The Tittylator: Working Prototype
After my initial prototype that gave me a tangible example of what kind of scale and shape my Tittylator would potentially look like, I moved on to prototype the mechanics of it. I originally thought of making the feather end of the Tittylator open and close like a fan, but that would require many tiny moving parts and I didn’t think the effects of that movement was worth the trouble. The idea is for the feathers to brush against the user’s skin lightly. I decided that the fanning motion back and forth would be simple enough for me to prototype this week, as well as give the effect I want to the user.
And I totally underestimated how difficult getting that “simple” motion would be! We see it often enough in mundane things that I didn’t even consider the different elements that would go into it. I kind of thought I would just find a motor that was small enough and would do exactly what I wanted it to do, but obviously I was wrong.
Pedro suggested that I go with a magnetic actuator, which was a new term for me, but appeared very fascinating and useful. I wasn’t going to be able to get an actuator delivered to me in time for this prototype, so I looked up tutorials on how to make one at home.
As I was gathering different components to try and create this DIY magnetic actuator, I ran into Ben Light at the ITP shop and mentioned to him what I was trying to do. He advised that using an actuator might give me too quick and harsh of a motion, as the force is being pulled by magnets. I wouldn’t be able to control the motion’s speed. He then helped me devise a mechanism that would use a mini servo motor and some metal wires.
The mechanism would use the servo arms to push and pull a metal wire up and down. The wire has a loop at the top, and would then turn the other metal wire that that has a dip and sitting perpendicularly. That horizontal arm would then have to be attached to some sort of enclosure so it has something to sit.
The motion seemed to be working fine with my hand moving the vertical wire, but it was so difficult to get this motion down once I connected it to the servo. It took me four or five different prototypes to finally get the angle of the servo and the length of the dip to work together to get the motion that I wanted.
I attached the servo onto a styrofoam block and superglued it in place. I had to detach and reglued multiple times due to many failed attempts, needing to adjust the position of the servo and the length of the vertical wire.
I scored a piece of cardboard I found on the junk shelf to create an enclosure that the horizontal metal wire would loop into. I attached all the components and, after many failed trials in properly measuring the length of the dip in the metal wire and the length of the entire mechanism in relation to the servo angle, finally got the mechanism to move the way I wanted it to.
Notice how the up/down movement is working correctly, but my wires are being displaced due to the fact that there isn’t anything confining that movement. I got a tip from one of the first year students on campus to try hot gluing beads to the dip in the horizontal metal wire and at the hole openings on the cardboard to hold everything in place. It worked like a charm!
Next steps:
Probably change this mechanism to something smaller and sturdier, like a micro magnetic actuator
Figure out my input sensor, most likely going to be a pressure sensor attached to a small pump for the user to squeeze
Attach vibrating motors to the Tittylator
Looks-like prototype! 3D print with TPU filament?