About Dhansen's hard drive spinner

[CthulhuLuke]

Alright, this is a quick question for all those who have done the Dhansen's Arcade Stupidity hard drive spinner.  So I now have a source to as many dead hard drives as I like "Thank you computer networking class" and I got one today to try and unfortunately it didn't work, because it had nowhere to put the chopper or the knob shaft.  Is there a way I can tell if the top is going to be threaded and all good for this project, or will I have to disassemble a bunch until I find the right one?
   -Thanx
     -Cthulhuluke

btw, isn't this backwards? Mamezilla, http://www.saltspring.com/mamezilla/pages/P8240087.htm

[dhansen]

Yeah, sorry about that!  I had a sh*tload of WD caviar 200MB drives that I used for these spinners.  Not until later did I discover that not all hard drives are created equal.  

Some did not have the hole for the chopper and others didn't have the correct threads on the top.  If you stick with the old Western Digitals you should get the correct parts.

Of course if the drive is busted anyway you might as well open it up!

And yes... Mamezilla is backwards!!  

Thanks to everyone who's keeping the HD Spinner alive, back in the day we didn't have great products like Oscar spinners around...geez, It really hasn't been that long ago....

[CthulhuLuke]

Ahhhh, k, well I guess I'll just grab a couple hard drives then and start hammerin away.  I don't really get Mamezilla's spinner because A: he has it backwards, and B: the smaller hard drive spinning part he had shown didn't have a bottom hole for the chopper to stick into...?  Strange.
 I just ordered a belkin mouse off of ebay for a total of 8 bucks today, so I should have that in a few days, and I'll hopefully have a fully disassembled hard drive that works this weekend, and maybe getting a project box this weekend as well.  I might even be done as early as next week! ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---! lol, well actually, knowing me, it will be a while, but I'll have pictures up eventually, this is basically gonna be my learning experience on spinners, so I might decide Oscars are just the way to go, or I might want to even move this one over to my full size cabinet and make more in the future.  Time will tell.
     -Thanx for the quick response on that one Doug
        -CthulhuLuke

[CthulhuLuke]

Alright, well I actually found a Western Digital hard drive at school, but I don't have a 7 tork bit -__- so I gotta get me one of those, then take it apart and see if it works for what I want.  Also, does anyone know which is the best project box for a spinner? (cheap in mind)
 thanx
   -Luke

[nullb0y]

a shoe box hehehehe
my hard drive spinner only has 2 picesa a bottom stationary plate and a top spining peice im gping to rigg the top peice and use a ruberback to hook it into a mouse to use as an interface

[CthulhuLuke]

Oooo, belkin mouse came in today, I really should be taking pictures of this and documenting it, but because I am lacking both a digital camera and a disposable camera, I'll just talk about this.
  So my belkin mouse came in the mail today, 8 dollars of pure spinner goodness.  I have the exact kind of hard drive Dhansen used except it's a 2gb version, but it's Cavier Western Digital (still gotta get the tork bits)  I unscrewed the single screw that holds the mouse together, and noticed a bit of a difference with my mouse and TwistyGrip's mouse.  I had a somewhat upgraded maybe mouse, because the ps/2 plug in was green, like those new color coding systems they have, and the circuit board seemed smaller, although it doesn't have the plug-in-play switch.  There was also a casing around the ball, and the tabs that held the spinners looked different although they were the same size.  I began cutting with a big pair of industrial wire-cutters (BIG pair) ripped apart the plastic, got a nice solid cut around a tab and am in the process of glueing the tab to the circuit board.  I am using that plastic cement for models and am going to see how well that keeps it sticking together.  This week I should get a tork screw and a project box (or just use the cardboard box, as I am a master with the cardboard art) and actually make a damn spinner! how cool.
        -CthulhuLuke

[CthulhuLuke]

Quick question Dhansen, about the chopper spokes, I noticed in Twistygrip's tutorial he said to break off everyother spoke to help prevent back-spinning, and allow the spinner to be more friendly to fast spins.  Did you do this on any of your spinners?  Or did the plain old original spokes work fine?  Just wondering before I start takin apart one of my choppers.
  -Thanx
    -CthulhuLuke

[dhansen]

No, leave the light chopper the way it is and use Oscars mouse drivers.  These drivers take care of the backspin problems (they did for me anyway!)

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/support_spinner.htm

Well, they used to be there..  OSCAR?

Doug

[CthulhuLuke]

Alright, so here's a question I don't know if you've tried this, but going on the TwistyGrip single unit idea, where the coat hanger bends from the stationary part to the pcb, I was thinking because my project box from radioshack is nice and small, why not use the stationary part of the spinner to do the same effect.  I don't know if you're hard drive came with this, but mine had this big round ring that went over the palette (silver disc) and under the wheel cap, so I could easily snug a coat hanger in there and use the wheel cap to tighten it down.  What do you think about this idea?
If you want to see a visual refernce to what the hell I'm talking about, ok, here's the pic you took, http://www.doughansen.net/arcade/spinner/spin8b.jpg  now where the arrow is pointing is where the ring is, so I'd slip the coat hanger underneath that, and it'd force the wheel cap to sandwhich it, pretty clever?  Just an idea.
  -Btw, OSCAR, no response?  i noticed you did have one Dos driver, but I'm gonna be running this spinner in windows -__-
    -Thanx, CthulhuLuke

BTW: I remembered I have 2 japanese arkanoid gold knob spinners, those fancy lookin ones, so I took the knob of the non-functioning one (needs new bearings) and am gonna hopefully use it on my spinner, which will look freakin awesome when it's done.  EXPECT pictures!

[SirPoonga]

No, leave the light chopper the way it is and use Oscars mouse drivers.  These drivers take care of the backspin problems (they did for me anyway!)

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/support_spinner.htm

Well, they used to be there..  OSCAR?

Doug

what;s your link to the spinners?  I got my hands on a couple of dead drives.  I want to see the overall process.  Though I might make a propeller clock with them instead.