Hello. I was directed to the forums from the facebook page so here i am!
I would like to figure out how to make 6 flowers go in and out of a flexible tube. I was thinking of having short tubes that the end of actuators would push out of with the flowers attached to the ends. Each flower would open for 6 seconds and close for 6 seconds, one second after the last. Batteries i would fit into the handle somehow.
This is what i would like to make with the red flowers on the vine.
It was suggested to me on the RobotShop facebook page that i could use muscle wire as well. I’m not sure about solenoids either.
Currently i am researching how i would go about doing this. I won’t be able to start experimenting until i get a job and have money to spend. I would very much like for this as well as the whole costume to be completed in time for the convention i plan on attending in November.
Thankies!
Thankies for the reply! I’ve been looking around and someone had suggested servos to me and i thought that if i had servos that push a rod connected to a cylinder in a tube with the flowers attached, that might work. Kind of like this animation but the servos would only go 90 degrees and pause to wait for all of them to extend, then retract and pause until they’re all retracted in the same order: grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/powert.html.
The flowers i’m hoping to house in a 1" diametre either spring coil that i have had no luck looking for online that would be long enough or plastic tubing that i would later cover with green cloth. The spring idea would give me something to attach the servos to.
I am hoping for over half an inch between fully retracted and fully extended.
Flowers are maybe fabric hopefully about an inch in diametre or a bit more depending on how much i can keep inside when retracted with the tips sticking out so they don’t get caught inside the tube. I’d also like to find a way to keep the flowers open and not just flop down so was thinking of something along the lines of an umbrella, except that i don’t want anything sticking out of the flowers. Polymorph has been suggested to me thus far.
I haven’t done anything electronics related really since grade school. If i go the servo route, then i would have to figure out how to get 6 of them to work as close as to the animation as possible, and have them with detachable connectors as i would have to make this in parts to fit in a suitcase and not pay about $200 oversized luggage charge either way. I would have to figure out how to construct the bow in parts and hopefully not have too many visual distractions like screws. I’m wondering how well double sided tape would work…
Thankies for the info! I will probably be looking into something programmable for 6 little servos so i can move them in the wave pattern all open and then all closed. The servo recorder would probably be too expensive for this project. Perhaps the Pololu Micro Serial 8 Servo Controller would work for me. I’ve been going through some of the tutorials and read that the servos require a separate power source but i don’t know if that means a battery for each one or for all of them, as well as a battery for the controller, or how much space i would need for all the little components.
The flowers if i can’t find ones similar to the ones i’d like i may end up either dyeing cloth or whatever else i can find that would look like one piece.
The rods i will look into. Someone mentioned Gold-N-Rods but i don’t know how those would connect. If i could get more of the flower inside the vine part, then when it gets pushed out i’ll have it a decent size and not too small.
After i get some sleep i plan on doing some cleaning and then will have to find a job so i can get some money in for servos and the other stuff for making this costume. Once i get this sorted out, then i can work on saving up to move out. lol One step at a time!
The least expensive solution is a small servo, where the servo’s horn is connected to a rod. You should be able to find very inexpensive plastic flowers at a dollar store, and simply connect them to a push rod, and insert them into the appropriate sized tube. This way, they will retain their shape, but also be retractable. To control the servos without any programming, you can consider the 4-servo recorder / playback controller; this allows you to record the motion of four channels (you can connect multiple servos to each channel, but they would all have the same motion). Less expensive servo controller solutions require programming. You can use polymorph to make physical connections easier.
What is the distance between fully retracted and fully extended? Also what’s the approximate weight of each flower?
The Pololu servo controller needs an external source for the signal (either a microcontroller or a computer via USB to serial adapter). If you want something more “plug and play” but still requires programming, consider a normal Arduino microcontroller and an IO shield.
The servos suggested in the last e-mail are quite small and don’t consume too much current, so you should be safe powering them directly from the microcontroller’s pins. However if you find there are issues, you can always connect a 4.8v to 6V battery pack and disconnect the jumper so the servos still receive the signal from the microcontroller, but are powered externally.
