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The Steampunk Console Project

Started by douglas442, Jan 02, 2016, 01:26 pm

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douglas442

Oct 09, 2016, 11:59 am #60 Last Edit: Oct 09, 2016, 02:15 pm by douglas442
Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 09, 2016, 04:42 am
I do see what you mean about the "eyeball" shape with your panel now. Coincidence? Nah. (The 'Time After Time' people stole the design from the CBS channel logo! ;D)


Hah! I Didn't think of that one! I'll bet that Stephen Colbert's people are here and taking notes on it right now ( especially as Colbert, himself, seems to be a big "time-travel"... including "Doctor Who"... fan. )!

Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 09, 2016, 04:42 am
Your rotor mechanism does sound rather complicated, but intriguing. I bet when it's done it will be a real eyebrow-raiser. Good luck with it.


Thanks! Though, hopefully it won't just turn out to be an eyebrow-scorcher, instead... as, really, what will be going on in the central-column area is what the rest of it is all about.

Fortunately, things are looking a little brighter... at least, with respect to this project. Although my progress is still nowhere near what I would like it to be, it does seem to be slowly taking shape. And, finally, just seeing something like this materialize right in front of me... where, before, it had been only a seemingly wild profusion of thoughts and mental images... well, that's what makes it all worthwhile!

I have made a bit more progress since my last sparse update... a test-fitting of the patch-panel to the prototyping main-panel... along with some general refinements to the panel layout. Both assemblies are still far from finished... of course. But the whole thing is now at a stage where it's just starting to look like how I want it to turn out. So here's a sort of a sneak-peek, or preview, of the protopanel:

ProtoPnlPrelim.JPG

Only a test-fit... the right-side meter has a bit of a tricky fit to it's outer case, so I've left it out for now. As for the rest of the main-panel:

The rotary switches turned out better than I expected... very "clicky"... very tactile ( even without a regular-type rotary ratcheting mechanism... which I will add later )... they have to be, sort of, finessed... which is a bit more enjoyable. And each has the capacity for up to 25 contact-points. Although... though traditionally mostly analog-type devices, here I've set each of them up with a binary status-display of five LEDs along the bottom, eighteen contact points, and two stop-pins.

I had originally planned on four of these, set up on a single sub-panel... but decided that the individual round-framed insets would look nicer. And besides... I needed a little more room for other things... such as:

The old military-style crank knobs to each side of the rotarys ( four, here... and I have three more ) will be each used to set one of several big Beckman-style multi-turn "Helipot" wire-wound potentiometers... also very good for tactile feedback!  

On the lower-and-between side of the rotarys are a couple of heavy brass doohickeys ( I had wanted to use thingumbobs, but they're more expensive ) which will be used to create some heavy-duty momentary-switch buttons. If I can get some more... at least four. Actually, I think these are time-set knobs, from old grandfather clocks. Normally I hate using parts from a vintage clock ( devices that are works of art!... each with a bit of the maker's soul still in it ) that someone has torn apart just to sell the pieces on ebay... but as long as I can find these in the local antique shops, I will be using more of them.

The bottom sub-panel has a long way to go, but... it will also house a couple of meters, where the round frames are... larger four-and-a-half-inch devices, one for a low-DC-voltage range, and also one for Ohms ( resistance ).

There are also some big "The Works" type knife-switches, which will be placed as shown... and which will also probably be embellished with some geared-gadgetry. And placed in-between those, in two groups of four, I will be installing my set of eight BIG Mossman 4PDT toggle-switches... not laying out as shown, but installed right down the center of the sub-panel. Likely with two jewel-lens pilot lamps situated on the top and bottom of each.

Finally, a small pilot-lamp sub-panel at the top... the lamps installed across the middle of a small bronze plate which will be inset into some fancy wood... more-or-less as shown. I may make the middle rotary into a twenty-five contact, continuous-all-around... with that small top panel for "status".

I know, I know... these panels are already looking a bit crowded. However, I can assure everyone... this one's going to be even more densely packed by the time I get done with it. And besides... I would suggest, to one and all, to just take a look at any "real" type of electronic instrumentation...

