Transcript
Electric motors are used in so many
places and whenever you see them you'll also see mechanisms. Mechanisms, put
simply, are needed for changing how a motor moves. Mechanisms can for example
slow down or speed up some movement, make something that rotates move back and
forth or change the location of the movement. You can use gears, cranks and
joints in mechanisms but with a little bit of imagination you can make
mechanisms with pretty wild materials. In this exercise you'll grab a servo and
create a simple mechanism. Here's a few ideas you can explore. You don't have to
make a useful project. It can be something just for fun, too. But of course
you can start off with a practical problem you want to solve. Think of a
wide range of things you can do with the servo movement. It could draw, mix, play
sounds or open something. You could make this into a challenge, too. What's the
biggest movement you can create with a small servo like this, how big can you
go? Or what if you have to make a moving robot with just one servo? See who can
make the best crawler robot. You can try to link moving parts together and use
everyday materials to test your ideas, too. And by the way, does the servo have to be
visible? Often it's pretty nice if you can hide the motor completely. Use some
of these ideas or follow your instinct. Start with the program you made earlier
in this chapter. Change it if needed. Control the delay with sensor values or
program new movement patterns. If you have different switches at hand
you can use those instead of a button, too. Just keep it simple enough for now. You can
always continue with these ideas later on.
