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The useless box, before and
after. Obviously they're two different boxes, but you get
the idea. |
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The inside. The motor is a 5
RPM 12V motor running on two 9 volt batteries in parallel. |
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Making the
useless box:
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Here is the concept... |
...and this is the finished
product. |
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This was going to be one of
those projects that takes a few hours and works the first
time. It ended
up taking many hours of tinkering and fine
tuning of the layout, and several prototypes.
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This was the first version.
This was a nice box I bought for $6. I didn't want to cut
the lid so I put the switch on the
front. The lid opened and
the arm came out and toggled the switch, but I didn't like
the way it looked. Now the box is
wrecked because there is a hole drilled in the front. We went to a craft
store and got some different boxes for 88
cents
each. |
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All subsequent
prototype boxes were made out of cardboard. |
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The cardboard prototype in
the wooden box. No "off" switch yet.
The arm was
controlled by touching the motor wires to a battery. |
The working version with the
cutoff switch.
Notice the board slides into two slots added to the box. |
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The box works because of the
way the D.P.D.T. switch is wired. |
I drew a diagram so I
wouldn't confuse myself. |
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The cutoff switch with the
"arm" against it, in the "off" position. (Normally closed
type) |
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How
it works:
When the switch is turned on the motor is powered up. The
arm comes out and turns the switch "off". The "off" position
reverses the voltage to the motor and the motor runs
backwards. The motor stops when the arm depresses the cutoff
switch.
NOTE: the cutoff switch is the Normally Closed (NC) type.
When the button is depressed the circuit is open. |
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We bought
this action figure at the dollar
store to use his arm. |
The hand was supposed to
come out and turn off the switch. |
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His hand was placed in
boiling water to make it open. |
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While his hand was in
the boiling water, he
confessed to being a heretic, among other
things. |
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It worked! Then it
snagged on the little door on the way
back in and almost broke it, so the idea was shelved. |
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Inside the completed box. Everything is removable. The
batteries are held in with Velcro. A bit of black
spray paint
keeps it dark inside. The outside was stained and coated
with polyurethane.
(I think it looked better before it was stained.) The
door in the lid has a weight in it to help it close. |
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In action. It just turned off
the switch. |
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Ready for delivery to the
hospital! Everything is wiped down with 90% Isopropyl
alcohol and sealed in a zip-lock bag.
How they handled the microbe covered zip lock bag, I don't
know. I had to touch it, and it was exposed to the air.
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Here's a smaller version I
made for Andrea's dad. He named it "Gizmo". |
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Matt
survived his ordeal. Here he is in 2016. Because of
a bone marrow transplant he is now mostly German. He
will be attending Drexel University to study engineering, so there's
your proof. |
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This concludes today's broadcast. |
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