Clock?

[jeffeb3]

I mean, this started as a clock… You missed the first couple feature creeps (or is it features creep?).

[ttraband (Tom Traband)]

At this rate it looks like feature gallop to me.

[niget2002 (David Walling)]

@jeffeb3

with undo

Didn’t we already decide that trying to undo something was too much of a strain on RAM

[jeffeb3]

This project is currently in the “vaporware” category. So it only uses vaporram, which is pretty cheap.

[Paradox_Pete (Pete)]

Yeah, I guess I’m guilty as anyone.

I suddenly find myself considering the potential of an eccentric weight on a small motor to “wipe” the slate clean, like an overgrown version of the vibrating motor in a phone…

That might be handy on an otherwise “standard issue” ZenXY.

[kvcummins (K Cummins)]

Get a couple of old PlayStation controllers, and pull the vibration motors out of them.

[Paradox_Pete (Pete)]

There’s vibration motors in some game controllers, huh? I’m not a gamer, so this is news to me. How hard do they vibrate? I’m guessing a pretty significant vibration would be needed to “erase” a sand drawing.

I think if I try to implement a etch-a-sketch mode, I’ll feel compelled to at least try and emulate a “shake to erase” feature (more feature creep) 8^)

A ZenXY coffee table may be leapfrogging it’s way up my project list…I’m suddenly inspired. 8^)

Hopefully, I’m not derailing the clock topic too far…I don’t really know how to approach the clock idea, but I think I might be able to pull off etch-a-sketch mode.

[jeffeb3]

I tried using my sander on the side of my zxy to smooth the baking soda and it did not work. I ended up with a bunch of clumps still. So I think you would need a very powerful motor.

[Paradox_Pete (Pete)]

Thanks. That’s definitely helpful, even if a bit discouraging.

[kvcummins (K Cummins)]

@Paradox_Pete

There’s vibration motors in some game controllers, huh?

Yeah the DualShock controllers have DC brushless motors with offset flywheels on them to generate vibrations.

@jeffeb3

I tried using my sander on the side of my zxy to smooth the baking soda and it did not work.

Then the soothing vibrations of a DualShock motor won’t do squat…

@Paradox_Pete

I think if I try to implement a etch-a-sketch mode, I’ll feel compelled to at least try and emulate a “shake to erase” feature (more feature creep) 8^)

Let’s see… Home the bearing, then have a separate device trigger and pass a rake/leveler over and back across the surface. With the caveat that there will be a small sliver that never gets cleared. Or even include a separate electro-magnet that pulls the bearing off the sand to make way for the eraser…

[niget2002 (David Walling)]

I bet the clumping had to do with harmonics. Run the same frequency across the board long enough and the standing waves should cause ripples in the sand. A proper speaker playing pink noise might work.

[merrittgene (Gene Merritt)]

@niget2002

A proper speaker playing pink FLOYD might work.

[niget2002 (David Walling)]

Only for building the wall to hang the clock on.

[macboy (Kelly D)]

Late to the party here but wanted to chime in. I’ve started printing the bits for an iBoardBot to sit on my wife’s desk at work as a fun way to say hi randomly through the day. It has a web based interface that sends to the board. It also can be set up to write out tweets you tell it to watch for. Would be super cool to have something like this in ZenXY.

Has anyone thought about a “wipe” rake like those automatic kitty litter scoopers? Move the ball to 0,0 and the rake can make a sweep from Xmax (or Ymax) to 0 and back?

[jeffeb3]

The iboardbot server side application seems pretty neat. It looks like only the boardbot software is open source though. Something like that could be accomplished, with some work. I wouldn’t want to have to pay too much for a cloud server. Sandify is currently free to me because it us just a static webpage (well, I bought the domain, but that is like $5/month).

The pooper scooper idea is neat, but we already have a robot. It just takes a while to wipe.