Bucket Chain lift GBC (MOC)

[doug72]

For some time now I have been trying to find a successful use for the Large Lego Chain & White Visors I had.

The curved chain lift I built using BWE Quadrants was not a success !

 

Next attempt to build a chain lift would not discharge balls above a 45 deg. angle as the ball carrier design was not good as it was too rigid. Being off-centred over the chain it fouled parts of the structure as the chain rotated. Balls ended up all over the place !!

 

 

Next attempt is successful and now the chain is at an 80 deg. angle which gives a good height for ball discharge.

The chain tensioned by two grey shock absorbers at the top chain wheel.

 

 

The chain lift is driven by an M motor with a reduction gearbox giving 14.4 ratio. Took awhile to devise a reliable ball pick up hopper and also the discharge at the top.
Zig Zag ball run added to return balls to the start again.

The ball carriers are made using the white visors but this time they are centred and also pivot as they pass over the top chain wheel.

Originally used 8 ball carriers but they overloaded the loading hopper so reduced to 4 carriers and now works fine.

During testing used a PF train controller to vary the speed. Now runs OK at full speed.

 

As the chain rotates the ball carriers as they pass under the lower chain wheel assume the correct position to scoop up a ball.
At the top the ball falls out and at same time the ball carrier flips forward to tuck under to just clear the discharge ball run as it passes before descending. 

 

 

 

Parts used for the two types of ball carriers:

On the the left of-centred / on right centred type.

Both attach to the chain studs.

 

Video:

Edited March 1, 2017 by Doug72

[MIchaelF]

Nice!!

[doug72]

4 minutes ago, MIchaelF said:

Nice!!

Thanks.

At present the ball carriers deform and put a small kink in the chain.

Going to try a fix by using a 2 x 1 plate on the chain studs then mount the Technic Cross Block/Fork 2X2 & ball the carrier on that, but will need clearances adjusting slightly.

[1963maniac]

This is cool!! I'm not familiar with this part you call a white visor. Can you give the part number? Thanks!

[doug72]

10 minutes ago, 1963maniac said:

This is cool!! I'm not familiar with this part you call a white visor. Can you give the part number? Thanks!

White Visor

http://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-visor-2007-57702

Large lego chain link
http://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-large-chain-link

[DrJB]

1 hour ago, 1963maniac said:

This is cool!! I'm not familiar with this part you call a white visor. Can you give the part number? Thanks!

The visor was released in Trans-Blue and Trans-Purple in some old Bionicle sets, but only in white in a Marx Exploration vehicle. I bought 50 of those buckets and been wanting to do a bucket wheel excavator a while back. That project is still on back burner, but now ... maybe time to re-visit. 

http://www.bricklink.com/v2/search.page?q=7645#T=A

   

Edited March 1, 2017 by DrJB

[RohanBeckett]

very nice scooping motion!  might have to raid BL for some of these.. looks fun to build with!

 

Now... crank up the speed to GBC Standard - 1 Ball Per Second.. and film it again! :D

[dr_spock]

Nice.  Is a chain bucket excavator in the works? 

 

[doug72]

4 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Nice.  Is a chain bucket excavator in the works? 

 

Possibly, an early rail mounted excavator for digging canals or a modern wheeled trencher !!

Canal-digger2 by Doug Ridgway, on Flickr

800wheeledtrencher by Doug Ridgway, on Flickr

800WheeledBWT by Doug Ridgway, on Flickr

Edited March 2, 2017 by Doug72
added images

[doug72]

16 hours ago, RohanBeckett said:

very nice scooping motion!  might have to raid BL for some of these.. looks fun to build with!

 

Now... crank up the speed to GBC Standard - 1 Ball Per Second.. and film it again! :D

At present its 1 ball every 4 seconds. Eight buckets would halve this but due to the closed loop ball run they tend to arrive too early at loading point and jam the next bucket.
Will try with an L motor with the 20/12 step up gears replaced by 24/8 step to see what timing it achieves.

Meanwhile I have devised ways of mounting the visors onto readilly available caterpiller tracks - see images.

The bucket visor are still able to tilt as the chain rotates.
Single & double bucket versions shown. Parts use should be obvious from the photos.
The single bucket will allow a vertical lift whereas the double bucket only about 60 degs otherwise balls will fall out.

