6 foot hot wire foam cutter

I made a 6 foot long foam hot wire cutter for a project.

Finished product:

IMG_3590

 

Hot wire connection point:IMG_3587

 

Power side:

IMG_3591

 

The cut started out great! then went downhill as we moved left.

IMG_3599

It stretched and drooped, sadly.

IMG_3604

 

I’m planning on getting some thicker wire and trying it all again.

 

Cat Tax

IMG_3581

 

Posted in Randomness | Leave a comment

Cat Wheel activity tracker on Strava

My wheel from OneFastCat needed something. I wanted my cat to be able to compete on Strava with other cats but there was nothing available. Strava is a website and mobile app used to track athletic activity via GPS.

So, I made this system.

It is a breakbeam sensor connected with a Raspberry Pi computer. A fin on the outside of the wheel breaks the path of the sensor. Each rotation is mapped into a GPS location in the real world, moving 3.5 meters per rotation. After 100 seconds of no activity, the Raspberry Pi automatically upload’s to Toonces’ Strava page. The system resets automatically for the next wheel run.

Next up: Figuring a way for Toonces to run on the wheel without interaction from me. He can drive a car, but can’t run on a wheel.

Do you even Strava, cat?

IMG_20150619_163453

3d Printed bracket for break beam sensor from Adafruit connected to Raspberry Pi breakout board.

IMG_20150619_163457

Raspberry Pi B

 

IMG_20150620_145732

Breakbeam sensor and Raspberry Pi installed under the OneFastCat cat wheel.

IMG_20150620_145720

3d printed fin in PLA. Needed to cover the fin in gaffe tape so the IR beam would reflect.

Thanks to CrashSpace for giving me the push to get it done and the sweet writeup!

Posted in 3dprinting, Randomness, Raspberry Pi | 5 Comments