Hello fellow Makers. I have an engineering question I am hoping someone can help me with. I am trying to build a piece of hardware that will lift a small object approximately 1 inch or less.
I am trying to do this on the extreme cheap because of scale. Imagine a 10x10 grid of 2" squares with game pieces on top of them. That’s 100 game pieces and I want to be able to lift a single one in the air as a way to identify the object. (Note I have a reason why I need this mechanical and not an alternative such as turning on a LED or something)
So, I have two challenges. How to use something like actuators where up to 100 or more are “addressable” by something like an Arduino. And two, finding the cheapest way to do this.
I’m flexible on a lot of ways to do this, but he goal is to physically lift a small object up, one at a time. The object is not to be attached or anchored so it can easily be grabbed and placed back.
I have prototyped using small steppers and a lead screw but that’s expensive and slow (not that speed is a huge issue) and then controlling 100 steppers is out of the question.
I like the idea of actuators but most are kinda large and expensive. There has got to be something cheap to push (or turn a screw) that can simply take a voltage so I can use an led matrix addresser or something. Looking for the cheapest I can get with a cap in the $100 range.
How heavy? How about a reverse CNC either with a probe or something with holes in the table top for the probe to go through? That may be your cheapest option. Otherwise that’s a lot of actuators, relays, & or solenoids.
I was also thinking electromagnets in a grid pattern but likely would not be cheap.
not much for speed, but x stepper, y stepper, solenoid to lift. This is basically how all (cheap) CNC workers (printers, routers, lathes, etc.) work, isn’t it? A basic keyboard pretty much has the layout and mechanism, just flipped over so you’re lifting instead of pressing…
And maybe an air dash pot tied with the solenoid if you want to be a bit more gentle and not throw the pieces around.
A core XY style mechanism would leave both steppers in fixed locations and allow the print head mount to have your solenoid and damper lifting mechanism.
And, if you wanted more control of lift rate, you could have the lift done by a third stepper that is moved by the XY mechanism, since you only need one this way.
Basically, fingers attached to a “middlelayment”, with the pieces laying on a top layer, and a spongy material between, then press to raise the fingers, and the plunger attached to them. Kind of like a piano (but much less complex), with all the fingers in one row and the hammers moving the pieces.
This could lower your stepper motor requirement to 1 (plus actuator), with extra work on fingers, or 2 (plus actuators) if you want to make it faster and reduce work. Up the number of steppers/actuators and/or "modules’ for speed and/or reproducibility…
If you can’t raise the bridge, lower the water! Have all your square modules spring loaded so they are all raised up to start with. Then apply a vacuum underneath all those that you wish to pull down. Only the selected raised module will have no vacuum thus allowing it to be easily picked up.
and I want to be able to lift a single one in the air as a way to identify the object. (Note I have a reason why I need this mechanical and not an alternative such as turning on a LED or something)
