Where to find a servo motor that moves like this?

Thread Starter

Duckinabearsuit

Joined May 14, 2014
10
Watch Video: http://youtu.be/Pxn9p_Yqg2U

The point of the "robot arm" in this video is to continuously tap the screen of an iPhone in order to prevent the phone from turning off (like sleep mode), without actually having to touch the phone with your finger every minute or so. You can walk away from your phone, allowing the game to continue on. It's like setting up a macro for a computer game to keep it doing something, cheating at the game basically

It is powered by USB and uses conductive foam on the tip of it to react with the touch screen of the iPhone.

It uses no board, it is composed of what appears to be simply a servo motor and a usb cable.... where do I obtain a servo motor that moves like this?
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
It should not require much effort for that, a heavy duty RC servo could be adapted to work.
You would need to build or design the operator for it, however.

* What is the point of double posting???
Max.
 
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Thread Starter

Duckinabearsuit

Joined May 14, 2014
10
Max,

Thanks for your reply. Can you offer any guidance as to what the servo motor would be called that could do this? My apologies, I'm very new to this stuff...

And you mentioned needing to build an operator for it? Like a board or controller?
This operates fully from a USB power supply (5v, like plugged into a computer)


I meant to delete the old post, though can't figure out how. I was worried it was a bit confusing to follow with all of my different speculations.
 

Bernard

Joined Aug 7, 2008
5,784
Just about any radio control model servo should work, 4 oz in or up. Maybe not the best solution but here are two servo controlls to give ideas:
First gives two positions moving full speed between between positions, needs another 555 for desired period.
Second gives variable speed between positions.
 

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alfacliff

Joined Dec 13, 2013
2,458
it never needs batteries, just a glass of water once in a while.
seriously, the guys here in the boiler house wanted a device to press a key on their computer once in a while to keep the screensaver from timing out. we just turned off the screensaver.
 

dwalsh62

Joined May 9, 2014
4
Just about any radio control model servo should work, 4 oz in or up. Maybe not the best solution but here are two servo controlls to give ideas:
First gives two positions moving full speed between between positions, needs another 555 for desired period.
Second gives variable speed between positions.
I've seen this type of circuit before, from what I recall, it has a programmable USB chip, a NE-555 timer IC and an HI-8586 liner driver IC with a few discretes to run the servo all molded into the USB plastic as the SOP IC were extremely small, the driver code was simple, it would accept the position and speed and could be changed with a small config file.
 

Bernard

Joined Aug 7, 2008
5,784
You hit it with a shot of current & it rotates about 45 deg, release current & spring returns it. On my test , used cap. discharge, but was trying for 10+ beats /sec. Available on different deg. of rotation & op. V.
 
I don't fully understand how to manipulate capacitive touch screens, but is there a chance that this could be done in a solid state fashion? Is there anything that could be permanently be placed on the screen that could be given an electrical pulse from a simple 555 timer circuit that could simulate the touching? Before this video, I didn't know that there was a way to do it without human touch (Again, I know nothing about capacitive touch screens, just never needed to look into it). I always look for a Non-Moving/Solid state method as a solution to any project for reliability.
 

mcgyvr

Joined Oct 15, 2009
5,394
Doesn't the iphone just have an optional setting to disable the screen timeout or set it to 30 minutes or something..
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
I don't fully understand how to manipulate capacitive touch screens, but is there a chance that this could be done in a solid state fashion? Is there anything that could be permanently be placed on the screen that could be given an electrical pulse from a simple 555 timer circuit that could simulate the touching? Before this video, I didn't know that there was a way to do it without human touch (Again, I know nothing about capacitive touch screens, just never needed to look into it). I always look for a Non-Moving/Solid state method as a solution to any project for reliability.
Excellent suggestion. :)

Maybe a tiny strip of aluminium foil on the screen, and use a FET to connect it to a flat metal plate (or large foil patch) that the phone sits on?

Surely someone out there has tried activating capacitive touch screens with electrical connections? It can't be that hard.
 
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