Help with project

Robotics and electronics discussion Share your projects
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Hello everyone my name is Jose and I am a graphic designer. I have been commissioned to design a gauntlet for a cosplay costume. The gauntlet has an eye and a shining diamond. I been instructed to make the eye move and blink. The diamond is supposed to shine brighter when the wrist is bending back. I’m going to need help with the electronics of this project since I have no knowledge of animatronics. I did some research and figured I’m going to need servos and a micro servo controller. So I ordered a 6 channel Micro Maestro as well as 3x HD-1440A micro servos.

The reason I ordered the Maestro it’s because it’s compact and it can run programed scripts on a loop. The eye part of the project I already know how to do; The diamond is the part i require help with. I did some research and figured I could use a flex sensor to make the led brighter when the wrist is flexed back but i don’t know if I can use the micro maestro to accomplish this. Any ideas or input is welcomed.

I added a picture of the gauntlet.

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Hello.

Your project sounds really neat! You should be able to use a flex sensor with the Maestro by configuring one of the channels to be an input. Depending on the type of flex sensor you use, you might need to make a simple voltage divider, which would give you an analog signal that can be read by the Maestro. The Mini Maestros have a PWM output that would be useful to control the brightness of an LED; however, the 6-channel Micro Maestro does not. You might consider getting a Mini Maestro so you can use the PWM output. Alternatively, you might consider using a small microcontroller like an Arduino Micro to read the flex sensor and control the LED brightness. You might also consider using a ShiftBrite as your LED.

By the way, when you have it completed, we would love to see how it turned out!

-Brandon