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Small linear actuators (Patreon)

Published:
2018-05-31 11:26:23
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Anyone remember my ferrofluid clock plans? https://youtu.be/fdWlvf4-izc?t=238 based on this piece of art https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOCGQAXV9FY

I've tried electromagnets since, but they would need lots of current and active cooling to work. I am not sure how they managed to get that thing working, but I think permanent magnets attached to 4x7 of these tiny linear actuators might be a viable, somewhat economical way of recreating one?

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Comments

Morten Hanasand

Hey they're pretty cool, hope they work out for your purpose it got me thinking though about how I could use a miniature servo and a piezo sensor as a z-probe. it might seem like over-engineering, but z-probes are really tricky things to get working reliably.

Marco Vujevic

1) If you want to keep acrylic in the game, you can maybe use one of those glass phone protector thingies and just stick it on the acrylic where you dont want the ferrofluid to stick. 2) I think I'd go with rotating cams (?) which have magnets on the side. that would be 3 for the top middle and bottom row and 8 for the vertical. the cams would have several "lines" of magnets in different paterns needed for the digits. Rotate them so that the correct set of magnets are closest to the front?

Anonymous

Why not a hybrid approach? If you wind your own coils around a strong neodymium magnet it might get you a cheap effectivene system. You could adjust the spacing so the permanent magnets can *just* hold on to the ferrofluid. Then use the coil in one polarity to drop the fluid and the other polarity to hold/lift it.

marcoreps
>>12801126

Hm, most of the pixels are turned off most of time, so I'd have put a bit of power into the system. But you are right, maybe the permanent magnets can be placed in such a way that they just barely catch the ferrofluid and only need a few mA to be disabled... Fantastic idea, thank you :)

marcoreps
>>12736185

Oh, those are neat! I've been thinking about how initialize such a system with my no-feedback actuators. Wouldn't be necessary with those servos, BUT they are like 16 times more expesnive :)