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mechanical iris

A project log for Johnny IV

I still have some servos around, ordered some ws2812b rings and bars and an ultrasonic sensor to get into a bit of animatronics

davedarkodavedarko 09/11/2015 at 07:577 Comments

I just found a pretty awesome instructables.com tutorial that shows how to make an iris. I'm really fascinated by this but am wondering, if it wouldn't be a total overkill. But just the thought of having an Iris reacting to light shining on it is awesome.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-12-leaves-Mechanical-Irirs/?ALLSTEPS

Discussions

Jarrett wrote 10/17/2015 at 18:14 point

If you have access to a laser cutter, I designed one of these. They're quite simple.

See here:

https://github.com/JarrettR/LASERS/tree/master/iris

Feel free to use it, hack it up, resize it, etc. All the SolidWorks files are there, if you have access to a seat.

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davedarko wrote 10/17/2015 at 18:56 point

yay :) right now Johnny IV looks awesome and like a lot of work already to make it work though.

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Eric Hertz wrote 10/18/2015 at 07:19 point

mesmerizing

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j0z0r pwn4tr0n wrote 09/11/2015 at 14:51 point

Mechanical irises are so visually appealing. It may not be all that useful, but I think looking cool is important for robots 

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davedarko wrote 09/11/2015 at 15:15 point

indeed!

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Eric Hertz wrote 09/11/2015 at 11:25 point

AHHH! The leaves *aren't* big enough to cover from the center to the outside, the next leaf covers the uncovered-space. Nice.

J5 wouldn't be J5 without them irii, but can't speak for J IV ;)

If you're not feeling up to *making* them, allegedly J5's came from old photocopiers. And, of course, there's always old film-cameras which can probably be found for cheap at thrift-stores ;)

Now I kinda want to take apart that old film-camera, put a photo-detector behind it, and drive its iris!

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davedarko wrote 09/11/2015 at 11:42 point

Ohh, I definitely want to build one - they're so mesmerizing! But i'm not sure if it's right for JIV ( ha, nickname! ) 

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