... My old tektronics 545A O'scope makes even this look like an empty parking lot.

By the way... I would also urge everybody to take a look at the "Clock of the Long Now" project I referred to earlier. Fantastic! There are sites online... and also down-loadable detailed documentation is freely available! Equally Fantastic!


-------------------------------------
"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf

BioDoctor900

I've been watching the process of this from the sidelines and I've got to say, I love the design and the detail youve put into it. I've got a soft spot for Steampunk and this just ticks all the boxes. It just looks amazing and I'm certainly looking forward to future updates and when it's complete

BioDoctor900

galacticprobe

Oct 11, 2016, 06:23 am #62 Last Edit: Oct 11, 2016, 06:23 am by galacticprobe
This is another "WOW!" moment. :o With the exception of the wood panels (replace that with medium grey metal panels) it looks like a lot of the communications equipment I used to work on! And I have vague memories of that O'scope from my early days, back in 1981 or so. (You're bringing back all sorts of memories with this elaborate creation of yours - which is also a work of art!)

Magnificent! Even if you didn't change a thing the old girl is still looking magnificent!

Dino.
P. S. Do you think you could sneak in one photo of that O'scope, if you still have it?
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

douglas442

Oct 13, 2016, 09:16 am #63 Last Edit: Oct 13, 2016, 10:22 am by douglas442
Quote from: BioDoctor900 on Oct 10, 2016, 06:18 pm
I've got a soft spot for Steampunk and this just ticks all the boxes.


I agree... and have had a fascination with such styles of design ever since having first seen the original "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" movie ( well... Disney's version of Steampunk, anyway ) as a second feature at a local drive-in... used to be a drive-in... it's a shopping mall/parking lot now.

Anyway... I was quite young, at that time, and it must have made an impression on me.

But I'm actually hoping that I can move a bit beyond pure Steampunk, here... hence the more modern sub-panels which will be hidden underneath the copper rim-covers... Steampunk, with the soul of modern science and technology inside, I suppose.

Though... I haven't even really begun putting together the computer section... yet. Still just gathering and modifying the parts. It will probably end up being the "Steampunkiest" of all.



Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 11, 2016, 06:23 am
This is another "WOW!" moment. :o With the exception of the wood panels (replace that with medium grey metal panels) it looks like a lot of the communications equipment I used to work on!


Thanks for the suggestion! Such feedback is one of the things I've been hoping for, here. Actually, I've had it in mind, since the beginning, that the current mahogany-stained-veneer-plywood main-panel backing would likely be just a temporary set-up until everything else was finished. They're not even completely stained and lacquered yet... one reason why they look a bit dull at this stage... as I didn't want to go to a lot of expense and trouble for these, alone, until I became completely certain as to how they would finally be cut and configured.

So the final finished panels may look a bit different... I hope so, anyway, as I do agree the the current "finish" does not look all of the best that it could be. It may well become a sort of gunmetal-gray... heavy on the bluish tint... or an antiqued finish, depending on what I decide for the copper edge covers... we'll just have to wait and see.  


Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 11, 2016, 06:23 am
P. S. Do you think you could sneak in one photo of that O'scope, if you still have it?


That I can do! And perhaps even a bit better!:

twoteks01.JPG

A ( somewhat dark ) picture of it... set up beside my cute little Tek 212A mini-scope. The 545A has an IL20 spectrum analyzer plug-in installed, and it's shown displaying the output from my big-boat-anchor Polarad 0.8-2.4 Ghz signal generator:

twoteks03.JPG

And here's another view of the 545A, shown while I was doing a bit of troubleshooting on it. Goes to show how these things literally were "built like a battleship". The trouble turned out to be a burned-out wire-wound resistor... an easy spotting, as the defective one was obviously cracked and charred.  

twoteks02.JPG

Here's one with the right-hand cover removed, the hinged inner panel open a bit, and the tubes all aglow. Or, half of the tubes, anyway. One reason why I always say that I like to turn this thing on... on cold winter nights!

twoteks04.JPG

But, anyway... the point is that these are some of the sorts of things which serve as sources of inspiration for the current iteration of my console project.

