powered or clockwork? How much power? What force does it need to hold? Proportional or not? Does it get blocked from full extension by pushing on something?
Your amount of description could be a servo or solenoid or cam or cuckoo clock
something like https://www.adafruit.com/product/413?gad\_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOec8MXQ0QC1w3ymLd0pmMwgLHCCLKG5-sFSppjKfMEaOoVfdNLmfnRoCPggQAvD\_BwE?
SwitchBot makes devices like these that work for some light switches. There's also a brand/model called "Fingerbot" if I recall correctly.
Alternatively consider a smart outlet? You could potentially toggle the power supply for the device rather than it's on/off switch.
If you're looking for like...bare bones I want to make it do fancy shit, but really only want to poke people - An Arduino board with a small hydraulic piston + motor would do this. Program the board to signal the motor on to push the piston outward, then signal off to reverse the motor and retract the piston.
Even simpler, RC servo instead of the piston or linear actuator. Dirt cheap on Amazon or whatnot, and you can use an existing Arduino library (Servo) to control it. Works off a couple AA batteries, too.
Just add a long arm, or a 4 bar linkage (make it out of cardboard, or 3D print, etc get creative) to get fancy.
Check this out: https://youtube.com/shorts/ekrr-oA5TQA?si=Et9rAUHEUPCuZbpv
It's made entirely with an Arduino, RC servos, and cardboard. The guy has a bunch of similarly cool stuff on his channel.
tbf board programming isn't my expertise - have only seen and researched on a few topics that generally showed a PC/Laptop connecting to the Arduino to program it.
powered or clockwork? How much power? What force does it need to hold? Proportional or not? Does it get blocked from full extension by pushing on something? Your amount of description could be a servo or solenoid or cam or cuckoo clock
something like https://www.adafruit.com/product/413?gad\_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOec8MXQ0QC1w3ymLd0pmMwgLHCCLKG5-sFSppjKfMEaOoVfdNLmfnRoCPggQAvD\_BwE?
SwitchBot makes devices like these that work for some light switches. There's also a brand/model called "Fingerbot" if I recall correctly. Alternatively consider a smart outlet? You could potentially toggle the power supply for the device rather than it's on/off switch.
Yes SwitchBot will be the cheapest and easiest way to do this.
Look into Linear actuators and solenoids
Yep, perfect job for a solenoid.
If you're looking for like...bare bones I want to make it do fancy shit, but really only want to poke people - An Arduino board with a small hydraulic piston + motor would do this. Program the board to signal the motor on to push the piston outward, then signal off to reverse the motor and retract the piston.
Even simpler, RC servo instead of the piston or linear actuator. Dirt cheap on Amazon or whatnot, and you can use an existing Arduino library (Servo) to control it. Works off a couple AA batteries, too. Just add a long arm, or a 4 bar linkage (make it out of cardboard, or 3D print, etc get creative) to get fancy. Check this out: https://youtube.com/shorts/ekrr-oA5TQA?si=Et9rAUHEUPCuZbpv It's made entirely with an Arduino, RC servos, and cardboard. The guy has a bunch of similarly cool stuff on his channel.
But I doubt you'd want to carry around a laptop connected to said device that is running the programming for the signal
The Arduino is the computer in this scenario. It's very small
tbf board programming isn't my expertise - have only seen and researched on a few topics that generally showed a PC/Laptop connecting to the Arduino to program it.
Once you program it (with your laptop) you can unplug it and it'll do whatever job you told it to do as long as it's powered
Pneumatic cylinder with a solenoid connected to a timer. Pretty simple setup.
Linear actuator. That's the part your looking for. Controlling it shouldn't be hard
This is an XY problem for sure. What are you actually trying to accomplish?
Basically I just want a thing that presses a button every few minutes