parts on a little plastic truck chassis that I found. Put the batteries underneath with some male velcro stuck to the bottom to create bristles. The thing didn’t move as well as hoped, but it could possibly be made to work.
mega-brushbot in action
Version 1.0 takes a drive around the studio floor.