Well... those, and other highly recommended online things... such as the amazing "Wormhole Actualization Machine" by Alan Watts of CLAW Amusement Technologies. And the fantastic NASA "Mission Control Console" built by Jeff Highsmith, and detailed in MAKE, for his son.

Well... all of the above... and perhaps even some things like this:

man-woman.jpg

Though actually a sort of an "inside-joke" among certain segments of the engineering community, the "Man-Woman" machine might have an edge of truth to it... because we have since learned that the TARDIS definitely is sapient and female, after all.


---------------------------
"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf

Cardinal Hordriss

I don't think the TARDIS is really male or female but something else entirely, the Doctor calls it she the way men do about vehicles and Idris was a victim of House, it could just as easily have been a man, in fact for dramatic purposes had the Doctor been female that character would almost certainly have been a man.

Sorry, got distracted by trivia lol.

This console is looking absolutely amazing! I can only imagine the total cost for all those bits an doobobs. Much as I love the McGann console this might be quite a bit better, certainly more believable with the masses more controls. On a scale of 1 to 100 how close would you say it is to completion, not including tweaks and modifications?
I speak to you from the final days of Gallifrey. I am the past you have forgotten. You are the future I will not live to see...

galacticprobe

Oct 14, 2016, 04:31 am #65 Last Edit: Oct 14, 2016, 04:56 am by galacticprobe
Oh... memories, Douglas... memories! The inside of that scope also looks like much of the equipment I worked on, comms, radar, depth sounder, etc. The one thing I loved about those old goodies was that they were easy to troubleshoot: you had enough room to get your hands and test leads into it, as you mentioned a failed resistor - wire-wound or carbon - was easy to spot because of it being cracked, charred, or both (the same with capacitors), and the tubes... if it wasn't glowing, chances were that it was dead (gas tube regulators not withstanding as they only glowed when they had to - in a sense - open the spillway for excess current so they could keep the voltage constant).

Beautiful in its construction, and like you say "built like a battleship": the fact that it's still working well proves that!

Quote from: Cardinal Hordriss on Oct 13, 2016, 01:07 pm
I don't think the TARDIS is really male or female but something else entirely, the Doctor calls it she the way men do about vehicles and Idris was a victim of House, it could just as easily have been a man...

Quite possibly, CH, but Idris did mention when looking out over the TARDIS graveyard "...all of my sisters are dead.", which would indicate that even in the eyes of a female-embodied TARDIS consciousness, all of the TARDISes (which are - or were - "alive" and sentient) were female. (Which begs the question, as you posed, if that shoe was on the other foot and the Doctor was a woman and House put the TARDIS consciousness into a male body (which, by the way, Idris Alba is a man, so the name could still have been the same in dialogue), would the rest of that dialogue have been the same, about "all of my sisters"?) Interesting discussion, indeed, but for another place and time.

Quote from: Cardinal Hordriss on Oct 13, 2016, 01:07 pm
This console is looking absolutely amazing!

Definitely no argument here! You took the words right out of my mouth.

Quote from: Cardinal Hordriss on Oct 13, 2016, 01:07 pm
I can only imagine the total cost for all those bits an doobobs.

That all depends on luck. If you accumulate things over the years (like I did, but then years ago - pre-New Series - got rid of most of it while trying to lighten the load some) then you'll have a nice huge stash just waiting for you when some great idea like this comes along. Also, if you're lucky enough to be on hand when old equipment is being scrapped, you can do a little salvaging for parts (bin diving is really inexpensive! ;D). And sometimes you can find a place either on line or in the old days in a catalogue where you can buy parts in bulk, where 100 pieces will only cost you a few pennies per piece, you can amass items quickly and for not much money. It all depends on luck, or being in the right place at the right time (or both).

Quote from: Cardinal Hordriss on Oct 13, 2016, 01:07 pm
Much as I love the McGann console this might be quite a bit better, certainly more believable with the masses more controls.

