I decided to push a rough draft monarch as far as I could to make sure I had a better concept of the full process. You never know if you get all the way to finishing touches and discover that you forgot a critical component or method of construction.
Closeup of the head and thorax of my rough draft monarch
Dead insect eyes become reddish and shallow.
The rough draft I created had several successes and failures. The successful part is that I was able to get four wings to slowly flap, as desired for the final product. The textile choice for the body worked well, and I really enjoyed the head and eyes. The eyes were actually reddish because I used a red PLA for the head and painted it. However, dead insect eyes become reddish and nondescript, while living insect eyes have a great deal of depth and color. I think I will print in black for all body parts and use a gloss finish to create that living illusion.
I discovered the construction of the wings was too challenging. I need to make this part easier on myself. Also, synthetic black velvet does not take color from paint well, so I need to find a new material or change the type of paint. I think I will use a white or lighter colored velvet and try spray paints and then touch up with acrylic later. Many friends recommended silk velvet, which I find poetic in a morbid way.
Finally, I was unable to complete the legs, however this process is more forgiving, The legs are shiny and black and I already know each body segment that needs to be created. The trochanter, femur, tibia, and tarsus. The coxa will be fused to the thorax, similar to real lepidopteran legs.
I had enough information to make improvements and I purchased the final servos. I am planning to use metal gear servos in a much higher quality construction. The rough draft was using cheap plastic servos I had acquired for casual projects. A long term use project needs much more durable and long lasting servos. I hope the Savox SH-0265mg will work well.
I also began working on the Blender model and decided to create a render during my process to share here.
Render showing new components as well as stand ins for bolts and ball joints which I use for boolean subtractions.
I will begin 3D printing the new components soon and trying them out. I need to consider cable paths and durability around the wing joints. Also, I have separated the front and rear wings and I am going to try a cylinder in cylinder method of synchronizing them with the servo linkages. At such small scales, the 3D printer is not very accurate or strong, so it may be better to simply use small bolts to attach them.
I also purchased a smaller Pololu maestro servo controller board. This allows me to easily program the servo movements in a pretty small circuit form factor. It is PC only software, but the scripts are quite simple for repetitive motion. I can convert one channel as the button input.
I wonder how servo signals work over long cable paths? At 50 Hz (analog servos), that is close to mains electrical AC frequency. At 300Hz (digital servos), we may be getting close to when geometry and cable construction is critical. I need to avoid interference or signal loss.
Time is moving quickly on this project, so it’s important to stay on top of this work!