Mastodawn

When I was a kid, I sometimes wondered how a sprinkler "knew" how to change directions without being powered with electronics. I think it wasn't until I was in my late 30s that I came across this GIF and I realized how insanely genius a simple sprinkler really is.

EDIT: Some people have kindly pointed out that this GIF was in fact from a demonstration on how different gears function and not from an actual sprinkler as I had originally led to believe. Other people have been assholes about it.

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Ari [APz] Sovijärvi Jul 7

@SKleefeld The biggest brain explosion were the "smart" sprinklers, that had a dial that selected various "programs". It was bit of a magic until I got to take one apart to discover that the dial just moved one gear up and down, selecting which center/outer gear it was interfacing with. Such a simple idea for something a modern mind would instantly use a microcontroller for.

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mirth Jul 7

@apzpins @SKleefeld I had a similar reaction when I read about how this toy robot arm relied on mechanical cleverness rather than a bunch of servos:

https://www.starborneworks.com/?p=22

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Ari [APz] Sovijärvi

@mirth That design actually reminds me of commercial robots, where there's multiple gears at each joint.

I worked in a large CNC facility and got to see 6 axis machines open several times, some have really funky looking gear setups inside the joints. Puzzled me so bad how they got rotating motion across the joints seeing there was no space for strong motors in the arm itself.