Micro:bit Servo Explorations
As part of our current computational contraptions course with Cabaret Mechanical Theater, we’ve been exploring programming micro:bit, LEDs, servo motors, coin switches and the connections to some of our favorite automata artists. We started with making Peter Markey inspired characters using the LED screen to animate expressions and then we moved to creating playful kinetic sculptures with continuous servo motors.
To make the motors work more consistently (although it added an extra layer of complication) we used the Monk Makes servo motor board with an extra battery pack. We showed the participants how to use the servo motor extension blocks which provide a slightly more intuitive way to program.
Continuous servo motors are a little different than traditional positional servo motors because instead of holding a position at a specified degree value, they can be controlled to change speed and direction. This still allows for a lot of possibilities with making playful projects.
For the first example that I built before the workshop, I was inspired by a fourteen balls toy co. (matt smith) automata which showed an invisible man twirling a coffee cup. I programmed the micro:bit so that when you tilt the microcontroller, the motor switches directions.
Recently I’ve been re-watching ‘the secret life of machines’ and after seeing the washing machine episode I built a servo powered tribute as a second prototype to show the participants.
We also shared a couple code inspirations for the servo motor for more complicated things like the using the onboard light sensor to change the speed of the servo and experimenting with random blocks.
As always, we started our projects during the two hour session but gave participants time to continue working on their ideas over the next week. The participants had tons of cool ideas to try including attaching LEDs to the motors to create light painting tools and building shadow sculptures.
One of the participants made a really cool upgraded washing machine with an amazing door locking mechanism and external LEDs to add some more realistic lights. It’s really great to see how different people pay as much attention to the artistic elements as they do to the programming and engineering content. A couple other fun examples included a marvelous fish tank, a light sensing windmill and mystical fortune teller.
Over the next weeks we’re hoping to do more experiments with connecting servos to other automata projects like cardboard cam kits or cranky contraptions. As well, we’re planning to experiment more with positional servo motors and how they can connect with linkages that we find in the cabaret mechanical movement book. There are so many possibilities to connect digital elements with kinetic experiments and we’re looking forward to continue to play with these materials and ideas.