Gravitational Acceleration Simulator

Space is vast, empty, cold, and seemingly infinite. However, everything within it, from the smallest asteroids to the largest galaxies, all obey the same invisible force, which is gravity. Among the four fundamental forces of nature, gravity stands apart as the weakest in strength. Yet controls everything at the largest scale, shaping stars, bending light (black holes), and is also the reason we are not flying out of buildings right now. But despite its "universality," I feel it is somewhat unappreciated, and that we take it for granted. So, for this project, I wanted to bring gravity in a form that we can see and control. A machine that physically simulates the pull of different celestial bodies, being the free fall an object would experience if it were in that body's gravitational field.

And it does it quite simply by using a motor-driven platform and calibrated spring system. It shows the gentle gravity of the moon and crushing pull of a neutron star (ok, haha, that was exaggerated, if I could simulate free fall of a neutron star in my room, Im pretty sure I would have won an award a long time ago [ it's a 100 billion g's]

Materials:

1. ESP 32
2. Nexton Touch LCD 2.4"
3. 30A ESC
4. 12V DC power supply (at least 15A of current)
5. A2212 1000KV brushless motor
6. 8mm metal shaft
7. 8mm ID compression spring (one with weak spring constant) - just a weak spring :)
8. m3 hex sockets (other m3 screws can also work)
9. Dupont connectors (female to male)
10. wires
11. 8*10*24 linear bearing
12. 70OD 65ID Acrylic Tube

Equipment:

1. 3d printer
2. Dupont crimp (only if you are crimping wire by hand)
3. screwdriver or Allen key for screws

Of course, every build may or may not start with a concept design. I generally do it to help me later on when modelling on CAD to give me a general idea of where things should go and whatnot. Here, I also did a lot of the calculations to determine if each concept would work, and they would; however, I don't want to bore you with that. But to put it simply, I just determined if I would be able to generate enough acceleration to simulate the free fall on other plants/celestial bodies using the RPM of the motor.

Here, I just made the different parts for this build, including the housing for the electronics and assembly of the free-fall chamber. In this project, I actually had a lot more space to work with in terms of fitting the electronics in the housing. But this was also due to my picking to use an ESP32 rather than your larger and slightly more conventional Arduino. I also added a cute LEGO astronaut I found online. This is just a decoration you can use, for example, to show an object in its free fall on different celestial bodies.

link for the LEGO astronaut :) https://grabcad.com/library/lego-6457-1-astronaut-figure-1

Sorry, but right now I can't 3d print anything due to not having access to 3d printer right now, but if you want to print the parts needed, I will attatch the files. But all the parts needed for 3d printing are just the platform, housing, and winder. As shown by the bright green parts.

The setup is powered by a 12V DC plug, which supplies power to the ESC's main lead. The ESC then sends that power as 5V into the ESP32, which is more compatible with it. As well as the signal wire (PWN pin), which will allow the esp 32 to control the speed controller, controlling how fast the motor will spin, and so on. *Make sure that the ESC you get outputs 5V through its BEC instead of the full 12V, or you could fry the board. You can check by using a multimeter, and if your ESC doesn't output 5V, then a buck converter can be used to convert the output voltage from the ESC into 5V. Also, the higher the power supply can provide amperage, the better, as if the amp is not high enough, then the motor may not have enough power.

1. Insert the 8mm metal shaft into the hole on top of the housing, along with the spring that goes around the shaft itself
2. Insert the linear bearing into the platform, then slide it onto the shaft with the spring wrapped around it
3. Slide the acrylic tube into the housing; there is a hole for it
4. Fit the electronics inside the housing. There should be scres for each component, including the motor, screen, and ESP32 (a pretty good idea to do the wiring before screwing everything in place)
5. wine the string through the platform and also wine it through the winer that would be attached to the brushless motor