How to Make a Compact Animatronic Eye Mechanism with 3D Printing and Arduino
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- Опубликовано: 18 ноя 2019
- This project is an upgraded version of my previous design, a highly compact and robust animatronic eye mechanism which uses 3D printed components and an Arduino microcontroller. If you are able to get hold of servo ball-links and pushrods, and are reasonably competent with 3D printing, this is the eye mechanism project I'd recommend most!
My Setup/Recommendations:
🖨️ Big 3D Printer: shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=235472...
🖨️ Affordable 3D Printer: shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=248535...
🔧 Screwdrivers: amzn.to/3WFHXDp
🔌 Power Supply: amzn.to/3UYY6lP
🔥 Soldering Station: amzn.to/3wAYj5u
Support me on Patreon for a look behind the scenes and a Nilheim Mechatronics sticker pack: / nilheimmechatronics
Also check the instructable for comprehensive detailed text instructions: www.instructables.com/id/DIY-...
- Screws: amzn.to/3Vmtrjg (this kit should cover you)
- Around 40* M2 x 6mm screws
- 6 10mm M2* screws
- 6* MG90s servo screws (these come with the servos: amzn.to/33VfIlF)
- Hobby Components
- 4 M2* Servo Ball-links: amzn.to/3TEbz1R
- 4 M2 x 25mm* Pushrod Connectors: amzn.to/3Pl44uc (keep in mind this is just 2mm threaded bar - you could always cut down a 25mm bolt or some plain threaded rod)
- Electronics
- Arduino Uno: amzn.to/3VfGbYR (or anything that can accept three analogue signals, one digital and communicate through SDA/SCL ports)Adafruit PCA9685
- 16-Channel Servo Driver: amzn.to/4cijGsg
- 5V Power Supply, around 4A is more than enough: amzn.to/49Wqni0
- A female DC power jack to match your power supply, to be soldered to the servo driver board: amzn.to/43j0KFC
- 2 axis Joystick: amzn.to/2NR4JnY
- Potentiometer (optional): amzn.to/2r0nADS
- Push-to-make switch (Some joysticks have this built in, but its easier to control when it’s separate: amzn.to/32Wnvyh )
- 10k Resistor: amzn.to/374seRU
- Jumper cables: amzn.to/2NToCuw
- 6* MG90s servos: amzn.to/4afx4vv
Also, a pin vice hand drill might be useful for adjusting hole sizes: amzn.to/4afx7rb
Contact: enquiries@willcogley.com
Discord Server: / discord
Downloads:
Check the blog post on the Nilheim Mechatronics project archive: nilheim-mechatronics.notion.s... 
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This is absolutely fantastic! It's great to see intricate and compact contraptions like this!
Thank you so much for sharing! Ever since your first DIY eye mechanism 2 years back I really enjoyed your make and design. And now this version! And the most realistic diy eyes on youtube. It will be a fun challenge to make this!
every time i see you make something new or make a previous creation better, it inspires me to try to make my own creations as good as a can and that there always is a better way to do something than the way i am doing it already. keep doing great things.
Thank you very much, Will. I bought the previous Animatic Eye. I changed the design a little bit. But when I saw this video, I intend to built this one here. Thank you again.
Thanks for sharing this project! I have been wanting to build it since it first came to my attention a couple of years ago. It turned out great! I am anxious to try some of your other projects.
Awesome video! Thanks so much for being so thorough with your instructions. I really want to get into mechatronics and I think this will help a lot!
Thank you for putting together this amazing tutorial.
Great maker video and in-depth explanation. Those eyeballs are very realistic 👌
Very clever design, well done. Thank you for sharing your work.
amazing work! so much intricate movement.
Wonderful engineering. A very well designed apparatus.
Excellent design, just finished my prints and am starting assembly!
@christian hernandez read the descriptions duh
Awesome project man!
That's cool. Might have to get into this 3d printing stuff.
This is awesome work man, honestly.
Another great video, Will!
Your design is so awesome!!
Love watching you work!
very Fascinating !
