SC17 GateRodders Mechanical NOR Gate

thingiverse

This is a **working, 3D-print-assembled without supports, mechanical NOR gate** created by our [Aggregate.Org](http://Aggregate.Org/) research group based in the [University of Kentucky ECE Department](https://www.engr.uky.edu/ece/). Our **GateRodders** concept is to make functionally complete mechanical logic gates that can be used to introduce the basic concepts of digital logic design in a very concrete way. Although we have played with various methods to make mechanical gates (especially designs using marbles), the inspiration for using rod positions to represent logic values came from [this video by Baptiste Cavin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hs6eqSdbGc). **A rod at logic 1 extends 5mm forward of the position it has when at logic 0.** The advantage is that this use of rods allows complete gates (or even complex mechanical circuits) to be quickly 3D-printed fully assembled -- and we have been able to shape the gates like their standard logic symbols. The designs here were used to produce the NOR gates we handed out in [our research exhibit at the IEEE/ACM SC17 conference](http://aggregate.org/EXHIBITS/SC17/). We expect to post more versions shortly that will be preferable for further use; be warned that *later GateRodder designs might not be interoperable with this first one*.