Me: "Do you love playing idle tap games?"
You: "Nope"
Me: "But do you play an idle tap game simply because you're already regrettably deep in the addiction loop and MUST tap, although you wish you could stop? 😪"
You: "Absolutely!"
Me: "What if I told you I have the product just FOR YOU! That will automatically tap the screen forever (FOREVER!!!)"
You: "Only if it's as noisy as the dickens!"
Me: "You're in luck!"
Regularly tap at a specific spot on a touch screen using a cam and a touchscreen stylus tip. It's meant mainly as a gag design.
Could a solenoid also do the job? Maybe, but I didn't want the action to constantly jackhammer into the screen or require additional electronics (other than wiring the motor and grounding the stylus). Could the auto-tapping just be something implemented in software? Maybe, but that's beside the point!
Print 1 of each of the *.stl files in the project. They should already be oriented so that the correct side is touching the bed.
Tested with PLA, but any filament that works well for gearing should also be usable.
I'm going to list out what I used make these, but there's flexibility on how the wiring is done. I prefer Dupont connectors so the cable and motor can be used on other projects. As long as the correct wiring connections are made, that's really all that matters.
See the video for assembly instructions.
About the lighter and the electricity: insert warnings here about being careful with fire and electricity here.
The exposed gearing is a pinching hazard; keep fingers away from gears when running!
The device predictably taps one spot on the screen. The biggest gotcha is the unpredictability of predictable things when left unattended. For example, if you're sleeping and the app-UI drifts to a microtransaction button, and now you're the auto-tapper is making purchases all night long in your sleep (not that there are no safeguards on iOS/Android stores to prevent that from happening, just an extreme example).
There may also be hardware concerns that need to be addressed by leaving the device on for long periods of time. Such as wear on the motors or gears.
Leaving an app running indefinitely may leave the phone/tablet heated in a prolonged state - that's not really related to this thing; that's between you, your phone, and your app (and already a consequence of playing idle games), but just sayin'.
The tapping may not always work, especially if the distances aren't dialed in correctly. In which case, only some of the taps will register, and in some cases a small vertical scroll will happen instead. Make sure the risk of vertical drags cannot perform dangerous actions on your phone (like the microtransaction example stated earlier).
The Blender source file is included, but there are issues with it. The biggest one is that the gear placement is mirrored from the final version - which is fine because they're symmetrical, BUT the arm isn't. So, re-exported arms need to be mirrored before printing.
Involute gears were made with the Precision Gears Blender plugin.
| AutoTapper_11.blend | 2.7MB | |
| AutoTapper_Arm_v01.stl | 141.8KB | |
| AutoTapper_Core_v01.stl | 162.5KB | |
| AutoTapper_Foot_v01.stl | 40.3KB | |
| AutoTapper_GearDriver_v01.stl | 329.5KB | |
| AutoTapper_GearProgramCam_v01.stl | 694.4KB | |
| AutoTapper_SpringCap_v01.stl | 96.0KB |
