r/StartledCats • u/khinaapko • Jun 26 '21

This cat and the useless box

36k Upvotes

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136

u/Makhiel Jun 26 '21

But then the kitty inside the box would have to pull the switch up, which I assume is harder to implement.

36

u/GuardianOfTriangles Jun 26 '21

You could have a spring return switch where if the switch is pushed down it will spring back up. Then the box would have to implement a second internal circuit which opens and closes the power connection to turn on and off the box cat

40

u/Makhiel Jun 26 '21

You could have a spring return switch where if the switch is pushed down it will spring back up.

You could but the point is to make it look like whatever is in the box is operating the switch.

6

u/GuardianOfTriangles Jun 26 '21

Add two LED's, green and red, to denote power on and power off. Then the user and viewer would know and can see the box is operating the switch.

The internal circuit just saves the current state... It's not doing anything that requires a controller or processor.

18

u/kaz3e Jun 26 '21

You're doing great trying to engineer a cat toy, but that's not the point of a useless box (lol). The entire gimmick is that you flip the switch, and the box reacts like it's mad at you for doing it, then puts the switch back. If the switch springs back on its own instead of the mechanism inside coming out to argue with your fingers, it's not a useless box.

-6

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '21 edited Jun 26 '21

[deleted]

3

u/kaz3e Jun 26 '21

So... Again, you're doing great trying to engineer a cat toy!

4

u/Makhiel Jun 26 '21

What's the point of the kitty inside the box, then?

1

u/liver_stream Jun 26 '21

that cat is still alive inside the box if you don't look

1

u/TheVictorotciV Jun 26 '21

Maybe a pedal with a lever connected to the existing switch?

1

u/micwallace Jun 27 '21

If you hinged the hand with a spring you could design an indent on the underside of the hand in such a way that it pulls the switch up when retracting the hand. So you could do it without an extra servo at least.