Lego GBC Cardan Gear Module

[doug72]

ALL balls now showing as Out of Stock.

 

 

[sawyer klegr]

9 hours ago, XG BC said:

let's just all move to billund denmark where the shipping costs should be lowest .

I think they should really bring out a line of gbc modules with simple mechanisms like a stepper or a tipping ramp.

XG BC

 

Maybe thay could use the desighn for a brickworld brickworld module. (They should put it on lego ideas)

[Ankoku]

GBC stuff generally does poorly on Ideas. I think the community is quite small.

I think the best way to sell a module, is a bit like one of those office desk ornaments. So something which has a loop back and at least one mechanism which is pleasing to the eyes and mind.

The best supported GBC module had 762 votes. Most are in double digits.

[pleegwat]

If you go the desk ornament route, I think it would actually be better to have a non-motorized machine, where a short turn of a wheel or push of a lever moves a ball. A motorized version would quickly become visual noise and probably get disassembled before it runs down its first set of batteries.

[Berthil]

Josh David has made plenty of those desk Miniloop 'GBCs', some can be linke together.
So the idea is not new but the instructions are not free. More and more people go this route instead of LEGO Ideas including Akiyuki.

 

[Ankoku]

He has put many of them on Ideas and the most votes any of them got was 762. Some were in double digits.

Might be better to use one of the LEGO wind-up devices. Would be really annoying to have to sit there and hand crank it the whole time.

[pleegwat]

 Handcranks get boring very quickly, that's why we're complaining about manually-operated large LAs all the time.

That's also why I mention a lever - the user pulls the lever down, that moves a counterweight (and the ball) up, and puts a certain amount of potential energy in the system that can keep various mechanisms working until the ball is at the bottom again.

Or what about leveraging a chain lift? The user can pull the chain directly, lifting the ball and inputting power to a wind-up motor. When the user releases, the wind-up motor can keep the rest of the mechanism running for a while. Would require some clever gearing around the motor. And quite possibly multiple wind-up motors, I have no clue how much energy those things can store.

To be interesting, I think that a short (5 second) manual operation to activate the mechanism should keep the machine running for 20-30 seconds.

[Ankoku]

There are some nice LEGO pendulum clock MOCs, but they are all rather big.

Thinking about it, you want the old style motors which are really quiet.

[sawyer klegr]

2 hours ago, Ankoku said:

There are some nice LEGO pendulum clock MOCs, but they are all rather big.

Thinking about it, you want the old style motors which are really quiet.

Maybe if you made a escapement mechanism and attached one of the pull back motors to it, that way you would not need expensive power functions parts.

[boogie]

Lego has been experimenting with a pull-string motor that can run an axle.  That would work with a desk GBC miniloop.

https://www.exploratorium.edu/tinkering/blogs/lego-critters-their-environments

[Ankoku]

Interesting find. Nice one.

[sawyer klegr]

Finally orderd some proper GBC balls (as long as the order went through properly, their website has been working about as well as my work in progress GBC modules for these last few days) it is meant to take 5 to 8 business days for them to show up so hopefully in time for my next video.

[Ankoku]

From LEGO? They can be really random with B&P.

Interestingly, you can get free postage for it, if you are spending over £50 usually, or currency equivalent. So I ended up doing a B&P order and then some extra motors to make up the amount. They are posted separately.

One thing I don't like, is that you only get an invoice once it is shipped, which is rather disconcerting as that can take a while.

The main thing I hate about the LEGO B&P site is that it times out so quickly. It could be so much better, but I suspect they keep it as bad as it is to keep orders to a minimum.

[sawyer klegr]

2 hours ago, Ankoku said:

From LEGO? They can be really random with B&P.

Interestingly, you can get free postage for it, if you are spending over £50 usually, or currency equivalent. So I ended up doing a B&P order and then some extra motors to make up the amount. They are posted separately.

One thing I don't like, is that you only get an invoice once it is shipped, which is rather disconcerting as that can take a while.

The main thing I hate about the LEGO B&P site is that it times out so quickly. It could be so much better, but I suspect they keep it as bad as it is to keep orders to a minimum.

Yes, I got them from their bricks and pieces, I had to order them over the phone because their website checkout was not working. Their website could definitely use some work in some areas.

[Ankoku]

I would love to re-write it for them, but as I said, I get the feeling other motivations are at play.

[sawyer klegr]

16 hours ago, Ankoku said:

I would love to re-write it for them, but as I said, I get the feeling other motivations are at play.

It almost feels like they make it hard to use so that they don't get as many orders through it.

[Ankoku]

As I have said, I believe they don't want people to order this way. It isn't in there best interests to sell LEGO in this manner. e.g. when I ordered my stuff, they were already advertising long delays due to the amount of orders via B&P's. I think it is too manual labour intensive.

In fairness though, I don't like how their normal shop works either :P From an interface/programming perspective, it is less than ideal. So, who knows. B&P's far worse though.