Baby Groot Inventor

This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com)

Step 1: Print/Assemble 3-D Printing Parts

First thing to make this dancing baby groot is to print the parts made on Auto Cad Inventor 2014. They are fairly simple and the head is actually part of a different project that I took online. Not necessary but recommended for this project. The head file is not scale to size and you have to cut the body off but that can be easily done by putting the bottom of the head to 1.7 cm diameter That will scale the head to the right size. Moreover, the rest of the project consists of two body parts, two forearms and two arms. All of the pieces have pegs or hole so it is easily connectable. After assembling all the parts appropriately (cannot make a mistake assembling since each piece has a specific size peg), the next will be building the circuit and connecting to the 3d printing parts.

Step 2: Building the Circuit

The circuit is pretty easy and can be followed by the arduino program. Put all the positives together in the positive line in the breadboard and all the negatives in the negative line at the breadboard (with the exception of the LED which needs to be connected to a resistor of at least 200 ohms). Then, connect the cables in the appropriate pins according to the program. Next step will be putting the component in the right position.

Step 3: Putting the Components in the Right Position

There is only one component inside the 3d printing parts and that is the stepper motor. The base has a peg with a hole. This hole is for the stepper motor. You should definitely hot glue the stepper motor inside the base because it is not strong enough to move the body without glueing. It will start moving itself instead of moving the body. After glueing the stepper, connect the body to it. I would recommend glueing or putting the base in a place with a heavy weight or it might fall while moving. If you are using a box like I did, make a whole for the microphone to pick up the sound very easily. Next step will be writing the code.

Step 4: Writing the Code

The code is fairly simple. It is basically just telling the arduino that whenever the sound picks up at value greater than 470, it will move the stepper. The LED is installed just to show that the program is working and it is on. Everything is being describe inside the program, step by step, so it is very foolproof. Next step is designing.

Step 5: Designing

As you can see from the image, I have put something over the parts so it will look more like baby groot. The partsare supposed to be just the mechanism. To look more like baby groot you will need brown tissue paper, glue and crafting skill. You just twist the paper while glueing and it will look like that image. Be careful not to put a lot of tension because the stepper will not enough power to turn the body or if it does it will just rip. So try to loosen up the tissue paper around the joint.

Step 6: Additional Comments

I had problems with some components but you might not have that problem. The arms have holes for a servo or a stepper, whichever you prefer, and you can make the arms move too, not just the body. However, I recommend getting a powerful servo/stepper because the head can be heavy, depending on the material, and the motor might not be able to move it because of that. Moreover, I will put the original arduino sketch and original circuit (I used a servo in the sketch for the arms) if you want to go beyond what I did, but people will love it either way, it is a dancing groot, who would not love it?