HoMedics Drift Magnetic Moving Sand Art Table - Sandscape Kinetic Sand Art, Smart App Control, Decorative Sand Table

Product Information

Within the first day of use, I had tapped play on close to a dozen designs. It’s addicting to watch the little sphere roll around and make intricate patterns come to life. HoMedics positions the device as one for wellness. Watching it is supposed to promote mindfulness and a calming feeling. I can see how Drift could do that for some people. For me, it was much less about a calming presence and more about a neat piece of decoration. It’s modern and simple enough to blend in, but with its light, it can be as attention-grabbing as you want it to be.

Larger screws and nuts for securing the flange bearing to the base (I found these at my local hardware store) A manual sand table needs to be thoughtfully designed with a miniature rake. To achieve beautiful results with such a delicate task, the user needs to slowly and carefully plan and execute each movement of the rake, requiring a steady focus. How the HoMedics Drift Sandscape worksI thought when I received the Drift, that it was a bit of a shame that we were losing the art of sand raking to an app. However, with my impatient temper and unsteady hands, I saw immediately just how much sense the Drift makes. This beautifully assembled product lets you watch mesmerizing designs come to life before your eyes. Each movement is slow and soothing, and the soft, mechanical whirr of the kinetic components draws you in and settles your chest.

Update 2: For reasons I don't understand the device stopped communicating with my Pixel 6a even after using the phone to set it up. I had to switch to an old LG V30. It works about 7 out of 10 tries with the LG. Enough to change the settings and patterns. Once it's up and running it doesn't really need tweaking. But if you decide to change the lights and patterns it will need the app. I honestly don't understand why this is such a riddle for Homedics. Every other Bluetooth device I've ever owned works more consistently that the Drift. It's worth the hassle, though. The device is gorgeous. I was first exposed to the idea of a kinetic sand table through a “Dope Tech” video from YouTuber MKBHD. He had a large and very expensive version. The HoMedics Drift is a smaller and more affordable option that may be able to find a place in the living room, bedroom or small business. TL;DR Another unexpected lover of the Drift is my cat, Fern. I had moved the Drift from a side table to the floor so that I could take a few more photos of it from above. Once it was moved, I would hear it, turn to see what design was playing, and find her sitting there, staring at it. Cut a circle in the 1/2" sheet with a diameter that is 1" less than the diameter of the glass (in my case it would be 30"). Make sure that you account for the size of the router bit that is being used for an accurate cut.

What I like

It’s a great build that focuses on the smaller details like noise that can make a big difference to the final experience. We’ve seen similar projects before, too. Video after the break.

The HoMedics Drift Kinetic Sand Table is designed to make using a sand table easy. Unlike a manual sand table, the Drift’s sandscapes are fully controlled with an app on your smartphone. The Drift app contains patterns and playlists to play on your table, with customizations for speed, brightness, and LED colours. Using it, you can stop between patterns, shuffle between your favourites, and set up scheduling so that the Drift is on only when it can make an impact on your state of mind. Drift is a very interesting product. I got the larger 21” version, and it’s bigger than I expected, I’ve placed it on top of my wife’s baby grand piano, where due to it’s 6” height, it might be a little too high for those that are altitude challenged to see. I might need to find a shorter table so that it’s easier to observe. The whole point of drift is to provide relaxation. It was very easy to set up, pour the 2 bags of fine white sand into the round “sand field” which has a bit of texture to it. The unit comes with a card which has “teeth” in it to smooth the sand out. You don’t need to be very accurate, as once you run it for a few hours, the sand will find its own level. You then drop the ball bearing onto the sand and put the glass cover on top on (I suggested to my wife we leave the cover off and see what the cat does, she did not think that it was funny as this is pretty expensive to let the cat at it, for whatever purpose). There is a single power adapter that gets connected to it and there are two buttons on it that may never get used once you install the app. An on/off button and a switch which manually causes the color to change/turn off. The table has LED mood-lights that can be controlled in the app. The marble speed can also be controlled in the app also. Playlists can have up to 20 designs with them that will cycle as the day progresses. I enjoyed going downstairs and seeing a new design in process. The preset designs have an impressive amount of variety and appeal to everyone. You can get creative if you’d like for design, but the pre-sets allow for this to not be a necessity. Setting up the HoMedics Kinetic Sandscape Table was, as I mentioned, really easy. It’s less than a five minute setup from opening the box. You just need to set your product on a flat surface, pour in the included bag(s) of sand, and rake the sand so that it’s approximately even before your first use. Make sure you only use the included sand; the Drift isn’t designed to handle other textures, and pouring something that’s too rough or too small could damage it. Once even, you place the Drift’s metal ball on the sand and replace the glass top. Cut a circle in the 1/4" sheet that is the same diameter as the bottom surface, and cut another circle that is 1" larger than the inner diameter of the 1/2" sheet, to create a ring.Overall this table is great. The pattern creation truly is mesmerizing to watch and helps to calm your mind after a long day. It helps you to put down your phone and focus on one thing for a while, and it doesn’t get boring at all! The lighting is really fun and I love the spectrum of colors and effects available. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to add a functional piece of art to their life, that is both a conversation starter and a homeopathic tool to help improve their overall wellness. For the generating and feeding the designs to the Sand Table to draw them, I started out by making my own "movement plans" by hand. I used some movement plans that were generated by Tom Dilatush in his GitHub project JSysiphus. The Sand Table uses (theta, rho) coordinates for movement, so I converted .thr files to .txt and placed all of the files in the "pending" folder of the repository, so that python can easily read them. The "read_files.py" program then converts the coordinates to simple number of steps and speed commands for the stepper motors to perform. Drop in T-nuts (I would suggest definitely getting some M5 T-nuts and any other sizes that you want) The way I can best explain it is that the Drift just feels… too eager to help. It’s clear that HoMedics has designed it for habitual use, not occasional use. To fix this issue, I recommend either unplugging your sand table when not in use or enabling the in-app schedule so the Drift knows for sure when you do and don’t want it to operate. You can always override this schedule using the app or physical controls; it just helps provide the table with information in case it loses connection with the app. For the linear slide mechanism, I found the parts separately on OpenBuilds, but I would suggest using the V-Slot linear actuator kit, since it has all of the parts necessary as well as assembly instructions.