Lego GBC Closing Forks Module

[sawyer klegr]

This great ball contraption uses a series of gears and pins to grab the balls and lift them. The mechanism is quite reliable, especially for a module that I designed. Would like to have made it run a bit faster as it does not quite run at 1bps, but it should be able to run at that speed if it is run on 9v. (it was only running at 7.2v in the video as the batteries are rechargeable) Photos on Flickr.

 

 

[Mr Jos]

Great small gripper you made! Might become useful designing anything in need of a small gripping arm.

[Berthil]

Great gripper design to get the ball up.

[Hrafn]

The arm and gripper design is great!  I have not seen anything quite like it before.

[howitzer]

The gripper is indeed a very nice one, I might steal the idea for my own purposes at some point!

[Bartybum]

Very clever, but I still can't wrap my head around what triggers the grabbing and tilting mechanism

[Mr Jos]

6 hours ago, Bartybum said:

Very clever, but I still can't wrap my head around what triggers the grabbing and tilting mechanism

It's one and the same geartrain I think. Least resistance will start moving (gripper closing, when it's closed it can not move anymore, building pressure in the gears of the arm, and start lifting it. For going down same. First the gears all turn, opening gripper has no resistance, but moving the arm needs little more power( this is reached when the gripper is maximum opened).

OP, correct me if wrong.

[sawyer klegr]

12 hours ago, Bartybum said:

Very clever, but I still can't wrap my head around what triggers the grabbing and tilting mechanism

Thanks! The arms are only lifted by the tension from the three pins at the end not being able to move any more. Basically the weight of the arms themselves is what cases the pins to close.

 

5 hours ago, Mr Jos said:

It's one and the same geartrain I think. Least resistance will start moving (gripper closing, when it's closed it can not move anymore, building pressure in the gears of the arm, and start lifting it. For going down same. First the gears all turn, opening gripper has no resistance, but moving the arm needs little more power( this is reached when the gripper is maximum opened).

OP, correct me if wrong.

That is a much better explanation than mine, that is correct.