Much of this project has been a lesson in limitations and learning to accomplish something given the time allotted and the resources i have.

at first i was thinking of going in the direction that i had previously been foraying upon: namely working with felt and weave approach.

but as i started to explore materials, the more i became convinced that it needed to have a more rigid structure but something that was still light enough that could be moved by a small motor.  I started researching a lot of examples of paper architecture but they were all too static to be formed into a unit that could fold up and down like a blind.  eventually i continued to experiment until i formed a modular structure that is formed from four pieces of square paper and are folded incrementally until they look like the piece below which are than sewn together into strips.

next, i needed to build a frame with which to attach the blind and motors.

yikes. looks like i’ve got a lot of folding to do if i want to fill up that frame!  to the right side of the picture is my stepper motor.

i realized that unless i wanted to have some big ugly armature sticking out of my servo motors in order to pull up the blind all the way up the length of the frame, i needed a motor that could turn more than 180 degrees as well as have the ability to know where it was in the turn (hence why i forewent the DC motor).  The stepper motor also happens to have a stronger torque than both the DC and servo.  The only catch is however the stepper motor seems to have a more complicated circuit than either of the other motors.  Looks like I’ll be getting friendly with an H Bridge this week!  Soon i’m sure I’ll be dreaming of steppers and blinds in no time.