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Subject: 
The Great Ball Contraption
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics, lugnet.technic, lugnet.trains, lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.events, lugnet.announce
Followup-To: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Fri, 7 Jan 2005 15:44:45 GMT
Highlighted: 
!! (details)
Viewed: 
37 times
  
In an attempt to provide Technic & Mindstorms builders the same cooperative
building opportunity that's available to Moonbase, Castle, and Town/Train
builders at Brickfest, we present to you: The Great Ball Contraption.

When it's assembled at Brickfest '05 (DC), The Great Ball Contraption will be
made up of many modules by builders from all over the country, any beyond.

This device will be a combination of Rube Goldberg and the Bucket Brigade,
passing soccer balls from one module to the next, where they will be pushed,
pulled, lifted, flipped, shot, rolled, dropped, etc...  before being passed
again.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words:
http://www.teamhassenplug.org/GBC/GBCpreview.JPG

Then a 28 second video (5mb) should be worth about 840,000 words:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Hassenplug/GBC/Video/gbcoverview.mpg

And, a 92 second video (15mb)...  priceless.  Here's one ball passing through
our entire 10 module test assembly.
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Hassenplug/GBC/Video/gbconeball.mpg

Keep in mind, that was built by me, and just a couple friends.  Imagine the
madness when AFoLs from all over contribute their modules to one of the greatest
works of moving LEGO artwork ever assembled...

To learn more, check out the web site:
http://www.teamhassenplug.org/GBC/

Or if you have questions, feel free to post here.

Steve



Message has 14 Replies:
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
(...) Oh My Goodness!!! I'm so there for this!!! This looks like the funnest thing to happen to RCX's since rtl events. Where does one purchase 20-30 soccer balls? Dave K (20 years ago, 7-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
(...) This is fantastic. The movie is well worth the download, because if the words don't encourage, the pictures certainly will. If enough people sign up, we'll need a seperate GBC room :) JB (20 years ago, 7-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
(...) Man, this project is so cool!!!!!!! (...) I am so looking forward to it. (...) No questions...... but one comment..... Chris may be King of rtl, and Dave is King of the Sheets! Move over guys, because Steve has got balls, and that makes him (...) (20 years ago, 7-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
This is outstanding! I have absolutely no expertise at this sort of thing, so I can't contribute anything but to stand on the sidelines cheering, but I look forward to seeing what sort of things people come up with. Bruce (20 years ago, 7-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
(...) Are non-LEGO items allowed? I'm just talking small parts of a mostly LEGO module, not a whole non-LEGO module. One obvious possibility I'm thinking about is string, but there may be others. ROSCO (20 years ago, 7-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
"Steve Hassenplug" <steve@teamhassenplug.org> wrote in message news:I9yEEL.1s4z@lugnet.com... (...) time was very jerky and the sound was all messed up. If anyone else strikes this problem remember to hit play a second time, as I believe it should (...) (20 years ago, 8-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
Best idea I have seen in a while. Will be quite a machine when done. You should try to paint or die a few balls a different color so spectators can follow a particular ball thruoghout the whole machine. Good luck guys. (20 years ago, 8-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
Steve Hassenplug writes: > (URL) notice that the spec says "Currently, there is no standard for physically connecting modules together." One possibility is for a module to grab onto the two corner studs of the input bin of the module to the right, (...) (20 years ago, 10-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
(...) (snip) (...) I'm particularly interested in construction details of the hopper car and dumping mechanism. More photos, etc would be greatly appreciated. I've been trying to build a hopper that can be unloaded mechanically, without much success (...) (20 years ago, 12-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.trains)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
Greetings Steve Hassenplug, Brian Alano and others, What an incredible idea. I wish I was able to attend so I could participate. I wanted to let you know that I posted some updated pictures including a .avi video clip (10Mb) of my marble factory as (...) (20 years ago, 17-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption 2.0
 
(...) ... (...) But wait, there's more... First, a friend (another Bryan) came over with his module, and then the next day, we had a club meeting, where our whole LEGO club had modules. After running Bryan's for a bit, I considered adding a "Maximum (...) (20 years ago, 19-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.technic, lugnet.trains, lugnet.events.brickfest) ! 
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
What's funny is the other day I was thinking of building a marble machine with LEGO. After reading about this contraption system, I got super-motivated and built myself a ball pump last night. I only spent a few hours on it, but I think I have it (...) (20 years ago, 20-Jan-05, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption V3
 
(...) In our latest gathering, Tom invited us to his house. Turns out, we have more ball contraptions than Tom has table space in his basement. So, we moved the tables, and set-up on the floor. Of course the next problem was that I couldn't fit the (...) (20 years ago, 1-Feb-05, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: The Great Ball Contraption
 
This is great. Someone mentioned a few things about how to connect modules. We used the new racer track. TexLUG - SA did this for a children's museum a little over a year ago. They put it on display for about two months in the front window. (It was (...) (20 years ago, 5-Apr-05, to lugnet.robotics)

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