Me, personally, I think they're both equally as beautiful: the TVM console for her simplicity and interesting controls; Douglas' for her look of being able to actually take off and so "somewhen".

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

douglas442

Oct 14, 2016, 10:08 am #66 Last Edit: Oct 14, 2016, 12:11 pm by douglas442
Quote from: Cardinal Hordriss on Oct 13, 2016, 01:07 pm
On a scale of 1 to 100 how close would you say it is to completion, not including tweaks and modifications?



On a scale of 1 to 100... with 100 being the completion of all of the basic panel and infra-structure layouts, plus implementation of all of it's most essential functions...

...I would say that it's at... oh, um... probably somewhere around... uh... at a guess I'd say... er...

... at ten.

......*!*

.........*sob!*... I am never going to finish this thing.

Hah! Just kidding! Yes I am... going to finish it, that is.

... because I have to.



Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 14, 2016, 04:31 am
Beautiful in its construction, and like you say "built like a battleship": the fact that it's still working well proves that!


You can say that again! Especially given the fact that, on the very day that I bought the Tek 545, and brought it home ( some thirty-plus years ago, from that old-timey local electronics surplus store... that is now only history )... up a flight of stairs... then I dropped it! At the very top, onto the door ledge!

It only dropped about three feet... all fifty or sixty pounds of it... but that was flat onto solid concrete.

Still worked fine. And it still works. With just that one burned resistor as a temporary fault!

Well... maybe a knob or two that you have to tap on, once in awhile.


Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 14, 2016, 04:31 am
Quite possibly, CH, but Idris did mention when looking out over the TARDIS graveyard "...all of my sisters are dead.", which would indicate that even in the eyes of a female-embodied TARDIS consciousness, all of the TARDISes (which are - or were - "alive" and sentient) were female. (Which begs the question, as you posed, if that shoe was on the other foot and the Doctor was a woman and House put the TARDIS consciousness into a male body (which, by the way, Idris Alba is a man, so the name could still have been the same in dialogue), would the rest of that dialogue have been the same, about "all of my sisters"?) Interesting discussion, indeed, but for another place and time.


Yes... that bit of "graveyard" dialog occurred to me as well. But... just briefly ( then maybe I'll hop on over to Gallifrey Base, to start a fracas )... aside from putting the "id" into the TARDIS, I suspect that choice of name had more to do with combining both it's Welsh and Muslim meanings... together, something like "impulsive prophet"... than anything else. Besides... I don't think it was made clear whether that was her ( the woman House used as a vessel ) first, or last, name.

I would like to see her make another appearance, though.

Anyway... to quickly wrap that one up... I've long suspected the TARDIS ( it's place in the unspoken series canon, though seemingly hinted at in both Old and New series ( mini and full ) episodes, that is ) to have once been a "someone"... rather than being just a "something".


Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 14, 2016, 04:31 am
Me, personally, I think they're both equally as beautiful: the TVM console for her simplicity and interesting controls; Douglas' for her look of being able to actually take off and go "somewhen".


That's high praise... and I thank you both! Especially with respect to the TVM console... as, for one thing, it was sort of the trend-setter for the current designs.

--------------------------------------------


Well... I can't leave without posting a little more detail.

Here's one of three similar knife-switches I intend on using in the computer-section:

P1000145b.JPG

... except that I couldn't leave them like that, and so switched the white ceramic stand-offs for some new ones made of black nylon. And then mounted them on a small wood base with inset brass:

P1000150a.JPG

Why stop there, when one can also add some gears:

P1000149a.JPG

The curved pivoting rack is one I made from scratch. And I'm hoping to do... sort of... the same thing with the three prototyping-panel knife switches. These ones will probably be mounted somewhere in front of the vintage-typewriter keyboard... if I can find room.

P1000147a.JPG

By the way, details of all sorts of similar such gadgets can be found in the classic book "507 Mechanical Movements - Mechanisms and Devices", by Henry T. Brown. Still sold by Dover, I think, it's also available for free download at archive-dot-org ( also home of the "Wayback Machine" ).

----------------------------------

"Not... the THIRD switch!"

