Wave Swing

[aminnich]

Hey guys, 

I thought it was time to show some WIPs pictures before I forget.  

I am trying to build a fully functional wave swing with all the motion sickness included 

For now, I am focusing on how to get the tilting of the swing to work.  I came up with a good method, but It does not have a nice "return to rest" position.  As it is now, it is more of a quick stop the motion and hope you got the swing level (not ideal).  I figure once the tilt is figured out, the rest should not be too bad, but I am sure that will not be the case.  

Here are some pictures of what I got now. 

Any comments or concerns are more than welcomed below :)

Edited August 18, 2018 by aminnich

[pleegwat]

I think much simpler would be using two turntables instead of one, and use only a single tilt mechanism inbetween them. Then the bottom (slower) turntable would control the direction of tilt, the tilt mechanism itself would control the amount of tilt, and the top (faster) turntable would spin the chairs. 'Horizontal' would be one of the end points of the tilt mechanism.

[aminnich]

Thanks for the comment

While that would be easier, it does not give the full range of motion as the actual ride. The video below is a good example of what you are trying to explain

 

 

[pagicence]

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Edited June 5 by pagicence

[aminnich]

The way pleegwat made it sound; one turntable would be used for spinning, one for tilting.  

One turntable is not enough for the full motion, I will have to experiment with different methods 

[KikoTube]

Great Project aminnich,

the idea with the ball joints is ingenious 

 

Curious about upcoming posts

[Carsten Svendsen]

Have a look at the turbo polyp that @Techniccrack is working on. It's got the kind of movement that you're looking for.

 

[Jurss]

Some homogenous swinging could be made with one drive motor and two linear actuators. OK, 4 will make ir more precise. 

Maybe You could use only one motor, but trough some gearbox.

Wont those top connections of linear actuators flex?

[RohanBeckett]

I agree with @pleegwat - if you watch the real one, in the youtube video you linked... and put the playback speed on 2x ... you can see the motion MUCH more easily...

1. the whole thing raises up.
2. The main wheel starts spinning
3. The whole top section tilts to one side (1 hydraulic ram, most likely)
4. and then the whole top section rotates
5. The opposite motion of the upright barrel cover adds to the illusion that more is happening

I really don't think huge rides like this are engineered more complicated than they need to be... why use 4 actuators, when only 1 is needed?

 

While I think yours WILL work just fine - I don't think it's whats in the real one.

Yours will have the ability to just tilt in 1 axis, if you choose.... and just thinking in my head... I'll be curious to see what the motion of the hanging chairs will do! :) 

[aminnich]

58 minutes ago, RohanBeckett said:

1. the whole thing raises up.
2. The main wheel starts spinning
3. The whole top section tilts to one side (1 hydraulic ram, most likely)
4. and then the whole top section rotates
5. The opposite motion of the upright barrel cover adds to the illusion that more is happening

 

I think all the spinning made me think differently.  That will make things much easier

 

[tkel86]

Your ideia made me think about the mecanics of all the movement, as you can see i've made the swing ride some time ago, but i couldn't improve it more because of the minifig scale limit.

So i think you should focus in integrate all the macanics inside the center pole, because if you try to run the top part and the bottom one you can't transfer a tilt movement to the top even if it's made with pneumatics the tubes will end up blocking the bottom rotation.

Maybe with the scale you're using you can put everything inside the rotating part, including battery and receiver.

 

In the picture below you can see that in the left model everything above the red and green turntable rotate independently but the red turntable rotation will also engage the linear actuator.

The right model it's just an exemple with the motores inside the center pole (i didn't put the batterry and receiver neither the rising mecanism but the principle is the same)

 

[aminnich]

@tkel86 

Hi and thanks for the ideas.  

My thought was to keep as little weight out of the swing and as low as I could get it.  I did not want the rotation of the swing and the weight of the motors and such throwing the whole thing off balance.  

The design you showed to get the tilt of the swing is very similar to what I made, I am still trying to figure out how to implement a servo into the mix so I have a true return to center for when the ride is over, but I will figure something out eventually.  As for other motors, I only planned on using one other motor for rotation and just adding a little bit of gearing from the main shaft to get different parts to rotate different directions.  

I hope that makes sense