final project documentation

I measured around the pot, and marked where the seven photocells would go. Then I drilled small holes for the leads, and pushed the photocells in. Then I put the Mega inside the pot, and plugged in the USB and power cables through the holes at the base of the pot. Then I wired all of the photocells' power leads together, and plugged them into 5V. Then I wired all the negative leads to their own resistors, then to a common wire to ground on the arduino, and also each negative lead to its own analog input pin on the arduino (so each photocell has a pull-down resistor). All of this reaching into the pot to reach the mega was very difficult. Unfortunately there are no photos of these steps, since I left my camera at home. Then I tried using gorilla tape to secure the motors, but it wasn't strong enough, so I used hot glue. They all fit, just barely (huge relief, as the wiring for the photocells had taken hours to do). Then I connected all of the motor power leads together, then to the photocells' power lead. I connected the motors' ground leads to each other and then to ground on the mega. Then I plugged each signal lead into a PWM output on the mega. At this point the pot was a veritable rat's nest of wires. I taped a piece wire to each motor (to simulate the branches) and tested them, and to my relief, everything worked.



Then I began securing the branches to the motors, which was easily the most frustrating part of the process. I sanded the motor arms and the branch wires to roughen up the surfaces, then applied liquid cement. I clamped each branch with two binder clips, and used parchment paper to keep the cement from getting on other things. This was waaaayyy more difficult than it sounds, due to how crowded the pot was.





After letting the cement cure for several hours, I removed the clamps and wrapped them with gorilla tape. Then I plugged it in, and it didn't fall apart! :D I cannot emphasize enough how relieved I was, as I'd had to redo the cement and clamping on several branches and it was incredibly frustrating.




Then I spent a few hours adjusting the code to try to get the effect I wanted. I finally went home at 3am.



The final touch was to cover the top of the pot with some black fabric, to hide all the hardware and wires. I don't have a photo because my camera battery died.

Also, I neglected to mention in my last post that the copper leaves were patina'd by spraying them with salt water and tenting them with a dish of ammonia. Sadly, the heat of soldering them turned the patina to powder, much of which was accidentally brushed off before I noticed. By the time I sealed them with a coat of clear gloss spray paint, the effect was greatly diminished. I still think they look nice, though.