Pointless Switch Machine - by Vagrearg

Pointless Switch Machine

Having fun is important when making things. So, while discussing new and intelligent ways to do things at the local makerspace and hackerclub, I concluded that it was time to waste time bigtime. Some of you may be familiar with the ultimate machine or one of the successors with additional features.
The sad thing is that I do not see a way (yet) to top the ultimate machine. But, I certainly can make something pointless too. So, what features do we need:

• no useful function
• moving parts
• simple yet complex
• user interaction
• blinking lights
• entertain users and observers

Thus I present the Pointless Switch Machine - push a switch to switch a switch.



A small video of the device in action:
Oh boy, the vids are a self-inflicted DOS.
Moving the video to other location...
They'll be back in a moment.
Ogg is up again, avi will follow when I get it transferred

• - theora/vorbis for the smart using FF or Chrome
- avi for the lesser species -->

All is created from bits and parts found at the makerspace in boxes here and there. Several hours were used to find the perfect balance between superfluous LEDs and mechanical absurdity. Half a day got wasted building a box from acrylate leftovers. Went a bit off-scale for wanting to make a real PCB, but found myself again and settled for a breadboard instead, using only half a day soldering bits and pieces.
However, getting the calibration factors right (i.e. finding a motor and switch that would match and getting the heights to fit) was a great triumph for box-filled-with-scraps searching-algorithms.

And then some more images for the curious.

Read More and See Video on the Site...
http://www.vagrearg.org/?p=psm

I like this one too!:) See the Wooden The Most Useless Machine EVER!‬‏ in the links below...

Don

Pointless Switch Machine

Most useless machine upgrade — now with a button! - Hack a Day

Vagrearg

Simplest most useless machine - Hack a Day

‪The Most Useless Machine EVER!‬‏ - YouTube