The Useless Machine – a machine with a toggle switch, a mechanical arm, and something that only exists to turn itself off – is a staple of Instructables and builds from random workbenches the world over. It’s cliché, and now hackaday.io has a better project: The Annoying Machine, a machine that exists purely to annoy.
According to [unigamer], the Annoying Machine is the evil cousin of the Useless Machine. On the outside, it’s extremely simple: a switch labeled ‘on’ and ‘off’, and a hole for an LED. Turn the switch on, and the Annoying Machine will emit an annoying buzzing sound. Switch the Machine off, and the buzzing will go away. Then the switch will flick itself back to on. Insidious.
A switch and buzzer is easy enough, but the key component of this build is an actuated rocker switch. It’s basically a normal toggle switch with two additional terminals for a coil that can move the switch back and forth electronically. Throw in an Arduino, buzzer, battery, and a boost converter for the switch, and that’s just about all there is to it.
How to deactivate the Annoying Machine? There’s an accelerometer attached to the Arduino, and by throwing the box up in the air after flicking the switch off, it will reset. There are already plans for a Version 2 of the Annoying Machine that will be even louder and made out of aluminum. Anything to protect it from the inevitable hammers of frustration.
Video below.
Aluminum won’t protect against a hammer.
For that you need steel.
I have an axe to solve this simple problem.
You have my bow.
You have my sword.
and one giant leap for man kind
Could’ve just used a reed switch as a method to turn it off. Then it could all be done using 555.
When the only tool you have is an arduino, everything looks like it needs a microcontroller. I guess. Seems like extreme overkill for something like this.
You say that like overkill is a bad thing.
When microcontrollers start at just a dollar and some change, they start looking like the solution to a lot of problems.
Does it annoy you if sometimes I do a “useless use of `cat`” on my very own underutilized quad core machine?
Well said.
Could also use an analog accelerometer and an op amp.
just looked at his project and realized that he is already using an analog accelerometer.
Could also use and air compressor and pneumatics.
Could also use a slightly larger box and an orphan.
You’re alright, I like you.
I am fascinated by the concept of an actuated rocker switch. What practical uses do they have?
Industrial control panels I think. At £13 per switch they are not cheap! I got the idea for the project before I knew for sure they existed, I found this page while I was searching for one: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/102808/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-switch-that-can-be-actuated-automatically
The otherwise superb :) summary has a small mistake when it says it can be actuated back and forth, it can only go in one direction. I will make that clearer in my description soon.
Now if I could find one that could be activated back and forth AND had a position indicator (well if DPDT I could use one side) then I’d have a direct drop in replacement for the common every day light switch that would allow me to control my lighting remotely but making it 1000000% SWMBO friendly as anyone else could take over control of it manually.
Plus it’s a hellova cheap way to integrate into an existing lighting system. 1wire IO chip to the light switch point with some 12V for driving things.
Lots of old lab equipment have them. Think emergency POWER OFF, one panic button will turn off the 17 switches required to configure/run the equipment. That way when the problem is fixed, you know all the running switches are in the correct OFF position. Some equipment have a test cycle, so you can watch the banks of rocker switches (and their corresponding lights) cycle off, then on, then off in a nice little switch ballet.
How about a defroster circuit where it goes off automatically, but you want to retain the option to turn it off early?
The cheaper option is a latching pushbutton switch, where an LED lights when on and the momentary pushbutton will toggle the circuit off and on. But I like seeing the switch snap off with such a satisfying “snick”.
Our coffee machine at work has one. It’s so that when the machine is off it really is off-off (no standby current). The reason they went with an actuated switch is that the machine wants to run a short cleaning cycle before switching off. So you’re not supposed to use the rocker to switch the machine off. Instead you push a push-button and it will run the cleaning, then, clack, switch the machine off. Second reason: It also does this automatically when not being used for one hour.
I’ve always liked motorized slide potentiometers, like used in mixer consoles. It’s cool to watch them all slide to a preset position like an invisible hand is sliding the knobs.
I considered using a motorised slide potentiometer but I didn’t think it would last long in this project. The switch gets a lot of abuse. They are cool though, I must think of something to make so I have an excuse to buy and play with some.
Awsome idea! just put it on your work desk! X_x
I have an axe just in case you really make one with steel.
I need one of these switches.
And then I need to build a robot that can’t be turned off.
Muahahahahaha
IIRC, a robot that can’t be turned off is called a Dahlek
AFAIK Daleks aren’t robots but cyborgs…
I’m looking for a place to source those rocker switches that doesn’t charge exorbitant rates to ship to europe, can anyone point me in the right direction?
The link is Element14 in the UK, I thought the UK WAS in Europe? For US try http://www.newark.com/omron-electronic-components/a8g-107-1-24/rocker-switch/dp/04M8333?ost=1740376 if you want to group buy 50 of the suckers @$26.87 ea!
, I thought the UK WAS in Europe?
They don’t use Euros!
‘Europe’ have many different meaning, it can be economical, political, social, geographical, etc..
cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Supranational_European_Bodies
And yes, that’s a mess.
The electronic equivalent of those candles that relight every time they are blown out.
Love it
A cheaper & more easily available alternative to that switch would be a low-current circuit breaker (or pull apart an RCD for a lower activation current). You’d just need to arrange things to beep when open.
I wonder how long the switch will last.
That many resets is WELL outside the datasheet’s spec.
According to the datasheet, at least 10,000 resets. That’s if the rest of the spec is followed, but it looks like he far exceeds the switch limit of 7 times per second
Perfect item for a website with such an annoying layout, it still sucks on a laptop, I still hate it.
So much fucking scrolling involved now, headline titles way too big etc.
I hate it that you use the F word so unnecessarily.
So much Hate…http://youtu.be/rqTvN_jddaM
Most epic!
None of this looks particularly waterproof. Problem solved.
Look at any high end organ console with 20th century stop tabs. Any tab can be turned on or off at will. Any group or all can be preset, unsetting what was and setting from different memory. Or hit the button in the lower right and general cancel, they are all off.
Most important is that you can see what is on at the moment, some organ’s presets are blind. They are inferior, specially if you are blind.
There are two coils to set and cancel.
Ok. Now I want an annoying boombox, with motor-controlled pots for the volume control, that keeps turning the volume back up (to 11!) Or perhaps at my age, one that keeps turning the volume DOWN.
There must be a secret switch? Otherwise, he just created an abomination.
Sheeesh! $25 from Digikey and $41 from Element 14 here in Australia. Strike me pink…..!
…Sorry, forgot to say “the switch….”
Just needs a timer and this would make for a great alarm clock!
just use a mercury switch to trigger off