The heart is an impressive piece of hardware. It’s a rare pump that runs continuously for over 80 years in some cases. It’s also, for some reason or other, become a common human symbol of love and affection. In this vein, [Deepak Khatri] has built a beating electronic heart out of basic, readily available components.
The heart of the build (pun intended) is a lens assembly salvaged from a CD player, which uses a coil and permanent magnet to move the lens in order to read across a disc. In this case, the coil is instead fed pulses from an astable multivibrator circuit built with a hacker favourite, the 555 timer IC. It’s all assembled on a breadboard, which is a great way to build such projects that rely on experimentation through the swapping of component values.
The end result is rather satisfying. [Deepak] has also experimented with an Arduino driven version with a slightly different rhythm.
We haven’t seen too many projects using optical drive lens assemblies, but we’re sure there must be other applications. If you end up using one to agitate biological samples or build an awesome laser projector, be sure to hit up the tips line. Video after the break.
If you replace the laser with a red one you can look it deep in the eyes and decide that love is, indeed, blind.
(I’ll show myself out)
and don’t come back
I (used to be able to) see what you did there.
:)
Someone has never heard the term “perfboard” before. Let me explain…
Here. This is a breadboard –> https://imgur.com/AKrBPBz
This is how you use it (OK, maybe not) –> https://imgur.com/ngxXuKi
This is perfboard –> https://imgur.com/gBHetbD
…and this is how you use perf –> https://imgur.com/aALm1zO
Image credit: all images found on Google, qiuickly.
Thank you for this excellent PSA
You’ll note that several versions of the project use a breadboard, not a perfboard.
All in the links.
more wise philosophy.. In ancient times I masted the workings of what you mortals know as the human heart…. Now in my elder years I am among the people as a common blog poster
It’s interesting to me that the international ???? symbol bears absolutely no resemblance to the real thing. Academia’s best guess as to where the shape comes from is an extinct seed that had some sort of stimulatory effect (like ecstasy).
If my partner gave me this thing, I’d be… pretty scared. Very “overly obsessive [girl|boy|*]friend” themed.