Silverfish Robotics

Update on the Helmet

I've been trying to work on this project every week now but this weekend i ran into trouble with the next step which is the teeth with will come out past the lips. I could have made this simple for myself by having the teeth run on rails like the lips do but i wanted them to come out at an angle and this is the result.

To get the square section to come out into and angle without colliding with itself I'm using a four bar linkage and this drawing is plotting the circle the outer arm will rotate around. If you can see the two right angles with corners on the circle those are the respective positions of the teeth in the open and closed position. There was some complex trig i could have tried but decided that doing a functional drawing like this was easier for me due to being less abstract in my thinking.

I'm Finally Back!

I've finished college now graduating with a bachelors in mechanical engineering. ive also got a job managing water resources for a major city. I'm in a new state now but I've finally gotten to a point where I am coasting and want to get back into projects.

One of the few things that I'm disappointed to leave behind is access to a makerspace like I had previously. I still have my printer but dont have access to a laser or a machine shop which greatly limits what I can make right now. I'm planning to get a home laser cutter but they go for around 1000 dollars so it will be a bit till I can get one. 

The lamp is mostly complete. I have added the wireing and ended up making an interesting choise for the on/off switch. The switch that I got ended up being very big and not fitting well in the design so I ended up using something that took advantage of the bulbs being re used bottled. The bulbs can rotate independently of their bottoms so I wired the grounds normally but for power it is attached to two copper strips on the inside of the caps, these connect when rotated properly and turn on meaning each bulb can be turned on and off seperatly by just turning the bulb. I am very proud of how this has turned out so far, all that is left is to put decorative cladding on the outside.

Mirror sharping success!

Material collection is up next for me. I have been working on more details of the design and getting my main piece cleaned up. I’m thinking the best way to do the gears is with old bike parts that will be held in a 3D printed structure

I haven't been posting on my project here like I want because right now I'm working on something i want to copyright and i am still learning how to do that. While i work on that however i have started a class in this new semester at school that includes some creative projects and now i have something to post again!

Senior year has been crazy busy, but it’s Halloween and so I’m back on the project from last year.

There are many mistakes and problems with the chain scythe and I have less time than last year to deal with them, however I have much more experience going into it and I’m also working on something that I’ve already begun so hopefully the final project will turn out good

Welp, a lot has changed. I was unsatisfied with the designs I had and between working on something i liked and the start of school a month pasted.

But it was worth it, with an angled joist design for attaching the knee pivot to a new swinging piece made by a 4 bar linkage I believe I have solved the problem of the leg going out of alignment. the new design is a very complicated mechanism that will need lots of testing but I'm currently working on fitting them all onto the main chassis then I will get into another round of real world testing, it will be good to get back into the workshop.

Back again! Between the finals of summer classes and starting a new job I had absolutely no time, but now I've been out for a couple of days and I'm getting back into it, using the couple weeks before the fall semester starts to work on the bot. The first thing I've decided to do coming back is start with a redesign.

This new leg plan uses all the same parts aside from the washer that is now used for spacing, this will slightly increase complexity but the new arrangement puts the pusher and the pivot in the same plane which should largely reduce the torque that has been causing problems.