Solidworks:
In order to design the components of our carousel, we utilized Solidworks to produce CAD files. Through this software we were able to further verify the validity of our design before beginning prototyping by insuring parts such as the slider mechanism and the gears fit and moved together.
Figure 13. Final CAD Model
Arduino and Servo:
Like the toy carousels we modeled our design after, our project did not require complicated electrical and software components. Two electrical components were used, a continuous rotation servo, which was attached to our gear, and an Arduino mega which was used to power the servo and adjust it's speed. Because the servo we used spun at one speed which was deemed too fast for our design, we instead wrote code to make the servo spin for 150 milliseconds, then stop for 600 milliseconds. This results in a jerky mention of the servo starting and stopping, but closer emulated the slower speed we desired.
Figure 14. Base Plate with Arduino Mega and Gear Attached to Servo
Figure 15. Arduino Code for Continuous Servo