Auto Turner
A mechanical page turner for musicians. The final result of Cooper Union's 6 week product design and prototyping Makerspace class in the Summer STEM 2018 program.
Video: demo of Auto Turner in use while playing a piece on a grand piano, operated by a foot pedal.
The final prototype was made with 3D printed and laser cut acrylic parts and an Arduino-driven circuit.
Video: mechanism designed for lifting, flipping, and setting down paper with wheels and arm.
Design & prototyping process
Week 1, ideation: Coming up with the ideas and basic design for our project.
Week 2/3, early prototyping: We design our mount and grabber mechanism. We spend a lot of time and iterations figuring out the tolerances of the printer and changing our dimensions slightly to make the mechanism work.
Week 4, Grabber Testing, Mount Early Prototyping
Week 5, First Functional Prototype, Testing: After several iterations, the whole device put together finally works as we want it to. We start designing an acrylic assembly to make the whole device sturdier and more reliable.
Week 6, final prototype: We laser cut and assemble our acrylic base; the device is now one piece, without relying on pieces of cardboard taped to the stand to function. It can now be moved around and sit on a grand piano. We also build a foot pedal.
Contact me
Have a question about my work? Want to work together? Don't hesitate to reach out!
Email me at hello@samsonzhang.com, or message me on Twitter @wwsalmon.