Unplanned Steampunk Arcade Machine #4
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- čas přidán 25. 04. 2024
- How difficult could it be to slow down a steampunk arcade's coin/steel ball mechanism? A week later, after having tried out all sorts of clock escapement mechanisms, I can reveal - Very!
I finally found an escapement that would work, then realised it needed to be two speed - a slow speed whilst the steel ball was in play, and a fast speed if the steel ball went out of play.
Using elecmatrickory is so simple compared to the complexities when having to rely entirely on gravity, momentum and weight!
I eventually got the slow escapement sorted out, and then a way of allowing it to speed up if the steel ball falls out of play.
Then there's the scoring system... It's very frustrating, but when you finally work out the mechanical solution, it makes it all worthwhile! - Věda a technologie
The idea of using a tape counter reminded me of slot machines.Steampunk slot machine :)) All mechanical
I'd forgotten about tape counters, it would probably be possible to 3D print a large one, but I love your idea of using a decimal clock!
What an amzing project ! This is wonderful stuff, the escapment mechanism and the score counting are so elegantly working together, i love it. Oh and many thanks for the nice gesture listing the names, we are all just grateful for sharing your amazing creations !
Thanks Marwan, I'm so pleased you are finding it interesting, and thank you for your continued support with ideas, it's greately appreciated.
By the way your design of escapement was amazing. Its real engineering and you solved it.
Thank you kindly! It is so challenging working with mechanisms. It really makes you appreciate the amazing technological breakthroughs made before electricity arrived on the scene.
The tick tacks adds tension to the game , like a time bomb.
Absolutely, that and seeing the swinging pendulum through a window in the back should add even more distraction! It's also nice that the scoring is based on how long the ball can be kept in play - a time based arcade machine!
Ha ha.. gee, that single touch of the roofing roll had an instant effect.
Then three days to get the escapement working...
@@steamhead The lead will do that to Ya.
Haha.
Another brilliant video, thank you! Hope the tidying went ok and that reminds me, it's my wife's 50th later this year, better start planning that!
Thanks very much. Tidying completed, karaoke and disco inferno completed, now to put everything back again... still, family birthdays keep the workshop tidy! I hope your wife's 50th goes well. I can recommend karaoke and an 80s disco!
I'm curious what the mechanism to reset the score will look like. You mention it being reset with a weight and that sounds like it will work really well. Taking a quote from something else I recently watched, I wonder if I'm imagining it the same way you are. It will be cool to see how that differs in the next video. I was thinking maybe a pair of coil springs on each of the dials that load as the score goes up so they can just be released when it's time to reset the score, but that would probably also require some other mechanism to slow it down a little so the score dials don't break when they slam into zero. Can't wait to see the next video!
Thank you kindly for your interest! I have briefly tried fiddling with coil springs in the past, but couldn't find any suppliers and failed dismally at trying to laser cut, 3D print, or make them with a jig on the lathe. Hence the fact that I'm going to rely on a weight and gravity!
As the scoring display will consist of a clock type system, with one dial showing 'units' and another (geared down one) showing 'tens', I too was wondering how to prevent things slamming into each other upon reset. Then, whilst walking the dog, I realised that if I have a weight on a chain connected to a spindle on the 'tens' gear, the weight will be required to move the minimum amount.
Then I realised that nothing has to slam into anything! If the weight chain is suspended at the bottom of the 'tens' spindle, when the pawls are lifted on the scoring ratchet, the mechanism can return to zero at great speed. When it reaches zero, the 'units' pointer will be free to swing backwards and forwards until it settles at zero!
I think it'll work... the next video is coming soon.
Its never as easy as we first plan ;) But that is a lot of the fun of what we do in problem solving! If it was easy we would have so little fun creating these crazy things. Put a tube and hole through the pendulum so that the ball goes through the pendulum into the game play board.
Definately; the harder the challenge, the greater the reward. However sitting in a darkened room watching daytime TV with no challenges has regularly seemed preferable over the last week... I like the idea of the ball coming through the pendulum, thank you.
Scoring suggestion: might I suggest that a decimal-base score isn't very Steampunk? - Why not score in base 12, which is much more akin to clockwork of course in any case... then you'd have Dozens on the secondary score dial, giving you the opportunity to have a top score of 1 Gross!
