A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

RE: A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

ilvyanyatka — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 20:48:40 GMT

Wow! It is real art!

If you want to have fun, you can give your grand kids some challenges, like try to make machine to turn flashlight on. And enjoy how they are figuring it out.

RE: A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

jw0752 — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 21:11:25 GMT

Today I was once again inspired while on my morning walk to add more interactivity to The Thinker, Do Nothing Machine. I wanted the viewer to be able to trigger the DIE, the SIREN, and the VOICE with push button switches. While the machine will continue its normal routine of stepping through the functions now the viewer can see a specific feature on demand. I also took another picture of the back of the unit which has continued to grow in deceptive complexity.

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/5127.contentimage_5F00_191852.jpg:620:465]

The back of the unit as of today's revision

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/6607.contentimage_5F00_191853.jpg:620:465]

The Front of the unit with today's revision

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/4544.contentimage_5F00_191854.jpg:620:465]

The new bank of manual activator switches. Left to Right we have Roll the Die, Siren, and Voice Message. The fourth button is not currently in use. (A clue that this may not be the last revision.) These switches also came out of a Dental Panoramic X-Ray unit. They were used to select the appropriate x-ray setting for the size of the person getting the x-ray.

Here is a video of the new modifications and how they work.

[View:https://players.brightcove.net/1362235890001/NkxiVJdjx_default/index.html?videoId=6168048194001:740:466]

I have noticed that sometimes the siren is loud enough to turn on the Flashlight. Just a little more activity to keep track of.

I have discontinued updating my original Blog on this unit and any future updates will be done in this thread.

Thank you to [mention:2f7f3f52ea644a4ba1053d94e948bd06:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] for planting the idea to make the sculpture more interactive.

John

RE: A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

jw0752 — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 05:52:36 GMT

Honestly if someone had asked me this morning if I was finished with this thing I would have said yes. Then as I made my morning walk an idea began to form and before the walk was over I had committed myself to a few more hours of electronic sculpturing.

[View:/resized-image/__size/1200x899/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/contentimage_5F00_191844.jpg:1200:899]

I have decided to give The Thinker arms and hands. In his right hand he is holding a "Clap Switch Module" and in his left hand he is holding a Flashlight that the clap switch will turn on and off. Both the clap switch module and the light are designed to run on 5 volts. Due to the number of things that I have put on the unit I had a concern about power consumption. Therefore the first thing I did before installing the upgrade was to verify the current draw. The test revealed that with everything that could possibly load the circuit functioning the current draw from the main 11 volt source was 400 mA. This reassured me that I was still within an acceptable current draw.

I got some 12 gauge wire and began to fashion a couple of hand shapes. Once the basic hands were formed I bent them into the positions to hold the module and the flashlight. The flashlight presented a small challenge as the fasten points on the circuit board for the left hand also tied the hand to ground. The metal of the flashlight is also ground but I want it isolated and only pulled to ground through the MOSFET. Therefore the flashlight ended up with a couple layers of electrical tape between the fingers and the flashlight body.

I have a long history with the Chinese Clap Switch Kits as I have used them in several previous builds. Here is the schematic for the Clap Switch Module:

[View:/resized-image/__size/1192x900/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/contentimage_5F00_191845.bmp:1192:900]

I wanted the LED in this circuit to light at the same time as the flashlight. The LED in the circuit turns on with a low from the flip flop and I needed a high to the gate of my flashlight activating MOSFET so I took the signal from the other side of the flip flop which is the junction of R9 - R10 - and the collector of Q3. I already had a spare NTD4906 MOSFET on the board so it was just a matter of running a wire from this point on the board to the gate of the MOSFET. I did buffer this line with a 100R resistor and I also had to pull the gate low with a 10K resistor to ground.

Here are a couple close-ups of the new hands, flashlight and clap module.

[View:/resized-image/__size/1200x899/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/contentimage_5F00_191846.jpg:1200:899][View:/resized-image/__size/1200x899/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/contentimage_5F00_191847.jpg:1200:899]

Finally here is a demo of the clap flashlight in operation:

[View:https://players.brightcove.net/1362235890001/NkxiVJdjx_default/index.html?videoId=6167642724001:740:466]

With this addition I wanted to continue to enhance the interactive nature of the sculpture. Now the unit can sense the presence of a person, turn on a fan when a hand is near the IR detector, modulate the VU meter when noise is heard and turn on a flashlight with a clap or other sharp noise.

Perhaps it is finished now. (Fingers Crossed)

John

RE: A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

genebren — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 16:20:01 GMT

Well done John! This is a pretty cool project with lots of nice features. I could easily see this in an electronics museum.

RE: A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

Andrew J — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 08:39:34 GMT

Just brilliant, I really like it.

RE: A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

balearicdynamics — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 06:16:34 GMT

John, I see it is fantastic! You put a considerable level of interaction in a nice to see stuff. Very good job.

Enrico

RE: A Do Nothing Machine - Electronic Sculpture - The Thinker Revisited

fmilburn — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 06:07:42 GMT

This is awesome John. Every time I look at it I see a new detail. I really like the filigrees and details around the volt meters. This machine really does do something - it makes me smile [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-0d142489-e3ab-4810-8f05-7925f008d018/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]