The Octo-Bouncer: Advanced Bouncing Patterns

Roughly three months have passed since I wrote my initial post about a machine I call “The Octo-Bouncer.” What has happend since then? In this post I talk about what parts of the machine were updated. Why they were updated and what kind of stuff the machine is able to do thanks to these updates.

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The Octo-Bouncer

I started thinking about ball juggling machines in the year 2015. I wrote about my first few attempts at creating them in this blog post from the year 2017. In 2018 I wrote another post about my then newest build. We’re now in the year 2020. And finally, the quest to get a machine to juggle a ping pong ball reliably has come to an end (as this current build is able to keep the ball bouncing for hours.)

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The Benbox CNC 1310

I bought a Benbox CNC1310. As of now, I did some simple wood milling jobs. I am very pleased with the build (all aluminium/copper/metal – no plastic parts whatsoever.) The only negative aspects that come to mind are the limited workspace (130mm x 100mm, hence the “1310”) and the cheap clamps (the things to hold down the workpiece while milling.) Everything else is very nice. This is a machine well worth its money.

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Solving the Differential Equation of a Falling Raindrop

For some reason, I found myself wondering about an old problem I did at university. It was about finding the velocity function of a falling raindrop with air resistance proportional to the velocity squared. In exploring a way to get to the solution, we wade into the sticky territory of differential equations.

Read more here: RaindropWithAirResistance

ESP32 Micro Robot Arm

Talk about cheap stepping motors and there’s a good chance someone will mention the “28BYJ-48”. Or maybe he or she will not remember the part number and say something along the lines of “That 3 dollar stepper used in air conditioners! You know! B28 something!” Truth be told, it doesn’t get much cheaper than 3 dollars. The 28BYJ-48 is the queen of ultra-low-cost steppers.

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Afterthoughts On Arduino Bouncing Ball on Plate Machine

Some years ago I started a Quest to get a machine to juggle. Some weeks ago, I yet again found myself working on a machine with the goal of getting a ball to bounce on a plate without falling down. And bouncing it does. But is the quest now finally finished? Is the holy grail of continuous ball-bouncing reached? The short answer is “No.” and I will probably not spend any more time on the current iteration of this DYI robotics nightmare.

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Setting up Raspberry Pi WiFi with Static IP on Raspbian Stretch Lite

So here we are. Ready to setup the WiFi and static IP settings on the Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Stretch Lite. And because it’s Lite, all we can use is the command line. But what do we exactly do to get the job done? Here are some steps you might want to consider when wrapping your head around the WiFi and static IP setup process:

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