For my original plan, I was hoping to make a lotus flower from the laser cut iris wheel. However, the product did not turn out anywhere close to it, but the results were nice to be concluded to the final project.
Materials used:
- Clipboard
- Mailing tube
- Bristol paper
- Servo motor
- Arduino
- Wax paper
- Paperclips
- Wire (copper wire)
- thread
- Hot glue
- Surface for the device
- Plastic or round surface for the bottom of the iris
- Lollipop sticks
- tape
- Purchase the clipboard, mailing tube, and Bristol paper ready for the laser cutting or self cutting by hand. I followed the simple “paper iris glasses” on instructables to get the iris structure. ( http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Iris-Glasses/ )
- After you completed the iris structure, find a plastic or round surface that is almost but slightly smaller than the iris bottom. This will be inserted with the servo motor.
- The code of the servo motor would be the sweep code in the Arduino library.
- Once you cut the bottom surface, attached it to the copper wire or thinner wire to the servo. Have a paperclip at the cut out edge to put the bottom and iris in place.
- Choose your selective surface for device.
- I added the waxed paper last time to make the slightly abstract lotus/ plant look to the device. I included lollipop sticks to prevent the iris to move too much on the surface.
- Ta-da, your weird alien-looking plant is done. Run the code and watch the plant go (: !
