Introduction: Wooden Stones Art Installation

Wood Stones is a proposed art installation that would take place in an indoor gallery space. The instructions listed below are for the prototype of the installation. The installation aims to create a sense of delight, curious and wonder for visitors to the site. With the use of a motion sensor, small motors attached to wooden stones begin to vibrate across the floor.

I am looking for suggestions to change the installation. What could improve it? One idea is to have the stones travel across sand so you can see the path they take.

Step 1: Materials & Tools

Materials

10 blocks of wood, 1.5” by 1.5” 10

mini motor discs - http://www.adafruit.com/product/1201

1 motion sensor - http://www.adafruit.com/product/1201

shift register 74HC595

E600 industrial strength adhesive

sandpaper

arduino uno

breadboard

solder

wires

holding pins

spray paint (optional)

Tools
belt sander

soldering iron

wire strippers

helping hands for soldering

fume extractor

Step 2: Make the Wood Stones

  1. Take the wood blocks up to a belt sander and create your unique stone shape.
  2. Break the edges of the dodecahedron by sanding with sand paper.
  3. Optional: Spray paint all sides of the stones in a well ventilated area. Let dry completely.

Step 3: Wiring the Motors and Connecting Them to the Wood Stones

  1. Prep the mini motor discs with some industrial strength adhesive to the base of the wires. This helps to prevent them from fraying over time.
  2. Take the mini motor discs and strip the ends of the wires to prep for solder. Be careful here as the wires are fragile.
  3. Solder wires to motors. To protect the joints you can use heat shrink tubing or hot glue. In this photo, I used industrial strength adhesive.
  4. Solder header pins to wires.
  5. Use industrial strength adhesive to adhere 1 motor to the bottom of 1 stone. Repeat 8 times.
  6. Take the motion sensor and solder holding pins to the ends of the wires.

Step 4: Wiring Your Breadboard

Wire the header pins according to the plan in the image.

The data sheet for the shift register can be found here.

Step 5: Upload Your Code

Upload the code for arduino.

Attachments