This is so cool. Amazing. Thank you for sharing this!!!
Great video, great project and am already using the eyes and will be having a go with the mechanism in the new year ;) keep up the great work mate :)
really nice stuff!
Love it!
Great stuff! Can't print fast enough between uni and assignments but I'll get a set working someday!
I love this design. Easy to convey a more Animatronic design by replacing lids with wire to connect to silicone exterior shell. Well done mate!😁😁😁😁😁
I want to build your eye mechanism for my robot! Seems I should view all of your videos! Your creative talents are obvious, your skills speak for themselves! Thank you for your selfless contributions! Subscription was a no brainer, I’m in!
Elegance in design!
Very nice project! I'm am going to build this!
Works great - I have it in a pumpkin just now - spooky like you wouldn't believe :)
This is awesome man. New subscriber ✌🏻
I made it! Used an Arduino Nano. SDA and SCL are on A4 and A5.
Man I love your works!!
This is a really good project. I am building the eyes, right now, for a robot. So I will be putting cameras where the eyeballs are. Plus, I think I have a way to use 4 servos, instead of 6.
Just brilliant!
Thank you very much for your sharing,it was a great help and inspiration to me .
Try to make a eye tracking mechanism, with cameras integred inside each eyeball
Motion blur would be too high
Absolutely possible. You could even use the same code in one of James Bruton's videos. I might try this as I actually have everything needed at home.
@@Dan-The-Orange I am sorry, didn't mean to discourage or claim it was not possible. I can imagine it would work absolutely flawlessly if the code is well thought out. Like for example add an eye boundary (camera space) in which the tracked object can stay and the eye stays where it is. If it is outside this box wait x milliseconds and retarget, which would overcome lmitations of cheap camera modules (at high speed). I did a false claim with the motion blur, lol.
@@Dan-The-Orange What do you think is better? In-eye tracking or one camera in between the eyes tracking and calculating the eye angles?
@@Dan-The-Orange Let me know how it goes!
This is awesome.
THANK YOU!!!! Can’t wait for the controller. Everyone loves the eyes I made from the last video.
They look great, did you change filament part way through the eyes to get the different colours? thanks for posting them on instructables!
Will Cogley no I remixed them they are two separate pieces. The black is nail polish.
This combined with a recreation of the puppet of the baby from the mandalorian would be awesome.
Very nice design, but the next iteration of this design should be the separation of movement between the two eye balls and lids to allow for a much wider variety of eye movements such as winking and going cross-eyed. One of my favorites things to creep people out is to look left then cross-eyed then right and back the other way.
Just amazing buddie ! 👏🏽
thats awesome man
Can't wait for the controller!
grate grate .. many thanks for sharing your knowledge
I'm tempted to try and modify this design to make it work for costuming, with eye tracking or a controller, depending on what ends up being plausible. Really brilliant design! I'm looking forward to the controller and being inspired by all your future videos!
Please do! I'd love to see it in a costume.
@@WillCogley I'll certainly try then! :D
Also do you think that it would be possible to move the mechanism to be above/below/both in relation to the eyes rather than behind? I would have to learn a lot more about the software necessary for such modifications, but i'm wondering if you think that's worth pursuing?
@Omegryth Yeah that would definitely be possible. One thing I'm hoping to try soon is having a cable mechanism between the eyes and the motors so you could hide the motors anywhere you want.
@11:00 I lightly heat screws (by touching a soldering iron against it), then thread screws into it, and it makes great threads without cracking the part
Superb!
I also made an RV version using mixing on an OpenTX radio, I used the Taranis X-lite by FrSky
Very nice design and video.
14:17 bless you.
I wish you could provide a kit with all the part and also make the different sizes available. Your woods AWESOME!
really cool!
Genial amigo!! Muchas gracias por compartir tu conocimiento es un mecanismo hermoso que pondre en práctica
dude ur videos are very good PLEASE PLEASE upload more videos
Brilliant video(s). Thanks so much for sharing all of this amazing r&d. The attention to detail on the eye tutorial is fantastic.
