What’s the collective noun for a group of useless machines? A passel of useless machines? A failure? A waste? A 404? Whatever you want to call it, [Martin Raynsford] has produced one here with this collection of 24 useless machines arranged into a 5 by 6 array. He produced it for an event at a hackerspace to amuse visitors, and it certainly seems to do the job in the video after the break.
[Martin] built the case by modifying the design of his Useless Machine kit, stretching out the case to hold multiple mechanisms. The original plan was to use a 6 by 6 matrix, but that wouldn’t fit into the laser cutter, so it ended up with 24 mechanisms in a 5 by 6 array. All of those are driven by 2 AAA batteries, and the mechanisms are efficient enough that it survived a full day of button flipping before it began to run out of juice.
It’s a neat design and build, from the living edge to the neat design of the cover hinge that stops the cover falling into the inside of the case.
4×6 = 24
Yeah, but [Richard Baguley] was using a useless calculator.
Hmm, math hard. I’m off to the builders merchant in a bit to get some more slabs as my builder thought 15 and 19 were the same number.
He’s obviously used to 0-based indexing.
“What’s the collective noun for a group of useless machines?”
Junk.
“A SAAB dealer”
*shots fired*
LOL!
+1
A þing of useless machines.
Folks “in the south” tend to use “mess” to refer to a group of pretty much anything. Seems potentially relevant here.
I like this variant, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apVR5Htz0K4
Wouldn’t it be fun to disguise a few things that harvest energy as a useless machines and put them somewhere in the wild? For example, in a public library or at a bus stop?
OTOH: We all still mourn Hitchbot. An environment with horror sapiens infection is really tough!
I’ll need to ॐ a long long about this!
It would be fun! Until the bomb squad showed up…
48 Batteries? U serious? Why not just one PSU or a suitible rechargable pack?
I read is as 2 batteries shared by all machines.
“All of these are driven by 2 batteries” = 2 batteries total
“Each of these is driven by 2 batteries” = 24 batteries total.
But English is imprecise in its current usage, and I am now pondering the are/is dichotomy in those sentences which I feel to be correct, but can not describe why.
Yet another math challenge.
All mechanisms share a single pack, it’s in the linked article and kind of implied in the text above. At least that’s how I read it.
I’ve just figured out a purpose of the useless machine. It can convert latching toggle switches into the momentary type.
Yes, now let us see a keyboard :-D
As you can tell by reading HaD comments,
a LOT of keyboards are “useless machines”!
B^)
Do you know what you’ve done?
Do you know how many minds will now be enslaved to design, build, and test a new “useless machine”?
about three fiddy.
I was hoping to see the idea extended a bit so that you either had a machine switch its neighbor off, or have some of the machines turn others on when activated.
This didn’t cross my mind, but would be a fun tweak. The armature to reach a neighbors would be pretty long if the door shape wasn’t changed to tighten things up.
You only need to wire the switch.
The hardware cries out to be turned into a weird binary clock, if the switches can be toggled on or off and the switch can control a LED light.
Oh yes!
+1 to “waste” being term for a group of useless machines.
I would make this into an array of 2×12 since it’s obvious the kids (and some adults would, too) had a hard time reaching the back switches without touching the front popping lids. Would make it easier to play the switches like a keyboard, too!
Yes, use the familiar, but archaic piano keyboard layout! And have each play a note as it shuts off the switch.
Set it up to start acting chaotically after a certain number of activations.
They start opening randomly. If you flip a switch all of the doors except that one instantly open and stay open as if staring at you for a few seconds before the one you flipped slowly opens and turns of the switch. One section of doors opens and closes rhythmically as if chanting. They stop responding all together for 30 seconds no matter how many switches you flip, then they activate one by one going down the line regardless of if their switches are flipped or not.
All interspersed with stretches of time where they behave normally.
Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of . . .
These are useless, until they are integrated with an infinity mirror, then, magic!
A vanity of useless machines?
A committee of useless machines! :-P
A parliament of useless machines? A congress of useless machines? An assembly of useless machines? A council of useless machines?
What he really needs to do is put the 24 UMs in a circle and when you activate one the opening of the door turns on the next! You could call it the circle jerk!
useless machines only oscillate when in opposing directions though. But I agree, even three would be a good analog of the 3 phase rotating magnetic field.