Final
For my final kinetic artwork I made a flowerpot with many eyes. I chose the traditional clay pot design as it has a cultural presence as well as being geometrically simple. Because there are so many components I wanted to start with a simpler design as a template that I could switch later on.
The eye component was very attractive to me. I used to have a childhood phobia of many human like eyes but now that memory has become an experiment into the surreal. I want to push an idea of the
The first step was a proof of concept for the eyes which I designed with servos. The first prototype was functional but had several issues. The models were too large making movement difficult and production slow and expensive. The housing for the servos was also loose and too heavy. The model would jam easily as well as fall apart. The housing for the servos was also too tight due to the squish of the plastic when it was 3D printed. The reasons for this was I wasn't concerned about efficiency when prototyping a design as well I had little frame of reference how it would scale but in hindsight considering these things would greatly have increased workflow. I realized this and made some changes midway and started reducing volume where it wasn't structurally necessary.
Because I was making a servo gimbal that would need to fit inside a sculpture I had to design it to be compact as well as reliable so that it wouldn't jam and cause possible damage to the motors or the models. This took several attempts. The first prints were to test model tolerance and possible incorporation of LED strips for the eyes as well as reducing the amount of small moving parts. I also didn't have a way of securing the assembly together. I settled on a design that set the eyeball at 4 cm in diameter with a print in place indent that the servo would sit the eyeball into as well as a chamber to house an LED and appropriate wiring ducts. The model printed in halves that had 2 holes for screwing together. The eyeball no longer contained the entire motor instead it stuck out the back where it would be well hidden. The rings the eyes sat in were cut from spheres meaning the eye could turn at only .75 mm clearance between moving bodies although I did enlargen that to 1.5 as a precaution for irregular surfaces from printing and warping. I included a inset socket for the motors and their relating screws. To fit the Eye in the ring I swapped out a need for an axle by creating a print in place knob that the eye would sit into once assembled. Considering that the printers were in high demand these were also very efficient only requiring 1 hour per eyeball for both x and y axis components at 0.35mm layer height.
To make the pot I did the same I did when designing the eyeballs where I create a positive of the models to fit and added a millimeter of clearance so that I can subtract it from any model to create the socket for the eye.
Printing the Flower Pot had difficulties. My first print model was too dense. The underextrusion was from my attempt to rush the print but the print itself had more volume than needed especially considering space for components is a priority.
The second print I did with a cheaper white PLA so I could tune the model for any issues in structure. I also switched from Slic3r to Ultimaker Cura as Cura has a much more refined slicer algorithm having it's own preset profile for Ender 3 printers with more calculations such as wiping the nozzle into the inner walls to remove stringing. This print was successful however the walls were too thin in my attempt to make use of a shell design and easily frayed.
After this print I tried adding a ring wall inside the bottom of the pot and building the sockets so that they had a supported wall underneath as well as a proceeding outer wall so that there was no overhangs to fail when printing them. I also manually added a bridge to the eye socket so that the knob the eye fit into could print as it is upside down and then cleaned off later. After seeing the white PLA fray apart I made an attempt at a final print using a bronze PLA however I made a mistake. One was that the STL file was not a fused object causing the socket model to cut into the wall of the pot as well as I still had an issue with the base tearing apart from the filament skipping off of the overhung indent into the base and webbing across the center.
The final print I used a wood PLA however it began to seperate from the model and tore when removed from the print surface. For my final print I increased the shell to 3 mm and added perpendicular planes to support the outer walls and secure the print lines with several points to anchor too. These perpendicular planes were incredibly effective. The only skipped ring was at the very base before the walls started printing and once it did it held everything in place an strengthens the final design with very little added material and print time.. I made some adjustments to the print speed and added a raft to ensure a flat base and fused walls.