----------------------------------
"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf

cobalt

Quote from: douglas442 on Oct 14, 2016, 10:08 am

Why stop there, when one can also add some gears:



Might want to be careful with that, if you were planning to actually electrify these. That middle gear might be close enough to both poles to cause arcing.

galacticprobe

Oct 15, 2016, 06:14 am #68 Last Edit: Oct 15, 2016, 06:18 am by galacticprobe
Cobalt has a good point. There is a lot of metal between those poles, and it's all close together. It wouldn't take much to have something arc across one of the gaps between the metal bits. Also that inset brass under the black nylon... if it comes into contact with the bolts holding the poles in place, then what you've effectively got there is a "constantly on" switch, with the power entering on one pole, passing through the mounting bolt and through the brass strip to the other pole's mounting bolt, to that pole and then out. If you were going to electrify that switch then it would be "on" regardless of whether or not the knife blade was opened or closed.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

douglas442

Oct 15, 2016, 10:29 am #69 Last Edit: Oct 15, 2016, 11:28 am by douglas442
Quote from: cobalt on Oct 15, 2016, 04:30 am
Might want to be careful with that, if you were planning to actually electrify these. That middle gear might be close enough to both poles to cause arcing.



Quote from: galacticprobe on Oct 15, 2016, 06:14 am
Cobalt has a good point. There is a lot of metal between those poles, and it's all close together. It wouldn't take much to have something arc across one of the gaps between the metal bits. Also that inset brass under the black nylon... if it comes into contact with the bolts holding the poles in place, then what you've effectively got there is a "constantly on" switch...



Well... in order to make sure that the large gear would spin freely, I did provide for just a little under one millimeter of spacing on both sides which, given the breakdown voltage of air under normal conditions of around 10KV per centimeter, covers it for up to about a thousand volts or so......

...*!*... yes, I know... those kind of close tolerances make me a little twitchy too.

What worries me most is that, over time, a bit of bending or movement ( from mechanical stresses or, if I ever put this thing on display, people poking at it with their fingers ) could cause the gear to start jamming. Not good, since the final finished mechanism will be meant to turn a shaft, extending under the base of the switch, which can then be used to simultaneously turn a failsafe or sound circuit-controlling potentiometer, or something. So I suppose I might eventually have to file back a bit of the copper on the poles... especially on the pivoting side.

Anyway, the knife-switches won't be powering on any AC equipment directly. They will be used, instead, to activate some intermediary low-voltage coil relays, with beefy-rated contacts... which, in turn, will switch on whatever equipment I use them for... as well as some of those providing some nice *KACHUNK*-y sound effects when turned on. Relays, like some of these, from my collection:

  P1000271a.JPG

Of course, even at 12 to 24 volts DC, the inductive kickback generated by the relay coils, when power is removed, could easily generate an arc across that narrow gap. However, if a couple of nice, big and stout, high-voltage 1N4xxx diodes ( or just some appropriate MOVs ) are put together face-to-face ( or back-to-back ), and then installed in parallel across the relay coils, then those should effectively prevent any arcing by absorbing the kickback.

As for the Nylon standoffs, the bolts holding the poles on top don't go all the way though. There are additional screws, on the bottom, for holding the base to the standoffs... and they're separated from all the hardware, on top, by at least a good centimeter or so of solid nylon.

The nylon, itself, seems like pretty durable stuff ( as well as looking very nice when polished up a bit ) so it should be able to take the mechanical Knife-switch-action stresses... for awhile anyway...

... or, if not, then... I try something else.

-----------------------

"Two nasty looking switches, over here... but I'm not going to be the first!"

------------------------
"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf

douglas442

Nov 28, 2016, 06:55 am #70 Last Edit: Nov 28, 2016, 08:15 am by douglas442
Well... it's been a bizarrely stressful month...

... speaking of which ( though, I'm not necessarily referring to just my own personal situations, alone ), I've also just finished binge-watching a black-friday purchased DVD copy of Season Six "Game of Thrones" ( hoo-boy!... talk about "family-problems" ). So... though, I was quite pleased to see a sort-of time-travel element sneak it's way into the series...

