§ Ch.01 — Prototype · joystick teardown (2014-08)
It started with a cheap analogue joystick from the electronics street. Meant for an Arduino RC car, the gimbal inside was beautiful — two pots, return springs, universal joint. Drive it the other way and you have a tracking mechanical eye.
Two micro-servos, Arduino reading input to both axes, a hollow 3D-printed eyeball shell. Prototype only; no use case yet.
§ Ch.02 — Makerfaire 2014 · take the prototype out
Soon after, at an Openlab.Taipei meetup, Zheng Gongzi suggested bringing it to Makerfaire Taipei. On the booth a sensor drove the eye toward the nearest person — a kid standing still for three seconds got locked; usually someone laughed.
Not a finished product. A prototype taken outside to test.
§ Ch.03 — Proper v1 + cat teaser
After the show, rebuild from scratch — rewiring, new housing, servo response retuned. That became the real first version. Then a branch: IR motion input and a feather wand — a cat teaser. FroliCat already sold something similar; mine was at least half the price (and half as clever).
§ Ch.04 — Third generation · eye on a PLEO head (2016-04)
In 2016, with Openlab.Taipei partners, the eye was redesigned and mounted on a PLEO’s head. The same PLEO wore the rocket backpack (see W—001); both went to Makerfaire Taipei 2016 — my second Makerfaire (first was the prototype two years earlier).
Mounting on a dinosaur skull forced a full redesign: anchors, cable routes, servo placement, and shell following the head’s curves. Good practice — first accessory designed for someone else’s object.
Final booth: rocket flashing behind, eye turning on top, dinosaur walking. The Blue Ribbon that year went to the backpack (see W—001); the eye did not win, but without it the booth would have been a different thing.