That's a great idea, really quirky. Thanks very much!
In order for the motor to work as a break you need to put it under load IIRC. it's basically free to rotate the motor, (Except friction losses) but once you put it under load and have it doing something with that electricity, (like charge a car battery) is when it starts actually slowing stuff down.
The next best thing you could do is Eddy currents, but you might have to build that hardware yourself.
I'm probably wrong, but I thought that short circuiting the motor would have that effect - the ultimate load! It did create a lot of rotational resistance, just not enough to sufficiently slow down the weight of the falling coin/ball lifter. I suppose I could have added a couple more motors, but part of me still had the desire to make it purely mechanical with an escapement. I suppose I could also have used a powerful magnet within the copper pipe to properly use eddy currents.
Thanks for your suggestion - added to my ideas ledger. If the mechanical version fails miserably, I will consider further exploration into eddy currents.
Slowing down, magnificent mechanism you have made which looks spectacular and rather complex for mass production. This is another Idea that may be a fall back solution. What about installing a tube on the left that the counterweigh run through however make it a low friction piston with a simple flap valve to allow air to escape as the piston falls but closes as the piston rises. a screw cold adjust the amount of air is introduce thus adjusting the speed.
Ps, the pendulum need not be vertical a rocking balanced mass should do the trick.
No scrap my suggestion as you have created another abomination which is elegant and does fortuitously solves other problems, I am going to take the dogs for a walk to recover........... Banjo send Ziggy the best.
Once it started working I was thrilled, and am pleased with its functional complexity - every part does something and looks really complicated! Once I've got the model version working properly, I will be able to design a laser cut back and front to support all the shafts. This should allow me to batch produce the abomination.
Thanks for the idea with the piston, it would also mean that the fall rate could be controlled fairly simply, perhaps with steel balls covering holes a bit like a wind instrument.
Please send Banjo wishes of the best kind from Ziggy.
@@steamhead Hello John, I was watching you go down another rabbit and communicated with Mr Tin your unsatisfactory Eddy current brake experiments,.
Jumping to the challenge he interrupted his work on his three wheel lawn thingy thing project and put on a Mr Faraday hat to conduct eddy current bench runs endeavouring to identify back EMF characteristics of a small motor.
I then realised you were serendipitously solving other problems such as the scoring system with sudden pivot to the successful testing of the ball recovery reset pawl action which knocked my rather agricultural effort for 6.
Back to Mr Tim again who had his results which were not favourable and we concluded that we would leave you too it, my thoughts on the eddy current debacle are, the rotational radius is too small, a larger armature would mean a greater angular velocity inducing a stronger Eddy current / magnetic field.
[ Lenz's Law combined with Faraday's Law gives: induced e.m.f.= −N Δt over ΔΦ ]
[ Where the e.m.f. is induced in a coil of N turns by a change of magnetic flux ΔΦ through the coil in a time Δt and the − sign indicates the sense of opposition to the change in the field. This negative sign, however, does not have meaning unless V and Φ have already been defined to be positive in the appropriate directions.
School lab 'Griffin and George' small air pump or the large aluminium disc in the old electric meters. ]
Banjo's condensed this to; magnets don't move quickly past metals.
Someone in the comments suggested the metering of small balls through a tube to delay matters which you may like to explore in another project. . Mine was a simple vacuum cylinder.
Well done. Banjo send best.
@@Woffy. I'm so grateful to you and Mr Tin for putting so much effort into solving the slowing down issue. It was only after I'd given up on the eddy current idea that I realised the additional benefits of an escapement. Having said that, a generator of some sorts could be slowed down by varying amounts, using a series of resistors short circuited by steel balls! So many possible solutions...
Many thanks for researching Lenz's Law and Faraday's Law - definately above and beyond! I'm glad to hear Banjo concurs.
Metering small balls travelling through a tube, or indeed using a vacuum/pressure cylinder, have loads of potential (forgive the pun), but I had to go with something... If it fails horribly, I'll be sure to try out these ideas.
It really is amazing (and frustrating), that there are so many ways of achieving something mechanical. I wish there was just a single obvious method!
@@steamhead Lenz law, that was not from memory, I was never good equations in that form I cheated by asking Dad or using a pre-programmed Texas led calculator.
