I’ve always loved dragons so I’m going to have a go at making an automata of a dragon flying. I got most of my inspiration from an automata made by a guy called Keith Newstead: I love the smooth motion! I think I’ve worked out that it’s made from a crank to describe the elliptical […]

In my explorings I have come across the terms ‘pull up’ and ‘pull down’ resistors in conjunction with digital circuits. So… what are they? How do they work? And why do we need them? CMOS gates are sensitive to static electricity and can be damaged by high voltages, they may also assume any logic level […]

Right, like linkages drive mechanisms (the collective term for pulley and gear systems) connect other mechanisms together but this time using rotary motion. This may also involve gearing or changing the angle or direction of the motion. There are two types of drives: positive and friction. Gears fall into the positive category as they are […]

At the beginning of this project electronics in general terrified me. I had one project under my belt and I felt it didn’t really count as I used a kit. Now I’m planning my own little projects to do over the summer! I love the intricacies and the logic in electronics, making my test circuits […]

Now we’re getting into the details… So, ready for more mathsy goodness? There are three important formulas to remember when dealing with mechanisms… Mechanical Advantage This is basically a comparison of the effort put in to the load moved, this leverage is the ration of the distances of the effort and load to the fulcrum. […]

Turning motions are really easy to understand, take this set of scales: The right hand side is turnign clockwise and the left hand side is turning anti clockwise. To balance the scales or bring them into equilibrium the clockwise turning motion has to balance the anticlockwise motion. To work this out you need to use […]

Almost all machines will, somewhere, use at least one lever. A lever is a very simple device it’s basically a rigid bar that pivots on a fixed point. In Archimedes’ book called ‘On the Equilibrium of Planes’ he wrote out the ‘Law of the Lever’. He wrote that a lever is used to convert a small effort […]

After doing a bit of research I’ve found that there are only 5 basic mechanisms! The Inclided Plane The Wedge The Screw The Lever The Wheel On a closer look you can reduce this list to just two basic mechanisms, a wedge is like an inclined plane, or two joined together and a screw is […]

When working with mechanisms there are 6 main types of motion Irregular This is motion with no discernible pattern, you can get this effect using an irregular cam and follower. Intermittent This describes motion that starts and stops regularly, like a Geneva stop mechanism. Linear This is simply motion in a straight line, like a […]

Ok, I’ve come across a few really important tools and processes in my circuit experiments so far and I thought it would be a good idea to give them a proper introduction seeing as they’ve been so helpful… Our old friend, the oscilloscope, has made another appearance. It first made itself invaluable in my keypad safe […]