The plan I set out with for this project was to create a mechanical movement that could control the dispensing of red pepper flakes, as one would put on a slice of pizza.
I chose to work with a servo motor so that I could easily create a back and forth motion. The rotation of the motor then had to be converted to the translation movement of the sliding door I created for the lid of the pepper flakes container. Essentially when a switch is triggered, the motor turns, pauses, and then turns back, causing the door to the spice container to slide open, let some flakes fall out, and then slide back closed.
Unfortunately I discovered that both my switches had stopped working and seem to permanently close the connection, so I opted to work instead with two wires that I could touch together to trigger the signal.
This is the cardboard trapdoor I constructed in the lid:
This is what the whole system looks like:
And this is a video of the device in operation (due to the force of the motor pushing the motor back I had to hold everything together tightly so that it would work properly)
This counter force that pushes the device apart is the biggest problem with it. The other is that due to how large the pepper flakes are, they barely fall out… I think working with salt or pepper might be better.
eidophysicalcomputing 