Final Project:
The Mechanical Blooming Flower

Origin Story

As an input sensor for the board in week 11 I used a photoresistor which was lying around in our lab. While soldering and implementing the sensor I thought about, what can I use this for. I came across the idea of a blooming mechanical flower whichs opens when light hits the sensor. And so my final project idea was born.

Getting inspiration and starting with a first draft.

To find some inspirations for the design and to see how others approached such a project, I made a quick search on the Internet.
I found a design on Thingiverse on how to 3D-print a mechanical flower.


(Thingiverse Project Page)

I 3D printed the flower and began to design a pot which should house a motor and the board with the photoresistor. I first sketched the pot and measured the flower to plan on the measurements for the pot. After sketching I began to create a 3D Design with 123D Design.



I planned on making the pot out of wood. So I used 123D Make to convert the STL file into stackable pieces which I can laser cut out of wood. I used 600 x 300 mm wide and 5mm thick sheets of cottonwood.



Pot 123D Design File

Pot Slices EPS File

Crafting the pot



After the lasercutting was done I realized that the thickness of the border of the parts was to thin. So I made the borders thicker which makes the whole pot more durable. After another round of lasercutting I glued the pieces together and began to sand the outside hull of the pot to remove the burned region and make it look like wood again.



Crafting the petals


After the pot was done I wanted to change the petals design. I wanted, that the petals consist of a more smoother material than the 3D-Printer PLA. So I used Tyvek, a paper like material which is very durable but has a better look and feel than PLA. I also wanted that the structure which is holding the petal is made out of wood. But the wood pieces were to small and broke way to easily. So in the end I used PLA which kind of resembles the look of wood.





123D Petal Structure Files

Putting the final pieces together


In the end I just needed to put together, the pot, the flower mechanism, the servo motor and the prepared code and parts from the electronics design weeks. (06, 08, 11, 13).





Arduino Flower Code

Final Bill of Materials

Assembly of a light sensitive automatic opening flower.


Steps Summary

  • Lasercut poplar wood
  • Assemple poplar wood to pot
  • Finish pot with sanding
  • 3D print flower parts
  • Cut Tyvek to leave shapes
  • Assemple flower
  • Put together flower, motor and pot
  • solder board with parts
  • programm flower code onto the microcontroller of the board using an ISP
  • Connect board to servo motor and attach power source


Parts:

  • Pieces of 5mm poplar wood (I used 600 x 300mm)
  • 3D Printer PLA plastic in green and red
  • Wood like PLA plastic
  • Sheet of Tyvek for the leaves
  • Servo Motor
  • Board with
    • Photoresistor
    • Pin header for servo control
    • Microcontroller for example ATtiny44
  • ISP Programmer (I used an Arduino Uno)
  • Some simple cables
  • Power Source

Files:

Final Costs are about 50€ for the materials + an ISP Programmer.