1st Generation
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The first generation prototype was built with rather inexpensive parts. A 8"x8"x1/4" sheet of Formica was used for the plate; the motors were taken out of old hard disk drives. The shafts were thin sticks of spring steel. Two pictures of this prototype are shown below: 

 diagonal.jpg (159465 bytes)square.jpg (155042 bytes)

A detail of the hard-disk linear voice coils is shown below. A 3-axis accelerometer appears attached to the plate's edge.

detail.jpg (143001 bytes)

Though this prototype had the advantage of a very lightweight plate (requiring no vertical support underneath), it suffered from resonance problem at the motor's linear bearings. These problems were addressed when we built a 2nd generation prototype.

 
© 2000 Dan S. Reznik, <dreznik@cs.berkeley.edu>