... I'm still just not quite in the mood.

... but, regardless, as long as I'm here, I might as well post some sort of a brief update. Or, rather, more like another "teaser" bit... with more details coming "later".

First, a picture:

P1000274a.JPG

This is to be a small thumbwheel-switch sub-panel, and it will be used to provide setting-controls for a homebrew ramping power-supply that I built quite a long number of years ago. There's a story behind it's initial design and purpose, of course... but suffice it to say that it will finally be put to good uses other than that for which... or, rather, for whom... it was created.

It will also be mounted on the power-supply main panel, sandwiched between the metering sub-panel and the large-dial control-knob sub-panel... which explains the odd shape of the brass-inset and wood pieces.

As for specs: it will provide ten digits of BCD output control... though not necessarily for the purpose of conveniently displaying important dates, as above. Rather, instead, for the purpose of setting three parameters of voltage-ramp control - ramp speed, peak-levels, and offset.

It will also provide six pushbuttons, fabricated from brass faucet-seats and some re-purposed old-printer mini-switches, which are used for implementing a minimal degree of "programmability". And, also, it will have six bi-color LED status-indicators, placed into some very nice brass mini-pilot-lamp housings that I found online.

This time, the brass inset will be glued permanently into it's low-profile wood frame, under a thin line of wood-trim... and the wood pieces will be stained and finished to match all the rest of the main panel.

Finally... the two railroad-insulator "dalamps" will, at last, be used to provide a unique output display.

More on this later... "real soon now".
---------------------
"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf

Angelus Lupus

I understand less than half of the technical/electrical terms you're using... but, regardless, the combination of the rotating number dials and the curved brass is my kinda thing!
A mixed-up non-conformist, trying to fit in.

douglas442

Dec 03, 2016, 06:01 am #72 Last Edit: Dec 13, 2016, 07:10 am by douglas442
Bedazzling Your Console!
Part Four


Well... ( tap tap tap tap )

... well, well... ( tap tap tap tap )

... er.... wha... ( tap tap tap tap )

What's that noise?......

... um... nevermind.

Well, it's almost that time of the year, again.

That is to say... that time of the year when the rampant over-commercialization of a long-ago-once-upon-a-time-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away enjoyable season results in a mass of unsold decorative junk, and other related items, going on sale at remarkable discounts... all to the delight of those folks who get their kicks out of buying some of that junk and then perversely twisting it into forms usually found only through doors that Mankind was Never Meant to Open!

Folks like me, of course. Except that, this year, I haven't even made complete use ( yet ) of all the stuff I bought last year for those diabolical purposes.

So, it is toward that goal of making some sort of console use of every last remaining bit of stuff... every bulb, every diode, every chip, every circuit-board, every last scrap of plastic, wood, brass, and aluminum that I have ever either bought... or salvaged from the foul depths of a grungy dumpster... that I have now embarked upon the following subset of projects... the initially simple, but legitimate first of what I hope will be many like it.

Starting with an electro-mechanical contrivance aimed at creating a somewhat more dynamic sort of lighting display.

To begin with, this effort is based upon my lucky acquisition of a bundle of tiny precision motors, awhile back, from what may have been one of the last of the now almost entirely extinct fair-priced-surplus dealers on ebay. He finally gave up, and closed shop, after a bunch of sneaky greed-motivated dealers basically harassed him offline... probably because of his low prices. But... before he left, I did manage to snag a bunch of little motors ( among other things... like a single purchase of a certain type of Nixie Tube that can now only be bought for sometimes hundreds of dollars apiece ), for a couple of dollars apiece, and which include the following:

A_Faulhabers.JPG

Most of them, all except the topmost one, are precision mini-motors with built-in gearboxes! They were mostly manufactured in Germany ( some are Swiss ) by FAULHABER... and these things are all little gems!

Presumably built for high-end scanners and printers, they are small ( 5/8" x 2.5" ), surprisingly powerful, and operate over a DC range from just a fraction of volt to over twenty-four. Even though used, the grab-bag bunch of salvaged ones that I bought operate so quietly and smoothly that... well, let's just say that I apparently got a very good deal. And, also, that I can't recommend them too highly, if you can find them online, even at several times the price of what I bought them for.  

