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Subject: 
Re: Two New GBC Modules..
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics, lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 6 Aug 2007 02:10:02 GMT
Viewed: 
13556 times
  
In lugnet.robotics, Brian Davis wrote:
   In lugnet.announce.moc, Kevin McClure wrote:

   Ball Pump: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aVWVDZZiok8

Very nice... actually, impressively quiet compared to some that I’ve tried. Any pictures of the interal mechanism? And how is it on jamming? I really like the way you left one corner of the lift tower open, it just looks so much better with the ball motion visible. When I finally get a ball pump working that I like, I think that’s an idea I’ll use.

I have some more pictures uploaded; here and here. The cut-away part in the lift is actually from a shortage of 1x4 bricks, but I agree, it turned out nicely. I’m just now realizing how quiet it is, I can’t really say for certain why. The walls around the base are two studs thick, that may contribute somehow. I’m not sure though. It’s jammed twice, but I have all my modules run through polarity switches being powered from a signle source. When any module jams, all the others slow down, which is easily noticable. To unjam, the power just needs to be cut off for a few seconds, while the tension of the jam unjams itself.


  
Nice implementation (and another type of lift I realized I’ve actually not built as yet... to my chagrin). I think Steve Hassenplug got around the hopper jamming (well, partially) by having the lift “saw” extend along one wall of the input hopper. I really want to make a double or triple wide version of this as well (alternating - left side as a counterweight for the right side, etc.)


His lift does solve that problem nicely, I’ll have to try that sometime. I started from the stepping mechanisim itself, so the hopper was mostly just thrown together hoping the balls would end up in the right place. With a single ball at a time, it won’t jam, so as long as Orinoco Flow or one of the pumps is feeding it it’s fine.

  
Have you tried using them to split the stream? With that arrangement, you can get all sorts of non-equal ratios of output streams for interesting arrangements. And some of your modules can not only handle higher-than-spec throughputs, but multiple inputs as well (the one in the back of the “full loop” video, based on the train unloader, is a good example of this - it can actually accept an input stream from any of the four sides).

Downstream of this, it looks like the balls roll over small steps or an uneven but wide chute - what is that?

There are some more pictures of this up now too. Originally it was the Avalanche gate, but after I had jamming problems with that I replaced it with some 1x1 round plates.


   The motion on this one is almost hypnoticly smooth. I made one of these a long time ago, but never thought to trim it to 1x2’s (mine was much clunkier, hand-driven, and based on 2x2’s with a 1x2 plate on top... but ironicly inspired by exactly the site you mention). How much wear is there on the bottom of the 1x2 stacks, or on the pulleys? The motion seems remarkably smooth, and I was curious if there were something like a 1x2 plate on the bottom or some speciall spacing needed. Making the “crankshaft” looks like it was a bit of an inspiration as well.

I’ve found both the wave and the spiral to be hypnotic.. Often I’ll just be staring at them, not noticing anything else. I’ve had wave for nearly a year, and there is no wear on the pulleys or the 1x2’s. The only special spacing is the walls need to be pushed outward slightly, so that the columns fall freely.

   As to a “GBC” newsgroup here on LUGNET, well... it’s almost more fun watching the GBC bleed over into everything else :-). I would like to document a bunch of modules really well and put them on the web sometime... when time permits. But first I’ve got just this one thing I thought I’d build...

Ok I’m curious now, any chance of a sneek preview?

-Kevin



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Two New GBC Modules..
 
(...) pictures of the interal mechanism? And how is it on jamming? I really like the way you left one corner of the lift tower open, it just looks so much better with the ball motion visible. When I finally get a ball pump working that I like, I (...) (17 years ago, 5-Aug-07, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.technic)

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