Some people are better than others when it comes to documenting their hacks. Some people, like [Micah Elizabeth Scott], aka [scanlime], set the gold standard with their recordings. Hacking sessions with the Winch Bot have been streamed regularly throughout the build and this is going to lead to a stacking effect in her next projects because the Winch Bot was designed to record hacking sessions. Hacking video inception anyone? Her Winch Bot summary video is after the break.
The first part of this build, which she calls the Tuco Flyer, was [Micah Elizabeth Scott]’s camera gimbal hack which we already covered and is a wonderful learning experience in itself. She refers to the gimbal portion as the “flyer” since it can move around. The Winch Bot contains the stationary parts of the Tuco Flyer and control where the camera will be in the room.
Conceptually, attaching strings to motors is a simple idea but [Micah Elizabeth Scott] shows why it requires a lot of ingenuity and engineering to make that system usable for audio/video. Mechanical noise on the system was a problem which took a couple of iterations to solve as vibrations would travel through the cords. This might not seem like a big issue until you consider that the microphone is attached to these strings and vibrating strings are the premise of every guitar, violin, and banjo.
Each Winch Bot module contains a TM4C1294 microcontroller which was chosen for its speed, price, and included 100-base Ethernet. [Micah Elizabeth Scott] plans to control the Tuco Flyer’s movement and video recording from the same computer. We can’t help but wonder if there will be an automated routine to automatically scan objects for 3D rendering.
“Show your work” doesn’t have to be a groan-inducing statement on a math test, it should be a way to show others your efforts and hopefully someone will learn something from you. Check out another winch robot and look at our many camera hacks. Show Hackaday what you can do!
Filed under: robots hacks
