Simone Does Strange Things With Motors And Servos

If DC motors are the “Hello World” of making things move, servo motors are the next logical step. [Simone Giertz] is following this exact path with the Wake-up Machine and her newly released Chopping Machine. [Simone] discovered that the best way to wake up in the morning is to be repeatedly slapped in the face by a robot. The Wake-up Machine was custom designed to do exactly that. Who could sleep through being repeatedly slapped in the face? A beefy gearmotor from ServoCity spins a Halloween prop arm round and round, providing  “refreshing” slaps.

wakeThe system is triggered by an alarm clock. The clock’s alarm output is connected to an Arduino Uno. The Uno then activates a relay, which spins up the motor. [Simone] realizes that she could have skipped the Arduino here, but it was the path of least resistance in for this project. If the slapping hand isn’t enough to get you going, the Wake-up machine does have a secret weapon: It may just grab your hair, turning a video shoot into a painful ordeal.

Simone’s latest project is the Chopping Machine. ServoCity must have liked her first videos, as they’ve sponsored her for this project. The machine consists of two knives that … well, chop. Two high-powered servos are controlled by an Arduino Nano. The servos raise spring-loaded knives, which then drop down, chopping vegetables, fingers, and anything else in their path. The whole machine is built with aluminum channel stock, and a huge wooden cutting board. Of course, just building the machine wasn’t enough. [Simone] filmed a parody infomercial for any perspective Chopping Machine buyers, and to put fear in the heart of anyone named Chad.

Click past the break for a couple of [Simone’s] vlogs describing the machines.

52 thoughts on “Simone Does Strange Things With Motors And Servos

      1. Yeah, and here in Australia it’s called “taking the piss”, which is a contraction of “taking the piss out of them”, and it’s even funnier when the person having their piss taken doesn’t realise that it’s being done, but, hmm, I would’ve used an M3.

      1. Yes sweetie..It’s called “having a sense of humour”.

        I know it’s confusing.. She makes stuff, and yet.. the point is not that she made something..

        I’ll bet you haven’t been this upset since someone put the TV remote back in the wrong spot.

    1. > Really hackaday ? […] Ok, gonna submit my blinky arduino and i hope for a good article.

      Yep, go ahead, I say. But don’t be hurt if people like Simone’s stuff better — just go back and improve yours!

      1. Hurt? Dude, she can bust her ass doing w/e she wants, i don’t even care. My point is featuring motors + hand/knife on HAD is pure BS on my humble opinion, there are so many projects on HAD.io that deserves this spot so much more than that kinda thing… But oh fanbois gonna fanboi.

        Funny, yes. Useful and/or enlightening? No.

        1. Funny is good enough for me. I had a laugh, checked out some of the other videos, laughed some more – and moved on. Thanks for the funnies, probably wouldn’t have come across this otherwise. Some humour and creative ideas, if nothing else.

          I don’t really get the complaints either. Maybe not everything is “useful” for all (might perhaps be for someone else?) or maybe “not a hack”, but so what really?
          It’s not like there’s a max quota of articles for any given day, so “useless crap” has somehow prevented something else that would otherwise have been published. I generally find the mix of featured articles is OK here; some stuff is “crap” (to me and my interests), some stuff is pure gold, and most stuff is generally interesting and mostly things I wouldn’t have found or learned about otherwise.

        2. Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning, dude? Relax, it’s just a freakin’ website. Don’t like what’s on it? Simple solution: don’t come back. Or better yet: work on your blinky arduino, then start your own blog. Just don’t shit on somebody else’s work because you think something else is “more deserving”. Grow up, man.

        3. When every feature is absolute gold… new people become afraid to contribute. Old people move on to new projects or die off. Communities die.

          Show the stuff in infancy. Show the stuff that just plain doesn’t work. Show the kid who just slapped together random Lego blocks, and accidentally included a servo, so it scared the cat.

          Let people know that they can be a part of the community even when they aren’t “that good” and the community will continue to grow.

          If you couldn’t tell this was pointless or silly before the clickthrough, then okay… you may have a legitimate axe to grind. But to me, it was pretty obvious it was something frivolous, and I came here precisely for the fun.

        4. There was a time when this site literally averaged a hack a day, and sometimes gave the impression they were struggling to manage even that. Back then, I probably would have felt cheated if the Chopping Machine was it, especially if the previous days weren’t anything I considered useful or interesting either.

          But times have changed. The number of posts has increased. So has the average quality. More in-depth stuff, more original content, I find something genuinely interesting at least every other day. And this doesn’t take away space from something “that deserves this spot so much more”, when there is an abundance of content and no limit to the number of daily posts.

          So relax and enjoy a bit of occasional humor. I did.

    1. Wow.. Not only is it hilarious but I’m impressed with the amount of work that must have gone into that shot. I wonder how many takes it took and how much cereal/milk needed clearing up between takes.

  1. I visit hackaday to be amazed, surprised, and entertained and if I learn something out of it then that is a good thing. This was funny and entertaining. Sure, this project isn’t going to change the world from a technical point of view but it made me smile and therefore made my look onto the world a whole lot better.
    Life improves when wearing a smile.

  2. Not funny, not interesting. I don’t know why people find her funny. Her video looks like any dumb videos about make up. Just blabbing about what she have done, with so much cuts in the video and blinking shit that I got eye cancer.

    1. Well, humour and taste is individual. Hopefully you’ll find something else along the way that’ll make you smile, laugh or make you go “hrm”.
      Otherwise there’s always the Serious corner of the internet. Download a data sheet, appnote or some e-book and help expand the collective consciousness of mankind. Or just relax. Happy new year!

    1. More likely to be a lonelygirl15 of makers/hackers.

      The arduino-trump comparison tho…. I love arduino and am not particularly fond of trump… but..

      1) Came from $ – trump was born rich, arduino came from a academic institution, not individuals
      2) Legal issues that make you dislike them – trump bankruptcy, arduino dispute

      I had some more but am sick of typing.

  3. Just for discussion, what are the odds a team of people, maybe a production company, is working on this material?

    The overlapping skills required to make this material are often possessed by people with far different personality traits from simone.

    In other words, is this ‘real’?

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