A Motor, An Arduino And A Whole Bunch Of Laser Cutting

Orbit Kinetic Sculpture

[Guido] was recently commissioned to build a kinetic sculpture for a client who wanted something unique. What he came up with is really awesome.

It’s called ORBIS: The Wooden Kinetic & Lighting Sculpture. It mounts to the wall and provides a focal point for the room – a bright flashy spinning one at that! Does it just stay there and do random things? Nope, of course not! [Guido] built it with a unique control box, two Arduino 2560’s and an Xbee to communicate between them.

Orbit Kinetic Sculpture

He was told to design it using old and new technologies so he’s got a rotary phone dial on the side of the box which allows the user to change through the different modes.

Switches on top also let you change the color of the sculpture and the speed at which it moves around. Since it’s wireless it can be easily set on the coffee table and become an instant conversation starter.

See it in action after the break.

14 thoughts on “A Motor, An Arduino And A Whole Bunch Of Laser Cutting

    1. You seem a little upset.

      Is it that a client hired someone to do something they couldn’t do themselves and paid that person?
      Is it that you haven’t been able to do such a clever thing yourself?

      I’m sure if you take the time to ask for a little help from the rest of us that you will be able to create something equally as impressive and then post the results to Hackaday!

      We’re here for you. Just ask and we’ll help you get over the bumps.

      We’ve all been a beginner. Don’t be so hard on yourself. We’re here to help.

      1. I think vonskippy is jealous he doesn’t have friends…. uh clients that will pay him to play around… uh I mean make art. I know I sure am, but most people in my area are more focused on acquiring meth than art.

    1. My big guess is that it looks like the gear on the lower left drives the inner ring. The inner ring drives the outer ring via the three mount points that must have a soft roller between the rings. In a picture on the source website, there is a large geared ring laying in the background that is probably mounted on the back of the inner ring.

      This project is pretty cool. It gives me some inspiration to work with my laser.

    2. @triton_9 This is Guido, I created Orbis. That’s a great question and one which was really difficult to make work right. Here is how it works. The gear is engaging the inner ring only, the outer ring is engaged via outward pressure applied to 3 hidden ball bearings. The bearings site in between the inner and out ring, so when the inner rotates right the outer will rotate left and vice versa. I’m glad you noticed!

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