Explorator winder
Explorator winder (common name Winder) is the fifth designed Explorator species that enjoys a compact circular form with a diameter of 135 mm, height of 248 mm, and weight of 1060 g. Winder produces anthrophonetic, melodic vocalisations through the winding and unwinding of a mechanical music box managed by a closed-loop DC motor control system.
This page focuses on the technical design and construction of the Explorator winder species. For information concerning Explorator winder facilitated hyper-soundwalk installations check out this page: here
Physical Design
"Explorator winder must be exhibited in herds following a pop-up installation strategy and therefore
the artefact’s physical design foremost prioritises transportability with a secondary focus on visual aesthetics.
Although the smaller mainboard PCB prevents Winder from directly using the same components as prior species,
it can leverage a scaled-version of prior designs using the same materials.
In this pursuit, the 100 mm acrylic tubing utilised in the previous three species proved aesthetically
pleasing and structurally solid. Therefore, Winder’s enclosure consists of 60 mm diameter extruded acrylic pipe
segments cut to lengths of 200 mm to accommodate the smaller v2 mainboard PCB and battery pack. As the overall
performance of
Spinner’s body proved mechanically adequate while adhering to the Acropolis aesthetic guidelines, the same laser-cut
clear
acrylic is used for Winder’s body. However, with a smaller electronics enclosure, the body size could be reduced to
a diameter
of 135 mm while using thinner 4.5 mm sheets. Likewise, Winder’s leg configuration is nearly identical to the legs
seen on the
Spinner species but utilises smaller 6 mm stainless steel rods and mounting brackets."
Music Box Winding Mechanism
To accommodate Winder’s artistic requirement for anthrophonetic, tonal, and musical
vocalisations within a small package, hand-crank music-boxes were sourced from
local second-hand vendors. To minimise artefact size and leverage the enclosure as
a resonating body for the music box, it is mounted directly to the top of Winder’s
acrylic top-cap. A compact and powerful 10,000 RPM, 12 V, DC motor with a
diameter of 20 mm and length of 46 mm is
positioned below the music box inside the enclosure. The motor is mounted to the
enclosure’s top plate using a 3D printed mounting bracket. The mounting bracket
provides a mounting location for the breakout PCB so it faces outwards, giving the
artefact a distinct front and rear.
As substantial torque is required to wind the music box, the DC motor is fitted to a
488:1 gearbox that provides 28 RPM with an extrapolated stall torque of 25 kg/cm.
The gearbox is attached to the modified music box’s winding mechanism with a
threaded rod and shaft coupler. To benefit from a closed-loop
control system which gives the species knowledge of the motor’s position, the
secondary motor shaft is connected to a magnetic encoder