Subject:
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Re: Loading cargo from and to train electrically
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics, lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 9 Jan 2006 20:45:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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742 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Elroy Davis wrote:
> I played a bit with stopping a train at a station. I had a loop of track
> powered off from a normal speed regulator. One section of track next to the
> stop was isolated elecrically by putting tape over the rails before
> connecting them. I powered this single section of track off from the
> RCX, which would allow me to stop and start it.
How accurately? If you want to do this for a bunch of cycles, it would seem
to me you need to control the position of the train quite exactly. The GBC train
uses a simple bump sensor, and both Steve & I got train positioning to within 1
stud, so that's probably possible. That means moitoring the train handeling at a
station is one sensor and one motor...
> I was thinking of using one to power a forklift-shaped pusher
> to load the train, and another to unload.
Well, with the system displayed, you could use one motor for both loading and
unloading. Drive the belt from left to right to load, and have a clutch gear
allow the pusher (which would be being pulled to the right) to slip when it hit
the end of its travel. Drive the belt from right to left and the pusher (again,
through a clutch gear) from the same motor, and the pusher will push the cargo
off onto the moving belt. The pusher will reach the end of travel and again
remain against a "hard stop" with the clutch gear breaking free while the crate
is moved all the way to the back. Reverse the motor a short distance to retract
the pusher, but not enough to dump the cargo back onto the train. You don't even
need a sensor (although error chaecking is always good).
> I hadn't really though much about the cargo slipping off the waggon
> on other parts of the layout though.
Use a special cargo container that has a hollow under the center, and the
flatbed has a line of those 1x1 "new" slopes to catch in the hollow. Or raise
the whole thing a little, and use those 1x1 slopes on the out edges to retain
the cargo. The pusher should have no problem sliding the cargo up and over them,
and for loading if the cargo is loaded just a little above the retaining slopes,
it should fall into place neatly between them.
On the whole, this is a really nice, simple system - mind if we all copy it?
:-). I may have a crate-shuttling GBC train yet...
--
Brian Davis
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