Arrakis 2.0 Sand Table programmed for cat entertainment
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My coffee table, aka Arrakis 2.0, is a servomotor powered coreXY mechanism that is normally used to magnetically drag a steel ball to create pretty patterns in sand. My cat enjoys chasing the ball, especially when the table is running a spiral erase pattern at 1000 mm/sec.
I decided to try to create patterns that she might like, so I wrote a spreadsheet that generates random motion of the type that attracts her attention. I enter the table dimensions, the desired speed range, and desired dwell time range and the spreadsheet creates gcode that causes the ball to move in random directions at random speeds and then stops for a random amount of time, before darting away, sort of like a small animal might behave. Ms. Kitty loves it!
The spreadsheet generates 500 lines of gcode that typically take about 16 minutes to run on the table, about 3x longer than Ms. Kitty's attention span.
More: blog post
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@mrehorstdmd Add a camera in the table:
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Not a cat person, but that's cool
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@mrehorstdmd Funny cat video? Take my upvote!
Ian
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For anybody who does make a sand table, there is a dedicated online gcode generator for them here:
Unfortunately it does not have a 'cat' mode..
