Sauceke

The wheel thing

Added 2024-10-26 00:38:24 +0000 UTC

At last, my wheel toy is working end to end: https://files.catbox.moe/9yxkkc.mp4

There still is room for improvement, but it will be much easier to iterate on it from now on. I'll definitely have to experiment with different tire textures, and perhaps a way to adjust the spacing between the wheels.

It also matters a lot what type of lube you use, since the open design means the lube will dry quicker. For the past 1 or 2 years I've been making my own lube (mostly because commercial lube is impudently expensive these days), and it retains moisture much better than anything I'd used before, so maybe I'll share the recipe.

All the files required to make one are in this Git repo. ("Wheels" is a placeholder name, couldn't come up with anything better.) While it works reliably, I still wouldn't recommend building it in its current stage, simply because the design might change, and it will hopefully get a lot better. A lot of potential is also lost in how LoveMachine interfaces with rotators; the device itself has no issue processing 10 commands per second, so it could change its speed and direction a lot more smoothly than what you can see in the demo. LoveMachine 4 will have smooth rotation besides smooth stroking (among other things), so everything will fall into place once it's finally ready.

If, despite these shortcomings, you still want to build it and use it with LoveMachine 3, remember to set the Rotation Direction Change Chance setting to 0%, and to set the body part assignment for the two wheels individually. I also recommend using noise cancelling headphones, because this thing sounds like construction noise.