MaracaBot

SummaryThis simple robot will one day soon play the maracas! On top of a cylindrical form will be a tray for holding dried beans and such. The tray rotates and reverses direction to create MaracaBot music. Inside the base and tray is a planetary gear set for multiplying torque and a weak but sufficiently torquey little 3D printed stepper motor. I did get the plastic 3D printed stepper motor to work but just barely and now I have added wood screw cores to really focus the magnetic field, strengthening the motor a bit. It will still be weak but the thing is its nearly 100% plastic so you can print a zillion of them if you want at a cost of about ten bucks each. MaracaBot! I'm printing mine already, we shall se if it works... p.s. working on a better, cheaper bot that you will enjoy more! Les p.s. since this design I have printed some Gear Toys (see my page to find Gear Toy 1 and Gear Toy 2). I learned enough about planetary gear systems to possibly make this design work with a few changes. Well, best would be a total redesign but the principle is basically the same: 3D printed stepper motor driven by custom electronics and planetary gears to multiply torque, rotating a maracas chamber. The one change i'd make in the motor is to use a larger diameter rotor to increase the raw motor torque. Rawr! So you see I'm still on it just had to take an experiential detour. MaracaBot will one day walk the earth, you just wait!