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The USB Miniature Marble machine was inspired by this machine I found here. I thought it would be cool to have a miniature version for my desk, so I set about building it.
I didn't have any particular design in mind, so I designed it as I built it. Being so small at only 4" square, there wasn't much room for many varied tracks for the ball bearings, so I eventually settled on the design of the letters USB as the tracks. The ball bearings are about 4mm taken from an old dead bicycle hub, it probably work better with more ball bearings, but I haven't got any yet. The Marble machine has a USB port on the front which which can be handy,
Materials needed:
Warning: I am not an expert in electronics (in case you didn't notice from my dire soldering), if you blow your USB port up, your computer, your house or your cat, it's not my fault! Proceed with caution!
I didn't have any particular design in mind, so I designed it as I built it. Being so small at only 4" square, there wasn't much room for many varied tracks for the ball bearings, so I eventually settled on the design of the letters USB as the tracks. The ball bearings are about 4mm taken from an old dead bicycle hub, it probably work better with more ball bearings, but I haven't got any yet. The Marble machine has a USB port on the front which which can be handy,
Materials needed:
- Plywood 12mm and 18mm, about a foot square of each should plenty.
- Ball bearings, around 4mm
- An old VCR read head, with bearings in good order
- A small DC motor from a CD drive or similar
- 6 - 8 diodes, any will do
- Small slide switch S.P.S.T fine
- Wood screws 1"
- Super-glue
- Epoxy (5 minute cheap stuff fine)
- Thin clear plastic, from drinks bottle or craft store
- Patience
- Solder
- USB cable with male connector
- USB cable with female connector
Warning: I am not an expert in electronics (in case you didn't notice from my dire soldering), if you blow your USB port up, your computer, your house or your cat, it's not my fault! Proceed with caution!
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Signing UpStep 1The base
The base is made from two pieces of 12mm ply. The bottom piece has a cutout for the electronics. Both pieces are 100mm square. I made the cutout for the bottom piece about 1cm from the edge all the way around, the exact shape and size doesn't matter. When you've cut the bottom piece you need to drill two holes in either side so that you can screw the two pieces together. You also need to carve three grooves for the USB and motor wires. I used a 6mm veiner for this.
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My only contribution is that if you got a brushless motor controller you could eliminate the other motor and control the VCR head motor directly. With that circuit you could put in a great speed control and and adjust it on the fly for your mood or best performance.
I want to build one of these but maybe a tad bigger. When I have time and ambition at the same time I suppose :)
it is the black/greyish coiloured sand paper