Hi everyone!
I recently bought a toy board with metal pins that move when you press them, like the one in the video:
I had an idea to connect the board to an Arduino and try to upload images to it. I thought about building a small electromagnet for each pin that would control the movement of the pin. I'm unsure if making this board of electromagnets is possible or even applicable, and I would love to hear your thoughts about how I can bring this idea to life. Thanks in advance!!!
You could imagine a solenoid, i.e. an electromagnet with an armature which could push a pin, one solenoid per pin. But in small sizes they would be inefficient and hard to make.
Such pin arrays are usually made by a flexible steel rod held in position by a brass tube. The other end of the steel rod is connected to your solenoid where there is room for the number of solenoids necessary for your project.
is it possible to wrap each solenoid by hand so that each electromagnet only affects its suitable pin in the board?
In the video the thing is described as having ~2000 pins. That's a powerful lot of electromagnets. Thinking out loud, if the pins could be made to retain their positions, say by friction, maybe a single small servo actuator driven in an X-Y pattern (think 3-D printer) could raise the pins one by one.
They are too close together to drive them in situ. The field from one coil would affect the neighbouring rods.
Also a bidirectional solenoid must have two coils. Look up how a solenoid works, you will see that you can't just place the coils anywhere to have an effect.
An end mounted electromagnet won't work, because the travel would be like a relay, only a millimeter or less.
Certainly not. But you can use a magnetic shield (steel) around each solenoid. Remember, you are trying to enable an unknown number of solenoids simultaneously and for a variable length of time. Consider the heat generated!
I would say something like an etch-a-sketch, with a carriage that moves on x and y and has a single linear actuator to push each pin to the correct depth, one at a time.
Plus it would be cool to watch the picture take shape.
Huh, with one little servo dashing around shoving the pins, it might finish a picture in a day, if you started it early.
lol:)
Not sure where your math is coming from. That board has 2400 pins. At 1.5 seconds per pin that's 1 hour, but I bet it could be done in less than half that time.
If you don't like my idea, you could provide a viable idea on how to do it faster.
IDK maybe "memory wire" muscles in an XY matrix with diodes?
Not bad, Nitinol is relatively inexpensive. Any ideas on how to create such a network?
Not with 2000 of them. Electrically, a matrix just like a LED matrix with a diode in series with each element. Heat buildup would be a problem.
That was my thought. You could make some itty-bitty springs but you have virtually no tolerance. Maybe you could put them in a 3d printed honeycomb?
Still, it's a good idea to mull over.
Mini gantry that pushes each rod one by one.
Yeah, that's what I said in #8 and @dougp said in #5.
Seems to be about the best option so far.
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.