Mechanical Zen Garden
Client: Me?
Arduino, motors, magnets, 3d prints
It’s a coffee table. It’s a zen garden. It’s actually the most zen zen-garden coffee table ever, because it rakes itself.
Tech
- Arduino
- 2 x 12vdc 18rpm Worm Gear Motor
- 8 shiny push buttons
- RGBW LED strips
- ~ 100 hours of 3d printed parts
- Wood, glass, paint, glue
Summary
A one-meter diameter octagonal glass-top coffee table with sand under the glass. Turn it on and a 1/2″ ball bearing starts moving through the sand making beautiful radial patterns. Press the buttons to adjust the speed of the two internal motors to make a unique pattern.
There have, of course, been other projects like this already (look at the price, ouch). Aside from enjoying the challenge of designing, building, and coding my own, I also aimed to make mine unique. The pros have a precision coordinate system with a computer carefully positioning the ball, while mine is more analogue like a Spirograph, where the speed of the wheels defines the unique radial pattern you generate.
Sexy Slow Motion Video
With soothing, royalty-free music!
Explanation Video
In case you want to build your own weird furniture that your spouse doesn’t approve of.
