Skip to main content

Carrot Cutter Invention


My daughter enjoys inventing and creating. For a summer project, she designed and built a carrot cutting machine. Using littleBits and some household materials, I helped her construct a prototype based on her design.


Lindsey's Original Design


Mechanism Concept Sketch


Materials

  • dowel rods
  • duct tape
  • littleBits modules
  • plastic knives
  • cardboard box
  • paperclip
  • plastic carrots

littleBits Schematic

Modules

  • 1 push button
  • 1 servo motor (set to swing)
  • 2 wire modules
  • 1 power module
  • 1 long LED

Lever System Test


Internal Components


Test It

Pushing the button on top of the box causes the LED to light up, showing that the machine is operating. Meanwhile, the servo pulls and pushes the lever system that causes the plastic knives to move up and down. The plastic carrots are sliced and diced!



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tippe Top Design

The physics behind the tippe top toy have been the subject of studies by scientists for years - dating back to the early 1890s. The tippe top is spun just like any other top, but pulls a surprise stunt. The top flips over and spins on its stem when given a strong twist. Why does the tippe top flip over? What does this mean for anyone planning to make one on a 3D printer? Nobel Prize winners, Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr, take a break with a tippe top at the 1954 inauguration of the Institute of Physics in Lund, Sweden. Early Top Patents The first patent for the top, listed as “Wendekreisel”, was filed in Germany by Helene Sperl in 1891. While the patent seems to describe the top’s inversion property, reproductions of the top have proved unsuccessful. The patent expired after one year because the fee wasn’t paid. During a trip to South America, Danish engineer Werner Østberg noticed kids spinning a small, round fruit. While spinning, the fruit would flip over (or...
Post a Comment
Read more

micro:bit Fireworks with Python

I used the MicroPython editor to program a fireworks animation that controls the brightness of the LEDs as the firework explodes on the LED display. For young computer science students, this is a great introduction to text-based programming, arrays, and animating LEDs. Code # Display message and show pacman with firework option from microbit import * firework1 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00000:00200") firework2 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00200:00100") firework3 = Image("00000:00000:00200:00100:00000") firework4 = Image("00000:00000:00900:00000:00000") firework5 = Image("00000:07870:08580:07870:00000") firework6 = Image("60706:01210:72127:01210:60706") firework7 = Image("30503:00000:50005:00000:30503") firework8 = Image("10201:00000:20002:00000:10201") all_firework = [firework1, firework2, firework3, firework4, firework5, firework6, firework7, firework8] while True: if button_a.is_pressed(): ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coding & Making in Ed Tech

I attended the 2017 ISTE Conference in San Antonio where I had the privilege to explore the latest trends and movement in educational technology. New platforms for teaching computer science skills to new technologies, like virtual and augmented reality, are really taking off in education. But is that enough? Virtual & Augmented Reality Let me get these two technologies out of the way first. Virtual reality puts learners in another environment. When they put on VR goggles or use a smartphone with the popularly cost-efficient Google Cardboard , students are given access to new worlds and locations they might never get to explore in real life. Virtual reality, I believe, is still in its infancy, both in the consumer and educational markets. Currently in education, I see virtual reality used to take students on virtual field trips. They can explore national monuments, tour the Louvre in Paris, or visit animals deep in the Pacific Ocean. In addition to exploring our world, other ...
Post a Comment
Read more