After Mr Tin's results came back I remembered Lenz and immediately realised that the circumferential (angular) velocity of the armature in relation to the induced eddy current (magnetic field) was too slow/weak.
The ball idea was in the comments. I think the idea was to tip the balls in a tube and let them run out into the game thus achieving delay. The air tube is a cool damper as it is velocity dependent, the harder you move the piston the greater the opposition weather vacuum of pressure. You could lead a line through a hole to a piston and close the tube so the small clearance the line goes through is the delay.
Anyway I very much approve of your solution especially the two speed pawl thingy release, that was an epic pivot pun intended. I don't think you could better the scoring solution and the sound as mentioned in the comments brings a certain anxiety and tension. Onward and upward. That was an unusually concise reply !. Best to Ziggy.
@@Woffy. Ah, knowlegeable dad's and pre-programmed Texas LED calculators - you can't go wrong! The original support was obviously very effective, as Lenz's law and its intricacies came flooding back.
Funnily enough, I'm thinking about having the steel ball initially rolling into a brass tube with ball sized holes cut around its circumference. The tube will be lifted and lowered by the falling weight. The player's job will be to rotate it, to either keep it in play longer, or allow it to fall into the player's desired game route.
The air tube definately has a lot of potential, perhaps something I could include in the game play.
I was thrilled to have come up with the two speed pawl thing, and am currently making a proper mechanism based on my horrible model. Finger's crossed.
Whilst walking Ziggy this afternoon, I realised that additional 'skill' bonus scoring could be easily achieved by having other pawls pulling the scoring ratchet around!
Best to Banjo.
If the dog is helping with walks. I sure hope he is getting paid, with the proper amount of biscuits?
She's got all the moves in the park to encourage other dog owners to give her treats - sitting ever so beautifully, jumping round in circles, yawning very loudly etc. She also managed to drink most of my soup starter at a restaurant where I took my wife to celebrate her 50th. The blink of an eye and it's silently gone. She's definately well paid for her troubles!
Well done John. For the scoring system did you consider tape counters. They have reset mechanism as well.
Apologies for the late reply, tidying workshop for wife's 50th, then recovering from wife's 50th. I can see some sort of drum counter working, however I think it would have two main problems. 1. The counter would have to be quite small as each drum's diameter would have to be less than the depth of the machine. 2. I vaguely remember that it took some force to reset a tape counter, as some sort of cam had to push all the drums back to zero at the same time. Your idea of a decimal clock face offers so many benefits, especially as zeroing can be achieved by using a light counterweight on the 'clock' shaft to spin it, and the tens pointer, back to zero simply by lifting a ratchet pawl.
The mechanical movement gear things can be linked to form a steam trains wheels. Couplimg rod
That's a nice idea, although I think you need two slightly offset to ensure they properly turn. I'll try and get the mechanism working with gears, and then consider linkages!
Your Barometric Progosticator design 7 years ago head nice gear mechanisms. You can use them in your design. Look at the plans of the project.
How time flies! I remember being very pleased with the idea of using linked gears to move the two parts of each of the five weather scenes, they also looked oddly fascinating! I'll see if I can come up with some way of incorporating something like that in the actual game. Thank you.
You can lasercut parts and stack them to form a tape counter.
That would work, although I suspect that the internal mechanisms would be easier to 3D print.
I swear you must be related to Charles Babbage!
You're too kind However he designed the world's first steam engine powered programmable computer, and I've just about managed to make a working escapement!!
Can you please tell me what that fantastic tune is at the end? Thank you in advance
The video editing software I use has a musical plugin called Sonicfire Pro 5. It allows you to pick a piece of music from the library (you have to buy most of the decent music!), choose from some styles and tempos, and then drop it onto the timeline. It then magically composes the music to fit the given time. The music I use is called CatRun.
Do you still have the Allwin penny slot machine that you restored. Get inspretion from the design.
Sadly my neighbour wanted it back once it was restored! However I have lots of photos which have been very helpful. They used such a simple but effective mechanism, that could easily be adapted to fit their other games. It's one of the reasons that I'm planning to re-use the coin/ball lifting and scoring mechanisms in future machines - the 'only' difference would be in the actual game play.