Wild Gears Newsletter #1 May 2017

Thank-you for your ongoing interest in WIld Gears!
I am in the process of getting ready for another Wild Gears Kickstarter to make version 3 of Wild Gears and have a bunch of ideas about what would be good improvements and additions to make to Wild Gears.  I am also looking for feedback from you. You can provide feedback by using this google form



The preparatory work for Wild Gears Kickstarter is underway.  Some early prototypes of some of the improvements are being made right now.  If everything comes together I'm planning on launching the campaign in 3 weeks.
I'd like to tell you about some of the things I'm working on or planning.
Wild Gears will get several features which will make the gears more usable. Features like: listing the prime factors on the gears along with the tooth count, including some sort of tick marks / ruler marks on the gear teeth to make it easier to count them, more legible numbering, and numbered pen holes.

• The factors are easy to add and I'm working on ways to engrave the numbers that make them easier to read on the clear acrylic.  Adding more numbers to the gears makes it even more important that they are easy to read, which they currently aren't.  3 different possible improvements to the legibility are being prototyped.

• The counting marks around the gear took me a while to figure out a good balance where they were functional, not too fancy, not too expensive, and easy to use but I think I've got a handle on that.  Initial tests explored 4 variations on complexity and styles.  A relatively simple one won out and some tweaks to its appearance are being prototyped.

• The numbered pen holes are the number one most requested feature and I am having a hard time coming up with a solution that I like. The main problem is one of space. The pen holes are 3mm (about 1/8th of an inch) in diameter and close together. Even if I wanted to engrave a number beside each hole they would be too small to read easily. Also because the lines of holes converge towards the center of the gear there is even less space for numbers there so even if I could make tiny numbers that were legible they would be crowded out near the middle of the gear. Clearly a compromise is in order. But which one? I could put less stuff on each gear which would give more space for numbers but would mean that much less functionality and design space would be included in each gear set. I think that numbers are nice but not important enough to remove other useful features for. I could use some less complected system of visual cues to make it easy to count and track which pen hole you are looking at. I am currently prototyping a couple features to this end. If you have any suggestions on how to make it easy to visually determine one pen hole from another I'd love to hear your suggestions.

• Pen holes will get lines that point to their corresponding gear tooth in cases where it is hard to tell for certain.

• The piece packing on the Modular Gear Set will be improved.  Initial efforts suggest that I can fit at least 10% more pieces into that set.

Other things I want to achieve with this kickstarter is to produce an 'idea book'. Many people have asked me for a companion document to go with Wild Gears to tell them how to use it to make designs. I want to make a document that will cover the details of how to use Wild Gears and how to have a sense of what sort of design you might get as well as different techniques and how they impact the art. I am picturing this process producing many short how to videos as I systematically work though the material.  I am currently thinking of it as a technique manual that will enable informed creativity rather than a recipe book for use gear X and ring Y and pen holes 1, 4, 12 to make this specific thing although if the recipe book concept is widely wanted I will probably make something along those lines too.


Have you come up with any cool ways of using Wild Gears that aren't represented in this list?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/465068187/wild-gears-20-reinventing-the-spirograph/posts/1445996
If yes, please tell me! Or better yet, send me a picture or three.


Around Christmas Ars Technica published this fantastic article about Wild Gears. It was a wonderful experience and a total fluke of luck that I met a person at the right time. I'd love to get more coverage like this


I also am intending to develop an educational Wild Gears bundle with a focus on educational usability. If you are interested in this aspect of the project (or know someone that would be) I am looking for a few educators to work with to make sure my ideas aren't too far off base.


Wild Gears Newsletter #2 will include pictures to break up the enthusiastic wall of text and show off all the new prototype pieces.


Thank-you,
Aaron Bleackley