Summary
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The Meridian Orrery uses an ESP32, 3D parts, magnets and motors to build a self-updating tabletop solar system.
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Uses an RTC ESP32C3 and DS3231 to calculate planet positions offline after a one-time calibration.
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A clever 1:11 transmission ratio allows a small Moon to precisely orbit Earth as the rings and planets align at night.
There’s just something inherently cool about mixing ESP32 and 3D printing technology with the cosmos. After all, humanity has been looking at the planets and the moon for millennia, so depicting the positions of the celestial bodies from the comfort of your own living room has a special vibe.
If you want to make your own orrery, then I have the project for you. Someone has created a complete model of the solar system combining the ESP32, some 3D printed parts, and magnets, and it’s designed to be as simple to make as possible.
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The Meridian Orrery is a planetary model you can build yourself
It is even accompanied by a very small moon orbiting the Earth.
This awesome project is the idea of illusionmanager on Instructables, who calls his device the Meridian Orrery. It sounds complicated, but the creator actually takes great pride in the simplicity under the hood. To make it, you only need an ESP32C3 Super Mini, some motors and magnets, some sandpaper, a 3D printer and a DS3231 real-time clock to keep tabs on the current time. Once you set the date and time correctly, the Meridian Orrery can automatically determine where the planets are without an internet connection.
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The calibration process is quite fascinating and you can see it in action in the video above. Once a night, the device will begin rotating the rings until they are all aligned on a spring equinox. Once the planets are aligned, the device then goes to work “placing” each planet with a back and forth motion until they are all in the correct place.
But what about the miniature moon that orbits Earth? Well, illusionmanager implemented a clever solution:
It has a small 6-tooth gear that rotates inside a 66-tooth ring. When the Earth’s ring moves, the Moon rotates around it. With this ratio of 1:11, a complete rotation of the Earth causes the Moon to end up in exactly the same place. In other words, when the system has calculated the Earth’s rotation, it also knows where the Moon would be.
Honestly, looking at the Instructables page, it really doesn’t look that complicated to make. It looks like illusionmanager did all the heavy lifting in creating the mechanism and programming everything, and you just need to put everything back where it belongs. Plus, there’s no better conversation starter than a planetary that you built yourself.
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