TOS Communicator Build
- Thread starter turner3d
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turner3d
Active Member
I'm already going to be getting circuit boards printed by them - if I can't find a resin durable enough to print myself, I'll definitely give them the job. Really, all the gear has to put up with is the friction of having the little gear roll over its teeth - there's practically no torque being put on it
turner3d
Active Member
I'm torn: should I run the moire smoothly, or should I simulate the ticking of the original props?
Examining footage of stopwatch-driven moires frame by frame, each tick starts off very fast, decelerates for the first half of the tick, and comes to a stop, resting for the last half. This happens 6 times per second, assuming that the info I've gathered on Alpha's original Telmex Trading Co stopwatch is accurate. It is very difficult to quantify its behavior, since it only shows up for 8.5 seconds TOTAL across all 3 seasons of the show. Here is all of the footage that exists of Alpha's moire:
Much of what I've learned about stopwatch-driven moires has come from footage of fan-built replicas. I've been working on the code to make the stepper motor simulate the motion produced by the original stopwatch - it's not perfect, but I think I'm zeroing in on it.
Emulating this ticking means accelerating the moire platter very quickly and decelerating to a stop 6 times a second. There are a couple of down sides to this. While the moire doesn't weigh much and spins very freely on a carbon steel bearing, the teeth in the outer ring gear are less than 1/2mm apart. They are so tiny that I couldn't even see if they printed or not prior to washing off the excess resin. The constant starting and stopping will undoubtedly wear things out much faster than spinning it smoothly. The other down is that this also makes the motor it slightly audible. It's not much, but it's also not nothing.
There is one other advantage to running it smoothly - it looks absolutely hypnotic. I'd love to know what you guys think. Should I try to stay canon, or do I make it smooth?
Examining footage of stopwatch-driven moires frame by frame, each tick starts off very fast, decelerates for the first half of the tick, and comes to a stop, resting for the last half. This happens 6 times per second, assuming that the info I've gathered on Alpha's original Telmex Trading Co stopwatch is accurate. It is very difficult to quantify its behavior, since it only shows up for 8.5 seconds TOTAL across all 3 seasons of the show. Here is all of the footage that exists of Alpha's moire:
Much of what I've learned about stopwatch-driven moires has come from footage of fan-built replicas. I've been working on the code to make the stepper motor simulate the motion produced by the original stopwatch - it's not perfect, but I think I'm zeroing in on it.
Emulating this ticking means accelerating the moire platter very quickly and decelerating to a stop 6 times a second. There are a couple of down sides to this. While the moire doesn't weigh much and spins very freely on a carbon steel bearing, the teeth in the outer ring gear are less than 1/2mm apart. They are so tiny that I couldn't even see if they printed or not prior to washing off the excess resin. The constant starting and stopping will undoubtedly wear things out much faster than spinning it smoothly. The other down is that this also makes the motor it slightly audible. It's not much, but it's also not nothing.
There is one other advantage to running it smoothly - it looks absolutely hypnotic. I'd love to know what you guys think. Should I try to stay canon, or do I make it smooth?
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