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Subject: 
Re: GBC MOC: Track Wheel Reservoir - Video!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic, lugnet.loc.uk
Followup-To: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:12:03 GMT
Viewed: 
1369 times
  
In lugnet.technic, Brian Davis wrote:
In lugnet.technic, Mark Bellis wrote:

I've not made very much GBC before but this
was such a nice idea that I thought I'd have
a go Brian

Hey, very nice Mark! Warning, watching those little balls go around and around
in a creation of your own can be... very addictive :-)

Absolutely! :-)

I used 36 tracks with pins on alternate ones
to give a maximum 4 balls/second output.

Nifty. I wouldn't worry at all about having *too much* throughput; since the
overall rate is 1 bps, the modules upstream of yours will just be feeding yours
at a lower than its maximum rate. That's why the standard is written as being
"at least 1 bps". You could always use something like a flip-flop to split the
stream and even have your module feed part of its output back into itself. I
also suspect you could stretch this vertically into an oval by adding treads.

I thought about that when you said so before, but then I thought it was better
to keep the tracks rigid, otherwise the tension might vary in the round ends,
requiring good control of the tracks on the straight part.  I guess you'd need
24mm pulleys and tyres on the inside of the oval as well as the outside.

It's great because it's a chute that doesn't
clog up.

That's a rather coveted design charecteristic - "mil spec" modules tends to be
rather uncommon. One thing I can't see (yes, I went the all the deep links) is
how you keep balls from either being dragged under by the descending pins or
other wise "seal" the bottom so balls don't fall in. Or does the track itself
form the bottom of the input hopper system?

Yes, the track is the bottom of the reservoir for 5 studs' width, so all the
balls eventually fall onto the track to be sent out.

There are solid walls either side of the track to prevent any balls slipping
past it, but if I lift the track far enough, a ball might drop below it and be a
pain to get out from underneath!

At least footballs are a lot easier to control than 1x1 round plates!

The reservoir will take 80 balls and deliver
them with no trouble.

That's very good to hear. Perhaps this will end up in a train unloading module
(one of the tougher kind, due to the requirement to handle large pulses of balls
with high reliability). It's kind of neat to see it set up to feed itself as is,
however. Do you have video?

I can't wait to see more :-).

Here's a short video, one of my first having dug out my portable floodlight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD7iT_HUn_Y  (when moderated)

I didn't venture to walk around with the camera yet.  The floodlight casts a
shadow, making the dark side of the model difficult to see anyway.  It's hard
enough to remember my commentary for a few seconds - any longer video would
require a script and rehearsals!  Still, the result is OK considering it's not a
movie camera.

A couple of other MOC videos are on my YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=mbellisbrickmocs

Mark



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: GBC MOC: Track Wheel Reservoir (was Re: Tunnel Mouth / Bridge Arch)
 
(...) Hey, very nice Mark! Warning, watching those little balls go around and around in a creation of your own can be... very addictive :-) (...) Nifty. I wouldn't worry at all about having *too much* throughput; since the overall rate is 1 bps, the (...) (18 years ago, 22-Mar-07, to lugnet.technic)

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