Desktop mochi pounder
Every year my extended family hosts an event called motchitsuki, which is a Japanese tradition of pounding rice until it becomes a soft sticky glutinous mass called mochi. It is one of my favorite foods and I had been thinking, why wait a full year to produce this delicious treat. So Tania and I set to working on a desktop mochi maker. This is prototype #1.
Tania did all the CAD while I worked on the code to step through a very simple state-machine. The basic design is a lazy susan that rotates under a solenoid "pounder." The lazy susan starts out over the water cup, dips into the cup and rotates to the "USU" (japanese word for mortar) where the oblivious rice awaits. Then it pounds pounds pounds pounds, and finally returns to the start position. The water is to ensure that the pounder doesn't stick to the rice.
The drive is a DC motor in the back which engages a gear on a rack attached to the lazy susan. Limit switches on either side of the platform determine the stop positions.
pretty simple, but people enjoyed it. Especially Jared, who was our temporary head of QA.
Tania did all the CAD while I worked on the code to step through a very simple state-machine. The basic design is a lazy susan that rotates under a solenoid "pounder." The lazy susan starts out over the water cup, dips into the cup and rotates to the "USU" (japanese word for mortar) where the oblivious rice awaits. Then it pounds pounds pounds pounds, and finally returns to the start position. The water is to ensure that the pounder doesn't stick to the rice.
The drive is a DC motor in the back which engages a gear on a rack attached to the lazy susan. Limit switches on either side of the platform determine the stop positions.
pretty simple, but people enjoyed it. Especially Jared, who was our temporary head of QA.