While this printed I worked on the script for the arduino controller. Considering I had designed the model to fit 7 I would need 14 data pins and to account for power supply. The first issue was working out an array loop for the servos where power supply became an immediate issue. For all 14 pins I used 2 offbrand Arduino Nanos which took some troubleshooting to setup, once they were the main issue was power. Powering 7 motors immedietly crashed my controller however even after using an external battery I had an issue that once the batteries drained past a point it would crash the controller which I speculate is the feedback of the potentiometers in the arduino causing issues. Each servo would slowly lock to 0 degrees when this happened. I made some tweaks to the code to help amend this. The major adjustment was programming the arduino to depower each pin after the servo turns to reduce power consumption and draw from the controller whether power or logic. After draining 2 batteries I switched to a computer power supply which quickly shorted out the Arduino input amplitude arcing from the input to the ground pin which I assume was I misjudged the voltage of the supply or I incorrectly soldered the pins however the power supply thankfully had a safety break system for shorted circuits saving the Arduino and reactivating after a minute too cool off what I assume are breakers. The power supply worked well for powering the motors able to power all of 14 them at their upper limits with a single 5V pin from the power supply, I assume using a mains connection at 5V has increased the amplitude substantially compared to a battery.
This started to turn into a mess. I had 2 separate power supplies but without a extension cord with multiple plugs I only could power the computer power supply that kept shorting my Arduinos out which meant if I didn't have an extra mains for the my USB hub to power the arduinos I had to use 2 batteries which had limited lifetime and would crash the Arduinos if the servos weren't receiving enough voltage in the logic pin. I also found that because these are cheaper hobby servos I had an issue with some servos having a lower tolerance for power supply and would lock up as I attempted to power more of them on the same battery.
4 Eyes working off of battery power and usb powered Arduino Nanos
All eyes working with servos powered with a computer power supply
The LEDs I assumed would be easy to install considering they are extremely efficient as well as I only needed 1 for each eye. When troubleshooting this I was able to power a single pre-soldered LED that came with my roll of neopixels. When trying to modify this however I wasn't able to alter the colour output and eventually the LED simply stopped functioning. I found that maybe I attempted to use a 5V pin on the second arduino which wasn't properly soldered, other possibilities could be that I the servos code is limiting the arduino's output or it's a comparability error. I've also considered that I could have improperly soldered the LED lights causing a short or possibly frying the microcontroller chip by soldering too slow and heating up the entire copper circuit. I left this feature unfinished as the servo motors took priority.
Wiring up the Pot became a job in itself. Thankfully I had the insight to at least add a access port on the bottom of the pot however even using jumper cables with small diameter the wirecount quickly piled up especially from the 3 wires needed on the servos. I had initially intended to have the bottom of the flowerpot contain the circuits but I wasn't prepared to design something compact in the time left to turn around the project. I labelled each eyeball alphabetically for horizontal and vertical servos and built the circuit externally. I added a inner container for holding a plant and added the same style supports so that it locks onto the main body.
I think I need more experience working with electronics. I think it just comes down to practice. I spent hours on this project but most of that time went into troubleshooting things and working basic components. I was able to set up the Processing interface for the Arduino but I wasn't able to I would like to rework this project from the ground up. This time utilizing grasshopper for algorithmic development as well as designing my own toolbox for this and future projects such as tolerance adjustments as well as templates for designing unique surfaces that can be remapped to models. I would also like to use this process to create a more ambitious designs then the one I ended up using due to production time. A great tool would be what my instructor Bryan showed me he made which was a grasshopper script that would take an image and slice it into tiles that he could print out with his plotter machine. I made the pot based on the size of my print bed but if it would be useful to design a Grasshopper script that could cut my model into sections and then add joining components so I could create a much larger sculpture that could fit all 14 of my eyes as I could only design the pot to fit the 7.
I think this would be just as useful when designing for the Arduino such as understanding capacitors to compensate for the voltage, instead of using a larger power supply I likely could have used capacitors to pulse the servos' power. Another would be using a relay or a transistor to control 14 servos with 7 pins using the 8th pin to swap the circuit between 2 sets simultaneously while having the arduino juggle 2 outputs on a single pin for each switch.
Seeing how this is the end of the Winter semester I have ample time to make up for my own projects and looking at the response from sitting in on Nicholas's panel critique I have a lot of ground to cover developing my process over the next months for next year.
