This is a quick update to the hardware for the BigArtMess (BAM). I was going to give it a little classier name, but I like it.

I was a stumped for a couple of days as what to use for the arms. Metal, wood, plastic, ? After some stewing and rummaging I found a piece of Lexan leftover from an earlier project. Lets give it a whirl. This is my prototype and if it works as planned, I have visions of a much better, more polished version.

Long arms of Lexan

The first set of arms, were a bit too long; I cut them in half and then they fit much better.

That’s more like it

For the wheel, that was some more stewing, until I noticed the piece of corrugated plastic. Bingo! All of the piece are just falling in place perfectly. What is going to go wrong?

Mechanics are together.

For the platter, I measured out the furthest the arms would extend out and then added an inch. Being a Monday morning quarterback here (I am updating this page after I did a little drawing experiment). Two of the parts I am using came from an old Erector set I had laying around. I used the DC motor 3-6v, and a coupler. I hot glued the coupler to almooooooost dead center; but this is of no matter now as it is much too small when the arms draw back.

The theory is working, still a couple of details to resolve. I hope to have the motor issues dealt with soon.The motor is held on with one screw and one bolt. The motor is square up against the wood block and doesn’t move. Both don’t in the their current version of the project – HaHaHa.

Now that I have the mechanicals in place it is time to turn my attention to the electronics and getting things wired back up. I replaced the Elegoo (it is being used for other projects) and replaced it with a generic Uno board from my stock.

Electronics for the machine.

For the time being all of the electronics are mounted to a spared piece of wood. It was handy and does the job in a pinch. I will change this. I have a dev / solder shield for the Uno from Elegoo. The plan is to mount the L293D on the board and mount it to the Uno. This will cut down on some of the spaghetti currently there.

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