Howdy good people it's Daniel again with yet another crazy project to talk about. A few months ago trying to think of a new project, something ambitious. Something ridiculously difficult and challenging and I thought what about the Dark Aster? So I shot off an email to my partner IronManiac figuring he would talk some sense in to me and bring me back down to reality but to the contrary he was totally in to it!
And so as our beloved captain said, "Make it so" we began to plan this in earnest.
So as those of you who watched the movie know, the Dark Aster is made of a central core and has long wings made of 60 identical modules, 30 on each side and each one spinning seemingly independently of the other.
My first thought was to make the modules stationary so they could be put in place by hand and left there but IronManiac had an idea, why can't we make them move?
How on earth are we going to do this?!
Impossible...
At first I thought about putting in tiny servo motors in each module but that would be both complicated to control and very expensive.
As I thought about how to actually do this lightning struck my brain (figuratively speaking) I came up with this idea.
(See two pictures below)
So I had the basics of the idea down but now we needed to make something that would function on this basic framework.
I was able to construct a set of 3d printed planetary gears along with a bearing and slip system which would attach to each module and allow some to make a greater rotation than others, rotating more the further away from the central body and mounted on a central support shaft that also drives torque to each module.
So while the first modules move only a little then stop, the further modules continue to rotate without losing power.
Short video taken with my iPhone to show how this works.
View attachment IMG_2720.MOV
Next IronManiac used his mad skillz with Adobe Illustrator and set out to build a sketch of the modules that I could use to work out a rough 3d model.
I printed it out on paper and cut these out of foam board:
So how big is this going to be? About 1:3000th scale which is over 3 feet long.
So yeah it's still really early in this build and even tho it was started in late November there's still lots to be done.
If you find this interesting you can subscribe to the thread and watch the progress.
Please feel free to comment and ask questions, the more feedback we get the more motivated I'll feel.
And so as our beloved captain said, "Make it so" we began to plan this in earnest.
So as those of you who watched the movie know, the Dark Aster is made of a central core and has long wings made of 60 identical modules, 30 on each side and each one spinning seemingly independently of the other.
My first thought was to make the modules stationary so they could be put in place by hand and left there but IronManiac had an idea, why can't we make them move?
How on earth are we going to do this?!
Impossible...
At first I thought about putting in tiny servo motors in each module but that would be both complicated to control and very expensive.
As I thought about how to actually do this lightning struck my brain (figuratively speaking) I came up with this idea.
(See two pictures below)
So I had the basics of the idea down but now we needed to make something that would function on this basic framework.
I was able to construct a set of 3d printed planetary gears along with a bearing and slip system which would attach to each module and allow some to make a greater rotation than others, rotating more the further away from the central body and mounted on a central support shaft that also drives torque to each module.
So while the first modules move only a little then stop, the further modules continue to rotate without losing power.
Short video taken with my iPhone to show how this works.
View attachment IMG_2720.MOV
Next IronManiac used his mad skillz with Adobe Illustrator and set out to build a sketch of the modules that I could use to work out a rough 3d model.
I printed it out on paper and cut these out of foam board:
So how big is this going to be? About 1:3000th scale which is over 3 feet long.
So yeah it's still really early in this build and even tho it was started in late November there's still lots to be done.
If you find this interesting you can subscribe to the thread and watch the progress.
Please feel free to comment and ask questions, the more feedback we get the more motivated I'll feel.
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