A Do Nothing Machine

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

jw0752 — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 20:48:35 GMT

I made another upgrade today but rather than trying to keep this thread up to date I am just going to just update the Blog in Electronic Art.

Here is the link for the Electronic Art Blog about the Do Nothing Machine

https://www.element14.com/community/community/project14/electronicart/blog/2020/06/26/the-thinker-revisited?sr=inbox&ru=375133

John

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

jw0752 — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 05:48:20 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/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1cd8e005-bf56-46fb-9234-458eca7e4972/4812.contentimage_5F00_191674.jpg:620:465]

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/620x468/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1cd8e005-bf56-46fb-9234-458eca7e4972/6153.contentimage_5F00_191675.bmp:620:468]

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/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1cd8e005-bf56-46fb-9234-458eca7e4972/4571.contentimage_5F00_191676.jpg:620:465][View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1cd8e005-bf56-46fb-9234-458eca7e4972/8713.contentimage_5F00_191677.jpg:620:465]

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

[View:https://players.brightcove.net/1362235890001/NkxiVJdjx_default/index.html?videoId=6167642295001:740:466]

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

ralphjy — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 20:21:11 GMT

I second Frank's suggestion that you enter this in the competition. Truly a great piece of of "electronic art"!

Ralph

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

fmilburn — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 16:36:43 GMT

John,

This definitely belongs in the electronic arts competition.
Frank

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

kk99 — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 11:04:07 GMT

Awesome project, John.

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

dubbie — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 09:54:35 GMT

This is a good art installation, looks really good. I think it is a good idea to have the audio so that it can be turned off.

Dubbie

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

neilk — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 21:05:52 GMT

Nice work, John!

Neil

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

DAB — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 18:43:46 GMT

Well done John.

DAB

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

ntewinkel — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 18:41:42 GMT

Wow! That is an amazing piece of tech-art you've made, John!

It looks amazing, and the things it does makes it a whole magnitude better on top of that.

Like Douglas mentioned above, I too have seen artists try to incorporate tech into their art, but the results tend to be very disappointing. I always want the tech to do something.

Also: Brilliant idea to be using the small kits as part of the build!

Very inspiring [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1cd8e005-bf56-46fb-9234-458eca7e4972/1423.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

-Nico

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

genebren — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 14:27:31 GMT

John,

Hard to call this a 'do-nothing-machine' when it does such of great job of inspiring awe and entertainment. Well done! This was a blog that put a huge smile on my face. If I show this to my grandkids, I would imagine that they would want something like this too.

Thanks for the fun!

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

shabaz — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 13:11:10 GMT

Nice artwork! : )

If you hadn't mentioned how it was made, I would have assumed (from looking at the video of it in action and not seeing the wiring at the rear : ) that the board existing circuitry was operating all the art features, since you've blended them in seamlessly.

It looks very cool, and nice to see the board on display in this way, there's lots to learn just by looking at it, how electronics assemblies looked like just a couple of decades ago (and still do to some extent).

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

colporteur — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 03:39:23 GMT

If you were my grandpa, I would be proud as a peacock to take my do nothing to school.[View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1cd8e005-bf56-46fb-9234-458eca7e4972/contentimage_5F00_938.png:16:16]

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

ralphjy — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 01:26:50 GMT

Awesome!! Very creative [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1cd8e005-bf56-46fb-9234-458eca7e4972/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]. You need to add a video.

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

colporteur — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 00:17:36 GMT

Not to steal JW's accolades but does anyone have plans for a do nothing machine. I'm looking for one you have experience with.

I'm interested in the box model that opens the lid to turn off the switch. I saw one with a creature that was great. I just couldn't justify $50. A three year old will make fifty buck disappear real fast:)

I like to build them for grand children. Thanks JW something else for my retirement.

RE: A Do Nothing Machine

fmilburn — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 00:10:33 GMT

It is fantastic John!