Anyway, what is finally now to be my first purposeful use of these ( well... the console project is what I bought them for... several years ago... ) will be a series of simple kinetic-lighting-display projects, built more or less from scratch, the first one of which consists of the following parts:

B_KPAllParts.JPG

The larger brass pieces, here measuring about 3/4" x 5-to-6" x 1/16", and also the short bits of tubing, were cut from K&S hobby-brass stock. The four larger brass gears were, admittedly, purchased on ebay. This was before I realized that many of those dealers were likely tearing apart vintage clocks... works of art... for profit. Though, because of it... and because those gears are typically overpriced anyway... I fully intend to eventually get to a point where I can cut many of my own smaller gears.

However... these gears are just right at about one-inch in diameter, and they have 42 teeth at a pitch of 48. The three smaller but same-pitched eight-tooth pinions, shown here pressed onto one motor-shaft and three one-inch lengths of 3/32" brass rod stock, were hobby RC items... also bought on ebay.

The only real problem that I've encountered with using the motors is that they are built to be almost too sturdy! Some of them came with belt-drive pulleys, already mounted onto the shafts, whereas I wanted to use another one of the tiny eight-tooth pinions, as shown below.  But, unfortunately, the motor's pulley was apparently pressed onto the shaft so tightly as to virtually guarantee that it would never ever come loose. And the things are made of steel... not of plastic, aluminum, or brass.

C_MotorMod.JPG

So, it couldn't be pulled off of the shaft... not even with a small-gear pulling tool. Consequently, I finally ended up having to hacksaw the pulley off. First by making a cut to separate the straight cylindrical portion from the grooved pulley. Once done, the freed pulley section could then be pushed just a little bit farther up the shaft. Then, two diagonal cuts were made on opposite sides of the cylindrical portion. This was accomplished by cutting carefully farther and farther in, until the cylinder could finally be wedged and broken apart with minimal force. The reason being in order to try and minimize any damage to the shaft.  

Fortunately, at least, the Faulhabers all have threaded mounting-holes at the business end, which made it easy to secure the motor into the brass framework. The motor is then use to drive a train-mechanism made from an alternating series of the gears, described above. These are held, centered in place and sandwiched within the assembled framework, by the short sections of brass tubing slipped onto the gear shafts. Finally, all that's then required to hold it all together is a small collection of hardware, consisting of eight standoffs ( four of them with internal threads ) and a few small machine-bolts to fit.

Now, the basic point of this gadget is to rotate the previously detailed craftstore-rhinestone lenses, seen in the second image above, in front of some high-brightness LEDs. The reason for doing this will hopefully become at least a little more apparent later on... however, the means of accomplishing this, as detailed here, was to form the lenses into assemblies that are at the cores of the shafts for the larger gears:

D_gearfabrication.JPG

First, a bit of flux is dabbed onto just the spots where I want the solder to go...

... then, similarly to what I have detailed in a previous post, four lens-assemblies were created... this time using the smaller 5/16 inch rhinestones, which fit very well into K&S 11/32 brass tubing. The tubing was cut into one-inch inch long sections, and worked as before to form a narrowed lip at one end. But, instead of using a shaped wooden-plug to hold the LEDs and the lenses, a narrow retaining-ring ( made from a very short length of the next-smaller-size of brass tubing... though, interior C-clips might also be used ) is used to fix the lenses into their place, just behind the reshaped front-ends of the one-inch long brass tubes. These assemblies were then soldered into tight-fitting holes, center-drilled into the larger gears. Here, again, I used the mill-drilled wooden-jig to ensure that the positioning of the tubing would be  as perpendicular to the gear as possible. A small heat-resistant-fiber engine gasket is also used, to prevent burning the wooden jig and to minimize the heat-loss from the workpiece. And, of course, the  plastic lenses are left aside, until after all the pieces have cooled.

