Ferris Wheel
This ferris wheel that our team designed is powered by a CPX and Servo Motor. The ferris wheel was entirely 3D printed on a Makerbot Sketch 3D printer. This design includes two wheels, one for the front and one for the back, 9 ferris wheel carts, and a stand for the wheel to rest on. The CPX allows our product to light up and make noise, and the servo motor allows the wheel to spin. All of these functions were coded using Circuit Python and will be executed on different commands. This ferris wheel is fun and easy to use, follow the instructions below to create it yourself!
Supplies
- Adafruit Circuit Playground Express Basekit
- Continuous Rotation Micro Servo
- 3D printer
- Straws
- Hot glue
- Scissors
- Ruler
Printing
Download and Print Each File Below with no supports and no raft:
Stand STL file: Ferris Wheel Stand.stl
Cart STL File: Ferris Wheel Cart.stl
Wheel STL File: Ferris Wheel front and back.stl
Coding
- Follow these instructions to install CircuitPython onto your CPX: https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython/installing-circuitpython
- Connect your CPX to your computer and save code.py onto it
- The provided code will:
- Cause the motor to rotate clockwise when button A is pressed
- Cause the motor to rotate counter-clockwise when button B is pressed
- Light up when you shake it
Using circuit python and the adafruit library we were able to create code that accomplished 3 different tasks
1. Make a sound
2. Have some kind of light
3. To make are design have a moving part
import time
from adafruit_circuitplayground import cp
import board
import pwmio
from adafruit_motor import servo
# create a PWMOut object on Pin A1.
pwm = pwmio.PWMOut(board.A1, frequency=50)
# Create a servo object, my_servo.
my_servo = servo.ContinuousServo(pwm)
while True:
if cp.button_b:
cp.pixels.fill((0, 0, 50))
my_servo.throttle = 0.0
print("forward")
cp.play_file("dip.wav")
if cp.button_a:
print("forward")
my_servo.throttle = 1.0
print("Slide switch:", cp.switch)
Assembly
- Attaching the servo motor to the CPX
- Using the provided wires, attach one wire to A1, one to VOUT and one to GND
- Bend the end of the wire to secure
- Connect the A1 wire to the orange wire on the servo motor
- Connect the VOUT wire to the red wire on the servo motor
- Connect the GND wire to the brown wire on the servo motor
- Put the provided batteries into the battery pack
- Connect the battery pack to the CPX
- Assembling the wheel
- Cut 9 1 inch pieces of straw
- Using the hot glue gun, attach a straw piece to each hole of one side of the wheel
- Glue the other side on top, aligning the straws to the holes
- Pick a servo motor attachment from the CPX kit to attach to the middle of the wheel using hot glue
- Place the servo motor on top of the stand making sure the wire is in the provided hole
- Place the CPX in the holder at the base of the stand
- Insert excess wires into the holes on either side of the stand
- Attach the servo motor to the wheel using the attachment in the center
- Glue the battery pack into the indent on the back of the stand
How It Works
- Turn the battery pack on
- When button B is pressed The CPX will light up and spin slowly
- When button A is pressed the ferris wheel will speed up
- Each time button B is pressed the CPX will make a noise
- Turn battery pack off