45 - Mechanical Bits #
Through all the Engineering pages I’ve focused on electrical and programming solutions, because those are what I know, but they are not always the right answer. For example, in this Reddit post the author asks “What kind of motor can I use for this? I need a lightweight pole to go from 0 to 90 degrees [as fast as possible]?” and the answer really stuck out to me
Now, if you’ve actually read through these guides in order, you’d know there’s a lot of complexity hidden in that answer. You might need a PID (see Control Systems ) to compensate the system to behave as you want still, but the point remains- you shouldn’t look to solve problems solely with fancier electrical parts: use everything you’ve got. While code on a microcontroller can do a lot, at the end of the day, you’ll still need to interface back to reality - and that means hacking away at real materials, using tension in springs, moving gears, etc.
I absolutely do not have the expertise to teach about these things, so instead I’ll do my best to link to resources I find
Gears #
Openscad Gears Library (or This one)
https://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/index.html (or the better, standalone version)
Springs/Dampening #
Belts #
Thermals #
Materials #
Metals #
Corrorision, weldability, etc.
Elasticity #
Vibration #
Hydraulics & Pneumatics #
Pumps #
Valves #
Viscosity #
Fuels #
Lubrication #
Thinking Outside the box #
Big LED Matrix Becomes Tiny LED matrix Thanks to Fiber Optics (Hackaday, Elliotmade)
If you really want fast. Go stored kinetic energy with sudden release.
You can use a motor or other energy source to build up the kinetic energy in some elastic material.
A simple catapult, if you will. If you don’t want old school, you can store your energy in a pneumatic system. A valve controlling how much can go into the cylinder at once would control your speed.
Failing that, electromagnetic (like a solenoid) will probably be fastest.
- u/olderaccount