A double bucket should easilly achieve the required 1 BPS rule.

I will build this and then use the large lego chain links for another project I have in mind.

 

Edited March 2, 2017 by Doug72

[doug72]

13 hours ago, RohanBeckett said:

Now... crank up the speed to GBC Standard - 1 Ball Per Second.. and film it again! :D

Tried that by changing the 20T/12T step up gears to 24T/8T step up gears.

Result - ball chaos as buckets would not deploy quick enough to load ball & when unloading balls skipped off the ball chute !

As it is very doubtfull I could participate in a GBC convention - it suits my requrements for larger GBC loop I am putting togerther.

Maybe others can develop my idea to achieve 1BPS rate ?

I intend to build a new version using the large track links with double buckets (as above) to see how this would perform.

[RohanBeckett]

pls provide video evidence of Ball Chaos! ;)

it's an essential part of any original GBC creation, and seeing others suffer lets us enjoy a bit of schadenfreude...

 

The other way to achieve 1bps, is to make a wider scoop.. you have 2 buckets.. what if you had a row of 4 on 2 parallel tracks..  4 balls every 4 seconds gets the same overall speed.

 

 

[doug72]

8 hours ago, RohanBeckett said:

pls provide video evidence of Ball Chaos! ;)

it's an essential part of any original GBC creation, and seeing others suffer lets us enjoy a bit of schadenfreude...

The other way to achieve 1bps, is to make a wider scoop.. you have 2 buckets.. what if you had a row of 4 on 2 parallel tracks..  4 balls every 4 seconds gets the same overall speed.

The evidence is all over my hobby room - still hunting for lost balls !!

I am a relative novice at building GBC.  My attempts are more SBC (Small Ball Contraptions)

 

Currently working on a two scoop test rig module using the large track links.

Moderate success  so far but one scoop works fine the other fails intermittently, even though they are both aligned correctly at loading point - still trouble shooting the reason why.

 

Had thoughts on increasing output by using larger scoops (p/n 15361 or 20430) if can devise a way to attach them to a chain.

OR

Use the p/n 15361 half cylinder with a double lever / chain system to load balls - raise it to discharge point and tip the cylinder to eject the balls.

 

http://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-cylinder-half-3-x-8-x-5-with-3-holes-15361

 

http://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-cylinder-2-x-4-x-4-6218-6259-20430

Edited March 3, 2017 by Doug72

[RohanBeckett]

ahh.. the fact that you're creating your own original GBC's is great... it's such a fun engineering challenge to solve all the problems, and then on top, to make it reliable... all the while, still keeping it fun to watch.

 

I build GBC's in my workshop/shed (external to house), and I did a big cleanup last month (after 6 months crazy building, leading up to BrickVention)... I found about 10-15 balls all over the place, in nooks and crannies!
I'm in the process of having a big sort out of parts.. so it'll probably be another month or so, before I get back into proper building!

 

Looking back at your vid - 4393.. it looks quite reliable as-is... if you simply built a second one, side by side... and increase the speed marginally... you'd come close to getting 1bps...  maybe even adding a few more scoops to the chain, and having them closer together

I guess it depends if the scoops work, scooping into a pile of balls, or if it is picky, and wants a single ball, waiting for the scoop.. in which case, you'd need a hopper that feeds 1 ball at a time to each of the two chainloops

 

[doug72]

44 minutes ago, RohanBeckett said:

ahh.. the fact that you're creating your own original GBC's is great... it's such a fun engineering challenge to solve all the problems, and then on top, to make it reliable... all the while, still keeping it fun to watch.

Thanks for the comments.
As a retired ships engineer I like the technical challenges of building Lego Technic and GBC modules.

Re another chain side by side - lack of chain links prevent this and I want to use what links I have for a early land dredger / excavator.
Hence re-build  & testing with large track links.

The test rig using large track links looks promising and up to notch 5 using the 8879 PF controller with M motor drive with 3:1 reduction and using the lage sproket wheels.
Just need to improve the loading hopper and devise a 1 ball at a time mechanism.
Should be able to use at least 4 scoops.

When its working OK I will post a video.

I too have to have periodic clear outs to sort parts back into correct storage boxes !!