The eye component was very attractive to me. I used to have a childhood phobia of many human like eyes but now that memory has become an experiment into the surreal. I want to push an idea of the
The first step was a proof of concept for the eyes which I designed with servos. The first prototype was functional but had several issues. The models were too large making movement difficult and production slow and expensive. The housing for the servos was also loose and too heavy. The model would jam easily as well as fall apart. The housing for the servos was also too tight due to the squish of the plastic when it was 3D printed. The reasons for this was I wasn't concerned about efficiency when prototyping a design as well I had little frame of reference how it would scale but in hindsight considering these things would greatly have increased workflow. I realized this and made some changes midway and started reducing volume where it wasn't structurally necessary.
Because I was making a servo gimbal that would need to fit inside a sculpture I had to design it to be compact as well as reliable so that it wouldn't jam and cause possible damage to the motors or the models. This took several attempts. The first prints were to test model tolerance and possible incorporation of LED strips for the eyes as well as reducing the amount of small moving parts. I also didn't have a way of securing the assembly together. I settled on a design that set the eyeball at 4 cm in diameter with a print in place indent that the servo would sit the eyeball into as well as a chamber to house an LED and appropriate wiring ducts. The model printed in halves that had 2 holes for screwing together. The eyeball no longer contained the entire motor instead it stuck out the back where it would be well hidden. The rings the eyes sat in were cut from spheres meaning the eye could turn at only .75 mm clearance between moving bodies although I did enlargen that to 1.5 as a precaution for irregular surfaces from printing and warping. I included a inset socket for the motors and their relating screws. To fit the Eye in the ring I swapped out a need for an axle by creating a print in place knob that the eye would sit into once assembled. Considering that the printers were in high demand these were also very efficient only requiring 1 hour per eyeball for both x and y axis components at 0.35mm layer height.
To make the pot I did the same I did when designing the eyeballs where I create a positive of the models to fit and added a millimeter of clearance so that I can subtract it from any model to create the socket for the eye.
Printing the Flower Pot had difficulties. My first print model was too dense. The underextrusion was from my attempt to rush the print but the print itself had more volume than needed especially considering space for components is a priority.
 |
| Attempted rush print for final presentations, printed for 8 hours. Under extruded, stringing and long print time. |
The second print I did with a cheaper white PLA so I could tune the model for any issues in structure. I also switched from Slic3r to Ultimaker Cura as Cura has a much more refined slicer algorithm having it's own preset profile for Ender 3 printers with more calculations such as wiping the nozzle into the inner walls to remove stringing. This print was successful however the walls were too thin in my attempt to make use of a shell design and easily frayed.
 |
| White Pot splitting apart, base and top ring are missing |
After this print I tried adding a ring wall inside the bottom of the pot and building the sockets so that they had a supported wall underneath as well as a proceeding outer wall so that there was no overhangs to fail when printing them. I also manually added a bridge to the eye socket so that the knob the eye fit into could print as it is upside down and then cleaned off later. After seeing the white PLA fray apart I made an attempt at a final print using a bronze PLA however I made a mistake. One was that the STL file was not a fused object causing the socket model to cut into the wall of the pot as well as I still had an issue with the base tearing apart from the filament skipping off of the overhung indent into the base and webbing across the center.
 |
| Base fraying from extrusions popping off of incline |
The final print I used a wood PLA however it began to seperate from the model and tore when removed from the print surface. For my final print I increased the shell to 3 mm and added perpendicular planes to support the outer walls and secure the print lines with several points to anchor too. These perpendicular planes were incredibly effective. The only skipped ring was at the very base before the walls started printing and once it did it held everything in place an strengthens the final design with very little added material and print time.. I made some adjustments to the print speed and added a raft to ensure a flat base and fused walls.
