Hams Watch For Meteors
After passing an exam and obtaining a license, an amateur radio operator will typically pick up a VHF ratio and start talking to other hams in their local community. From …read more Continue reading Hams Watch For Meteors
Category Archives: bounce
Robotic Ball-Bouncing Platform Learns New Tricks
[T-Kuhn]’s Octo-Bouncer platform has learned some new tricks since we saw it last. If you haven’t seen it before, this device uses computer vision from a camera mounted underneath its …read more Continue reading Robotic Ball-Bouncing Platform Learns New Tricks
Juggling Machine Listens to the Bounce to Keep Ball in the Air
It’s a seemingly simple task: bounce a ping-pong ball on a wooden paddle. So simple that almost anyone can pick up a ball and a paddle and make a reasonable job of it. Now, close your eyes and try to do it just by the sound the ball makes when it hits the paddle. That’s a little tougher, but this stepper-driven platform juggler manages it with aplomb.
That’s not to say that the path to the finished product in the video below was a smooth one for [tkuhn]. He went through multiple iterations over the last two years, including a …read more
Continue reading Juggling Machine Listens to the Bounce to Keep Ball in the Air
Microswitches: Past the Tipping Point
You find them everywhere from 3D printers to jet airliners. They’re the little switches that detect paper jams in your printer, or the big armored switches that sense when the elevator car is on the right floor. They’re microswitches, or more properly miniature snap-action switches, and they’re so common you may never have wondered what’s going on inside them. But the story behind how these switches were invented and the principle of physics at work in the guts of these tiny and useful switches are both pretty interesting.
The Chicken Switch
Microswitches have a long history, at least …read more
