Electrobug: A Robotic Bug Made From a Toothbrush

Hello everyone! I think it's time to break my long silence...having a full time job this summer means not being able to devote nearly enough time to making things, I'm afraid, and this blog has suffered for it. But never fear, I go back to school soon, and will surely have lots more when I get back. For now, I've got a little robotic bug that I made today (it's a pretty easy project if you're looking for something to do in one day or less.)
Before I begin, I should say that I took the electronics behind this little guy from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories' Bristlebot instructions. The gist behind it is that if you take a vibrating pager motor and a battery, and attach them to the top of a toothbrush head, the vibrations will cause the toothbrush to move forward. It's a great project for people who aren't really technologically inclined but still love the idea of building a little robot for themselves. As for me, I just like the idea of having robot pests, especially self-sustaining ones (which is why the next time I do a project like this, I'd like to try working with solar panelling.) The cockroach-like movements of the little bristlebots appealed to me, so I built a paper bug around mine to give him a little more personality. So here he is!


When you open his little paper wings, you can see the battery and little red wire that connects to the motor.


And here's a view of the bottom, so you can see how his "feet" look (pardon my painty hand):

And of course, how could I post pictures without a video? So here he is in motion; now if only the video could get the detail that the pictures can!



P.S. If you haven't forgotten about the sneak-preview of the doll that I posted last time, don't worry! I haven't abandoned that project, I've just been busy with other things. He'll be on here soon!

Steampunk Robot Arm

Hello everyone! Well, it's time for another post. There comes a time in everyone's life where they realize that something's missing...and that something is usually, but not always, a giant robotic steampunk arm. I don't usually delve into the more mechanical realm of art, but I think I might start getting more into it. I'm definitely making a steampunk ipod case, so look out for that in the future. But for now, if I ever need to become a Bond villian or just reach something that's a few feet away without moving, I've got this:


The armory shell bit and the ratchet system are wood, which is bolted to the frame (chickenwire). There are brass hinges on the elbow and tiny ones on each joint in the fingers so they can move. Each finger is attached to a leathery cord that runs on the inside of the arm and connects to your real hand, so you can move the fingers and make them grab (although they aren't really done yet; I need to add a spring to every joint like I did with the knuckle part.) Here are some closeups of the hand part:




And here's the racheting system (it makes delightful clicking noises as you bend the elbow up, and it makes it so your wrist doesn't have to support the whole weight of the arm):



And (sigh) the obligatory picture to prove that I can indeed use it:


I guess the caption for this photo would be "Holy balls! How will I ever type out lame blog captions now?"

So, as soon as I obtain a) a very small ipod speaker and b) an old miniature (maybe dollhouse?) gramophone, I'll get to work on my steampunk ipod! Until then, the only wood-related project I'll be doing is the wood-cut print that I'll start designing tomorrow.

In other news, I seem to be getting a lot of visitors from a site called ponyhaven.proboards.com... I had never heard of it, and the site has no description or anything, but I assumed it was My Little Pony-related, so I tried to make an account on the board, but was rejected by a moderator! Oh, the shame! Oh, the heightened mystery! Who are you guys? I must know!