#planet pointer

[kontraptionist]

Hey - Remember the prototype for these?

Instagram post by Hector Wilkinson • Dec 19, 2017 at 8:02pm UTC

http://www.kontraptionist.com/post/155640938774/cnc-milled-and-programmed-some-stuff-up-for-a

[kontraptionist]

CNC milled and programmed some stuff up for a project for JPL up in Pasadena. It’s a prototype for a moving sign post that points to celestial objects and tracks satellites in real-time. Pretty snazzy. It uses a simple Arduino (for now anyway) to control all the movement and a Teensy that’s eavesdropping on the serial line to cherry-pick out specially formatted comment strings in the movement instructions to change the text and color.... all crammed in to a 4″ pipe AND waterproof. Note that in this version, there’s no pipe covering the guts, and no custom circuit board has been attached, so nothing is weather tight yet. A fun project. I promise more in the near future.