SparkFun Forums

[skeej]

Hi All,

I've been meaning to get more into hobbyist electronics for a year or two now- I have a book which I haven't read... you know the story. But now I really need to get my act together b/c my 4 y/o daughter wants to start "inventing" stuff. It's a call to arms!

So, she has a little folding hand fan and she wants to attach it to a motor so that it will automatically fan us- to keep us cool. I need to figure out how to do this and what to buy to make it happen. I'm a software developer by trade, so I don't mind if it's a little complicated on the programming side, but my electronics skills are still pretty weak. Also, I'm thinking I should be able to accomplish this w/o too much trouble- sounds simple enough, right? Just need a little motor thing that moves back and forth (possibly at different speeds?). =)

Anyways, I'd appreciate any direction you all are able to give me here. My daughter is really excited about this project, so this is a great opportunity to capitalize on that enthusiasm and be a good dad.

Thanks! Skeej

[Ross Robotics]

I assume you would want to make this as simple as possible. I am thinking of an Arduino and a servo. The servo has options to mount the fan and rotates at 180°. Of course, you don't need to rotate it the full 180°. You could change the speed at which it moves also. You haven't given any info about the fan, so obviously we can't give any advice on mounting.

If you want to extend your knowledge past the servo, I would go with an Arduino UNO. It is the most common and there are tons of examples and tutorials on the net.

[chartle]

For this project i think you are approaching it from the wrong direction. What will your daughter learn from attaching a "black box" the servo, to another black box, an arduino? Programming?

I think you should start with something like knex. With knex she can start with a foundation of mechanics and how to create reciprocating motion using linkages and cams and motors vs electronics and pulse width modulation.

It depends on what your goals are?

[bsagan]

I agree with chartle. Start with a mechanical device, like a 4-arm linkage. With kinex for example, you can very easily tweek the arm lengths to obtain different fan motion. Once you have that, then you can work on attaching a servo and making it more advanced.

[skeej]

Thanks for responses! We ended up going with the Knex gear set and this was an ideal starting point. She was thrilled. She was waiting for me to get home from work every day so we could go into my (home) office (renamed 'our secret workshop') and work on assembling one of the example fans. And although she's still a little young to be really analytical about how the gears work, she was exposed to the basic concepts and it's given her more things to be curious about. =)