I'm curious to know if anyone has made a larger version of this? I need ONE giant, (around 15cm) moving eye for a low budget film I'm planning.
If not, then I guess I'll have to have a go myself...!
this is genius. thank you
fabulous sir! I must say you are very innovative. I would like if you could built robotic eye cams i.e using a cam in the eyeballs of the animatronics eye project. Maybe you would add object recognition, object tracking and face recognition to bring life to this.
Great work
Regards
Jean-François
Love the bloodshot eye's. Way to go for realism. I suppose a robot with no eye lids would be creepy, but it seems like a lot of potential mechanical failure points.
Awesome! I'm thinking about combining it with motion tracking
Thank you very much for share. Is awesome!!!
thankyou awesome tut
really cool
Awesome stuff. I was looking for something like these to see if my ideas would work. As it seems they do but I have a couple of questions. Do the eye orbs have enough space to have a phone style camera in each of them? Couldn’t both eyes share the same servos since the move in a symmetrical way?
I will be using these to make an animatronic Chucky
😓
I've made this design. I love all of jt. I'm having an issue tho. The upper lids work with the blink and the up and down movement. Won't move with the potentiometer squint though. I'm possitive it's in the control but can't figure it out
It’s low key cute ngl😳
14:17 bless you!
duuuuuuuudeeee , u r awesome!!!
I'd recommend printing everything 5 or 10% larger. I had to do alot of post print clean up and use a 2mm tap and die to open the holes up more to fit everything.
amazing
good design however to fit it inside a head it could be made much smaller by spinning the x and y servos by 90 degrees and opposing them , removing the eylid servos from the rear and placing them on top you would gain a good 25 to 30 mm that way, also a great addition would be a camera mounted in one of the eyes
I used the first eye Animatronic layout that I seen on RUclips.
thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!! you rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm really enjoying these videos and really want to make some eyes. I have no use for some eyes, but I want to make them anyway...
excelente video, gracias por compartir...te pregunto, en la vida real el ojo humano funciona de manera similar o es tu forma de afrontar el problema de movimiento natural del ojo. según tu estudio,
This eye mechanism is very interesting. Can we use this same method to make a shoulder joint move more naturally?
First of all, amazing project! I was wondering if the eyes support against the lids when they move and if it's possible to make the distance between eyes and servos shorter without messing the movement? I'd like to make a single eye, lidless version but the use I have in mind would need it to be relatively low depth 🤔
Another possible idea ? :
Making eyelid part more like a wire skeleton or a mesh(?) So the lids seem less thick.
Thoughts?
You've got STL files AND Arduino code?? You, sir, have earned yourself a subscriber.
Is that a Creality CR 10 3D Printer that you are using? Trying to find a decent quality one to repeat your process and really get into scanning, printing, and building models and animatronics! Nice video btw 😎
Hello Will! Is it possible to buy this mechanism from you? Your controller as well!! Everything you design is soooo good! Love your videos! Hugs from Canada! Thank you! Mychelle
How easily could a project like this be scaled up? I intend to make a slightly larger version at some point, however I don’t know much about the mechanics of scaling it up and how that will affect how it works or if I will run into any other problems.
Is it possible that you can make custom eyeballs.
Maybe clear ones with clear pigments or maybe with some glitters?
Maybe a smile that's made of pearl glitter and clear? Maybe custom eyes with lights on them?
This is an amazing project and they work great! I can't wait to buy a 3d printer and make them myself (I know, it's not going to be easy for a Noob). I have one question though. Have you tried to fit these into a skull for the total effect? I'm going to do what I can (I'm a software developer, not SUPER artistic) but wondered if you have already done this. Thanks for the tutorials, STL files, and the video!!
Hi, did you ever complete your project? Do you have Instagram or anything? I'd love to keep up with your project!
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Simply amazing!!! Thanks for sharing this all. Do you think making the mechanism(s) in resin would be ok? I can do either but for finish the resin would be perfect. Have you tried resin?
I know someone has built it successfully in resin, they said the only issue was that they had to print the eyelids at 101%, and make the eyelid holder a little bigger too.
