[Jeremy Cook]’s latest take on the Strandbeest, the ClearWalker, is ready to roll! He’s been at work on this project for a while, and walks us through the electronics and control system as well as final assembly tweaks. The ClearWalker is fully controllable and includes a pan and tilt camera as well as programmable LED segments, and even a tail.
When we last saw [Jeremy] at work on this design, it wasn’t yet functional. He showed us all the important design and assembly details that went into creating a motorized polycarbonate version of [Theo Jansen’s] classic Strandbeest design; there’s far more to the process than simply scaling parts up or down. Happily, [Jeremy] is able to show off the crystal clear beauty in his photo gallery as well as a new video, embedded below.
Any incarnation of the Strandbeest is fascinating to watch, and it’s even better seeing different takes on the concept, even (or especially) ones as unconventional as the hybrid Strandbeest Bicycle.
Nice one. But isn’t it the point of Standbeesten that they move at will and without a motor?
Glad you enjoyed! Perhaps I’m not a ‘beesten purist?
I certainly did… very impressive build
Thanks so much!
i can almost feel the plexiglass creeking…
Ha, yeah, it didn’t like the sand very much TBH!
Great looking project, particularly enjoyed the trial and failure segments… in the real world, not everything goes perfectly. One caveat though, those addressable pixel strips don’t like sunlight for extended periods of time. I partake in Christmas and Halloween decorations around the house and pixel strips have been a mainstay for about 4 years. I had to replace them after the first year because I left them mounted outside in the bright Southern California sun year-round. The following year, about 20% of the segments had failed.
Yeah, you always hope for things to just bolt together and work, but “sometimes” that’s not the case ;-). I’ll have to keep that in mind, thx!
Any idea what the main problem was? Mechanical fatigue, UV damage, corroded copper?
I have many cheap white ‘rope’ LED strings and the temperature cycling seems to break the resistors. My fault, they do say “for indoor use only”.
Would love to see it made of maybe aluminium and some higher speed motors so you could run alongside it :D