Posted by surprisetalk 5 hours ago
I have an analog computer I'm finishing up. I have ADC's to convert the analog to digital to display the values on an LCD (with an ESP32 dev board—it was more flexible than panel meters, cheaper than an oscilloscope).
But because looking at "simulated" panel-meters seemed to kind of undercut the point of the analog computer, I went ahead and created a small PCB to go from my analog computer to a panel meter like the one in the clock.
Running a "Spring + Mass" simulation on the analog computer and seeing both the LCD/ESP32 representation of a panel meter and an actual panel meter move in sync brought it all home.
Ways to keep more than one brain center active!
(nor would the missus be pleased for me to buy them - but that's another matter)
Source: am a furniture maker professionally. Have worked out of a makerspace, and have done equivalently complex projects on their Shopbot.
Edited to add: if you skip the rabbets around the gauges on the front panel, you can make that a single-sided CNC job, which makes it much easier. With some care, you could do those with a handheld router and a rabbetting bit.
;-)
is 10Hz control just too slow?