This is such a beatiful build!
I am desperate to get it working for me, so was going to ask for help.
I have printed, built and wired both the controller and the servos, but the area i am struggling is the Ardino side of things.
I have uploaded the coding and keep getting exit errors?? (Never used Ardino before)
Is there a complete file that i can can download or copy and paste it to the software for all the aspects needed? (Servo drivers, controller and joystick/momentary switch)
I am trying to embrace this new method of animatronics as previously i have always used RC transmitters and relievers.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Not gonna lie I want one of those
3:38 Just wondering why if the 2 eyeballs move parallel to each other not use the same pair of servos to move both eyes similar to what is done with the eye lids, this will save money on 2 extra servos and less wiring to worry about. this will require the 2 servos for X and Y motion of the eyeballs to be moved to the centre.
Couldn't this be done with half the servos? Are the redundant servos a question of wanting more options in the long run (upper and lower eyelids moving separately, ability to go "cross-eyed" etc.), or are they there for the sake of power?
absolutely adore these videos. have you considered making a tutorial on how to make animatronic eyes to be fitted into a mask? I am attempting to make one but getting things to sync up is very difficult (on top of making the machanism small and light enough) so I'd be very interested in your advice
Spend some time learning Fusion 360 and/or Blender. Don't ask this guy to spend his limited time catering to individual projects when something like this is a HUGE goldmine of information and a great launch pad for your own project. Worked for me.
it was an innocent question man but thanks, now I won't ask for help on other videos like this in the future because I'm legitimately scared of people like you replying :D @@KOAlleyCat
@@Modmadmod Oh boo hoo. You’ll be just fine. 😂
Asking for help =/= asking a creator to do extra work so you don’t have to learn a skill.
If I wanna make bigger eyes do i have to change something else then or does the mechanics work on bigger eyes too? If not, what do i have to change and to what scale? The size of the eyes im about to do is probably 4-6 times bigger!
I made it and put smd rgb led in each eye. Had to remake the two eyes so there is a hole in the middle of them the printed with clear pla to holed the led and fill in the rest of the eye. for now every forth blink the eye will show a different color. looks wild!
That sounds ace, I'd love to see a video or photos of it.
@@WillCogley I will get pics and a video for you, where can I send them so you can see em?
@@YesItsTJ Just post it in Twitter or smth like that, we want to see it too ^^
@T H You could put them on instructables on the I made this section www.instructables.com/id/Simplified-3D-Printed-Animatronic-Dual-Eye-Mechani/ or just post it on twitter/Instagram/facebook and send a link.
I am doing something similar, after i cast the eye with the paint i am drilling out the back for the LED to sit in there the drill should leave enough of a haze on the resin to defuse it a bit.
Can we make a program who these Servo-motor play in loop to look like natural eyes without our action ? Or move independently ?
Its difficult for me to understand how the program acts on the eye movement.
This is such a delightfully simple mechanism. I wonder how complicated it would need to be to include eye crossing/uncrossing…
Thanks! This mechanism can cross it's eyes actually, although I'm not sure what the controller would have to look like to control it haha.
Could you publish the CAD files by any chance? I'm thinking of modifying it for a single eye and I cannot edit the stl files. Great project btw :)
Hello, I find this fascinating and great work. I would love to try it and I'm getting started. But I have a doubt. What is the code to upload it to the arduino?
I am new to animatronics and I would like to practice it and do this project like you did. You are great, thank you very much for your videos and content.
Hey . I saw you posted the servo twice. Are we suppose to get both (12 in total ? )
Should the code be uploaded to the Arduino before or after every is wired? Also, do you have a photograph of the wire set up, instead of just the diagram? Is the breadboard part of the design, or is it replaced later, and if so, how?
When you say upload the code do you already have that pre coded that we upload? Would love to try this out, i will take a look at all those links and possibly send you an email if possible.
Thanks for this!
Can you do a tutorial for automatic eyes without controller + tracking/camera?
Which app do you use for 3D modelling, you are very creative!!!