kwartzlab – animatronic eye prototype

I’m working on an ultra low-cost animatronic eye that blinks. Fabbing my own solenoid (1″ throw) out of drinking straws, magnet wire and a tiny magnet. Imagine a whole array of these eyes.

click through for stills…

This project is an extension of my general work exploring human reaction to different realizations of “eyes”. Thanks to Karl for being a sounding board and Dan for the paper eyelid idea.

Considered lots of ways to achieve a fast blink but none were as fast and as cheap as a homerolled solenoid.

Styrofoam ball the dollar store ($1 for 6), paper, foamboard, drinking straws, neodymium magnet, wire, 12V power supply

Winding coils. A bit sloppy but fast for proof of concept.

Picked up some finer gauge wire from Karl tonight (thanks man!) to roll smaller coils with more flux. This is optimize the coil time.

Make: eyes.
DW

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Tags: personal project