Eye Progress

Today I went back to working on the eye.  Bought a few parts for the back of the eye. Plywood and j hinges. I got the servo connectors on there and the main L bracket.  I forgot getting the RGB LEDS, so I will have to come back to that.  

Anyway, as I am working on the eye I noticed that the dome of the eye fits right over my bathroom clock.  I might have to see if I can use this as a frame of some sorts for the eye.  It also means I might have to buy another bathroom clock.

Trinket Arrived

I was able to get my Adafruit Trinket and I also got the relay that I ordered  This is for revamping my grim reaper with better animated wings.  As you can see it is fairly small for what it can do.   I also noticed that I ordered the 3.3v version instead of the 5 but it worked with this relay away.  So win win situation.  I can't believe it worked.  I have been tinkering with the software tonight.  I don't think I will have any issues doing what I want it to do.

Here is a little video of what I have done.  Just turns on relays etc.

Found Another Treat Dispenser

I have been looking around for treat dispensers that I feel might help me make mine more interesting.  I think this guy has a winner.  I really love the Super Mario treat dispenser. I don't think mine will be that interesting.  But maybe it will give me a few ideas to add to mine to make it more fun.   You will have to check it out.  I don't know how he got the kids away from it.

Research and buying

This weekend was a little bit more about learning and buying than actually putting things together.  I always find myself thinking about other projects as I am working on one.  Which is good and bad.  Because it takes me longer to get them done.  As I am spreading out with my other projects, I know I have gone to far when things start being brought back to my mancave.  As seen in this photo.  I guess my other lamp shade was in the way and was placed on my walking Dead dvd set.(Sighed of course)

I decided to go again and get the Adafruit trinket.  Which is a Circuitpython device.  You can program it in python and then have it turn things on etc.  The whole idea is to have a linuer actuator turn on and move the wings to a open state.  I thought this would be a good thing to have to have it turn my wings on for my grim reaper.  Which, now that I think about it has to be repaired before I can get the wings going.  I will get to that later.

Some scribbling I was doing for the wings.  I know, I suck at drawing.

So after all the messing around and stuff I was able to mess around with the eye so more. With the help of Gary Fong I was able to the back down for my eye.  Also bought the brass tube and 1/4 inch U Joint.   The brass tube fits around the U joint as he said but the 5/16 bolt seems a little loose.  Kind of worried about that.  I might have to see if I can find something a tad larger.

My old Grim Reaper

Was going across Adafruit website the other day and they were explaining a little bit more about their circuitpython board.  Which really got me thinking.  The Circuitpython board run on python and they have their own GPIO outputs/inputs.  Which I could certainly use.  Anyway, my old grim reaper prop's wings didn't come out as I had hoped.  I tried to make them animated but the weight of the latex really slowed things down.  I am thinking about revamping the wings and have the Circuitpython control the wings going up and down. I think I need not to add latex this time to the wings.  I also need to fix this scythe.  It was damaged by water and really needs a make-over.

Gary Fong Eye

Wanted to mention Gary Fong's eye because it is one of the props that I have been researching that I am using as reference.  His treat dispenser is a little bit different than mine but certainly looks great!  I do like the idea of putting little candy bars and have the servo kick them out which I feel is a good idea.  Check out his eye when you get a chance.

Today I got the 2nd arm for my servos. Now I just have to figure out the rest. To be honest I dont know how I want to go with it.

Frustrated but ok now

I have been working on the eye this weekend.  Even though I thought it was coming along good, I realized it wasn't when I checked it with a light in side.  Because sooner or later I am planning on putting leds in the eye to light it up.  What I didn't notice before was that I can see the cuts on the eye.  For me to place the eye on the plastic, I had to cut the eye in slits in order to get it down since the lamp shade was not a perfect circle.  I had a couple more eye pics printed out so I placed one on the inside so it would be harder to see those lines.  Well, it seemed t work. I might add more too it but for now it seems to fix that issue.

Also this weekend I checked the arm that I got for my servo that my friend made me.  Only one of them works, so I will have to ask for another one the same size.  It seems to fit the servo good.  I needed the extra length to give the servo extra swing to turn the eye.

Programming....

Programming has being going ok but was having issues running it from a separate computer.   I would just get errors which was getting frustrated.  Well, I found a work around by sending xhost +.  That gave me permission to run the video from the camera from a separate computer. Which I really needed to do.

Servo Arms

One of my concerns has been the length of the servo arms to control the eye. Because the eye is larger, I need a larger servo arm to get more of a swing to turn the eye. Servo Arms can get pricey if you need it larger. Lucky for me a friend from work got a 3d printer.   He has been helping with making the arms.  This will be the 6th and 7th try to get the size right. Wish me luck.

The eye

Today I started on the eye.   I decided to experiment on the lamp shade. I really like the way this is looking. All I did was print out an iris and place it on the shade. I think it looks good.