The LEDs are placed separately, in a third brass strip, and are held in place with snap-in plastic holders. With holes drilled in the strip so as to line up with the other sections, this securely places the non-rotating LEDs in line behind the lens tubes. The next photo hopefully illustrates how the mechanism lines up:

E_Assembly01.JPG

The next four photos show the fully assembled device from different angles. With the forward-facing threaded standoffs, it's easily mounted on the underside of a main panel, and underneath some of the custom-made pilot-lamp assemblies
previously described:

F_Assembled01.JPG

G_Assembled02.JPG

H_Assembled03.JPG

I_Assembled04.JPG

Now, I eventually intend for all of the console's lighting to be managed by either an array of microcontrollers from my collection of PICs, Arduinos, and Parallax Propellers... or, instead, by dedicated circuitry associated with certain more complex assemblies being monitored. For now, however, and just for testing, this simple adapter is being used:

J_Lights01.JPG

So it all comes together like this:

K_Lights02.JPG

And looks like this when powered up:

L_Action01.JPG

Admittedly, the effect seen by the above arrangement isn't all that spectacular, or even worthwhile. The magic, though, comes when you pair this arrangement with a secondary set of faceted lenses... like so:

M_Action02.JPG

... so that what is produced is a sort of kaleidoscopic projection of light. Not just blinky LEDs, or flashing, or periodically dimming and brightening...this arrangement produces a very smoothly spinning array of what appears to be multiple light sources.

Of course, for now they are all spinning and sparkling at the same rate and in the same direction... but I do have a suspicion that with some microcontrollers in charge of providing separate effect management for each of the LEDs, that one might be able to produce the illusion of different speeds and direction of rotation.  

Quote from: Angelus Lupus on Nov 28, 2016, 02:43 pm
I understand less than half of the technical/electrical terms you're using... but, regardless, the combination of the rotating number dials and the curved brass is my kinda thing!


Yes... I should probably go a bit more into explaining some of the details... especially on the electronic aspects of the project. Hopefully I will be doing some of this when I get to the point of installing more of the functional circuitry in the console... after it's basic panel and central column layout is complete.

In the meantime, if rotating number dials and curved brass are your thing...

... so what's next ( or, at least, hopefully forthcoming ) for these mechanical explorations? Gears? Yes! Curvy bits of brass? Undoubtedly! And, eventually, maybe even some of the console "computing" done by a fairly larger set of these sort of gears and "number-wheels":

N_BEginnings.JPG

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"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf

douglas442

Dec 13, 2016, 08:12 am #73 Last Edit: Dec 13, 2016, 08:33 am by douglas442
Odd...

I just added the update, above, from a finally finished draft.

True... the draft was in the bin for awhile... but I thought they always came up as a new update when posted?

Whatever.

Well, anyway... here's a final photo of the above assembly, installed into the main panel above the left-side motor-controller sub panel... where it has been operating continuously for several weeks, now, without a hitch.

... well... it has developed a slight bit of a low squeak and rattle... but that's a free "audio-effect", and it does have a kind of a TARDISy sound to it:

kaleidopanel01.JPG


I've also uploaded a low-quality video, which doesn't begin to do it justice, to YouTubed... here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os6BfGCVYNg

... I have really got to get myself a better camera.

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EDIT: ..also Odd...

... could "Timeless" possibly be developing into an NBC rip-off of "Thief of Time"?

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"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf

douglas442

Jan 07, 2017, 01:42 am #74 Last Edit: Jan 07, 2017, 01:50 am by douglas442
Books Time Lords should have Read ( assuming they haven't already )

Well...

In fact, this is just a post intended to bump a new picture-laden update onto the next page. Page 5 is already so cluttered that it's failing  to load completely on my slow-connection... but I thought, anyway, that I might just as well do something semi-useful ( which I suppose is still semi-useless ) with it.

Anyway:

BTLSHR.JPG

It's still a fascinating read... catch it, if you can!

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"Time can paint the Treetops with Colors of the Rainbow... but you cannot find the End, no matter how you try." -Kate Wolf

"... and I find myself on the Mountainside, where the Rivers change direction, across The Great Divide." -Kate Wolf