 |
| Wooden PLA pot with added base supports, socket support ring, and outer wall supports |
While this printed I worked on the script for the arduino controller. Considering I had designed the model to fit 7 I would need 14 data pins and to account for power supply. The first issue was working out an array loop for the servos where power supply became an immediate issue. For all 14 pins I used 2 offbrand Arduino Nanos which took some troubleshooting to setup, once they were the main issue was power. Powering 7 motors immedietly crashed my controller however even after using an external battery I had an issue that once the batteries drained past a point it would crash the controller which I speculate is the feedback of the potentiometers in the arduino causing issues. Each servo would slowly lock to 0 degrees when this happened. I made some tweaks to the code to help amend this. The major adjustment was programming the arduino to depower each pin after the servo turns to reduce power consumption and draw from the controller whether power or logic. After draining 2 batteries I switched to a computer power supply which quickly shorted out the Arduino input amplitude arcing from the input to the ground pin which I assume was I misjudged the voltage of the supply or I incorrectly soldered the pins however the power supply thankfully had a safety break system for shorted circuits saving the Arduino and reactivating after a minute too cool off what I assume are breakers. The power supply worked well for powering the motors able to power all of 14 them at their upper limits with a single 5V pin from the power supply, I assume using a mains connection at 5V has increased the amplitude substantially compared to a battery.
This started to turn into a mess. I had 2 separate power supplies but without a extension cord with multiple plugs I only could power the computer power supply that kept shorting my Arduinos out which meant if I didn't have an extra mains for the my USB hub to power the arduinos I had to use 2 batteries which had limited lifetime and would crash the Arduinos if the servos weren't receiving enough voltage in the logic pin. I also found that because these are cheaper hobby servos I had an issue with some servos having a lower tolerance for power supply and would lock up as I attempted to power more of them on the same battery.
4 Eyes working off of battery power and usb powered Arduino Nanos
All eyes working with servos powered with a computer power supply
The LEDs I assumed would be easy to install considering they are extremely efficient as well as I only needed 1 for each eye. When troubleshooting this I was able to power a single pre-soldered LED that came with my roll of neopixels. When trying to modify this however I wasn't able to alter the colour output and eventually the LED simply stopped functioning. I found that maybe I attempted to use a 5V pin on the second arduino which wasn't properly soldered, other possibilities could be that I the servos code is limiting the arduino's output or it's a comparability error. I've also considered that I could have improperly soldered the LED lights causing a short or possibly frying the microcontroller chip by soldering too slow and heating up the entire copper circuit. I left this feature unfinished as the servo motors took priority.
 |
| A soldered LED |
 |
| Arduino Nano with pins soldered on |
Wiring up the Pot became a job in itself. Thankfully I had the insight to at least add a access port on the bottom of the pot however even using jumper cables with small diameter the wirecount quickly piled up especially from the 3 wires needed on the servos. I had initially intended to have the bottom of the flowerpot contain the circuits but I wasn't prepared to design something compact in the time left to turn around the project. I labelled each eyeball alphabetically for horizontal and vertical servos and built the circuit externally. I added a inner container for holding a plant and added the same style supports so that it locks onto the main body.
I think I need more experience working with electronics. I think it just comes down to practice. I spent hours on this project but most of that time went into troubleshooting things and working basic components. I was able to set up the Processing interface for the Arduino but I wasn't able to I would like to rework this project from the ground up. This time utilizing grasshopper for algorithmic development as well as designing my own toolbox for this and future projects such as tolerance adjustments as well as templates for designing unique surfaces that can be remapped to models. I would also like to use this process to create a more ambitious designs then the one I ended up using due to production time. A great tool would be what my instructor Bryan showed me he made which was a grasshopper script that would take an image and slice it into tiles that he could print out with his plotter machine. I made the pot based on the size of my print bed but if it would be useful to design a Grasshopper script that could cut my model into sections and then add joining components so I could create a much larger sculpture that could fit all 14 of my eyes as I could only design the pot to fit the 7.
I think this would be just as useful when designing for the Arduino such as understanding capacitors to compensate for the voltage, instead of using a larger power supply I likely could have used capacitors to pulse the servos' power. Another would be using a relay or a transistor to control 14 servos with 7 pins using the 8th pin to swap the circuit between 2 sets simultaneously while having the arduino juggle 2 outputs on a single pin for each switch.
Seeing how this is the end of the Winter semester I have ample time to make up for my own projects and looking at the response from sitting in on Nicholas's panel critique I have a lot of ground to cover developing my process over the next months for next year.
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