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I've designed the below GBC called Rainbow Wave. It has 38 Lego colors and about 1150 moving parts. It is powered by a single motor, with each of the colored pistons sitting on an 8-tooth gear. Each piston’s gear is exactly 1 tooth offset from its neighbors making one wave 8 colors. The GBC is level so the balls are moved by the waving surface.

Free building instruction for version 2 and parts list is available on Rebrickable with a thank you @Courbet for the improvements and creating the digital model!
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-7456/Berthil/rainbow-wave-gbc-v2/

Edited by Berthil
Update to V2

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4 minutes ago, tismabrick said:

Great and unique build! Please share some detail pictures of it :-)

These are the most detailed that I have but I can of course make more.

32743704371_9487e5f5d1_b.jpg

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32743701551_f73b1b2ffb_b.jpg

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That's fantastic! The Akiyuki inspiration definitely shows in the clean beauty of the model.

Edited by aeh5040

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Would be nice to have more detailed shots of the gearing including the motor as well as from top of the start. And some pictures from below. Maybe you could as well show how a single element looks like (I assume they're all the same) Thanks!

The surface of the individual elements where the ball travels is just flat?

Edited by tismabrick

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This is one of the most amazing GBC modules. I am a technician (often working with signals) and hence looking at the spectral colours and the sine movement simply makes me feel happy.

Edited by Jonas

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Wow. Just wow. That rainbow wave is just amazing to watch.

The surface (where the balls travel) looks like panels (and maybe a 1x2 tile in between) to me?

Edited by Capparezza

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This is a fantastic module, and in many ways it is the most ‘Akiyuki’ of all non-Akiyuki GBC modules that I know of. Bravo !

@Berthil, are you planning to release building instructions for your creation? If not, I’m more than willing to have a try at it (if it’s ok for you), although, as tismabrick already said, some more pictures would be nice (input part and bottom view especially).

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1 hour ago, Courbet said:

@Berthil, are you planning to release building instructions for your creation? If not, I’m more than willing to have a try at it (if it’s ok for you), although, as tismabrick already said, some more pictures would be nice (input part and bottom view especially).

Thank you for your offer! I might have a go at making the instructions myself, I've already done a few instructions. If I get stuck I'll contact you :)
 

9 hours ago, Capparezza said:

The surface (where the balls travel) looks like panels (and maybe a 1x2 tile in between) to me?

That's right, 1x2 panels with round corners but no tile in the middle and no 2x2 plate. The colors are 2 x 2 so the panels fit nicely on that. The round corners are important otherwise a ball might stop. A ball that stops is no problem, the next ball will pick it up but with round corners no ball stops on the waves.
 

11 hours ago, tismabrick said:

The surface of the individual elements where the ball travels is just flat?

Yes, totally flat. There is no room in the amplitude of the colors to make an angled surface but also not needed. I was happy when I saw that in the prototype :)

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Here a view from the bottom with 8-tooth gears that are 1 offset from the next. Of course there is one 8 tooth gear in between, a wave would not be possible without it.
The 1x15 technic liftarms create a continues row to be able to put all 76 gears in line without interruption.

32949660056_41c305b1b8_b.jpg

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Wow what a great job, both the rainbow wave and akiyuki's revised module. Hope there will be instructions soon, can't wait to build them

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Appreciate you posting this up.  Placed a bricklink order today to see if I can build something similar.

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Thanks all for the positive feedback! Please let me know how I can help if you get stuck building one.

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9 hours ago, Berthil said:

Thanks all for the positive feedback! Please let me know how I can help if you get stuck building one.

Started this tonight after finding enough gears for 6 pistons.  https://goo.gl/photos/ck3E4EfRTWGYdNp59

Had a few questions:

- What is your reasoning for having two sets of technic plate guides between the cam shaft section and piston.  The single double plates seems to keep the crankshafts aligned well vertically.  Any possibility for a close-up of how these are supported from below?  

- Are all 8t gears on the bottom linked together?  I was wondering if the gear lash differences doing this would cause more friction, rather than having 5 groups of 7/8/8/8/7 driven off the main shaft.  

- Any close-up of the mechanism that you used to induce the balls onto the lift?

This is the first time trying to build someone else's MOC without instructions, and my second GBC after Akiyuki's ball factory.  Thanks again for sharing this mesmerizing creation,

-Brian

 

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On 22-2-2017 at 6:34 AM, BrianGT said:

Started this tonight after finding enough gears for 6 pistons.  https://goo.gl/photos/ck3E4EfRTWGYdNp59

Very nice to see that you are making your own, good start!

The cross 2 x 8 technic plates on top may work but that's not how I did that. I used 2 x 1 single stud plates on top and a 1 x 1 round plate on the bottom to keep cross beam 1 stud thin between the two layers of technic plates. I tried to keep all supports 1 stud thin and in line to have as much as possible an open view to the mechanism. So it may be more esthetic than a real need.

The two sets technical plates are for rigidity to prevent unwanted friction. 1 motor drives 38 pistons and the pistons itself may not 'hang' when going down or balls bump into it and stop. I had to replace about 8 piston axles because they were not straight enough or too thick. Of course you may try a single height row, it may also work although I can see in your second picture the axels are not all pointing straight up but follow the wave? Could also be angle of photographing, a practice run will tell :)

All 8 tooth gears are linked to keep everything synchronized for a perfect wave. I didn't try your suggestion, may be it's possible to leave one gear out at the end in every group. With the gear lash it is indeed possible that groups are not in sync from the main shaft even when they are all attached. Linking them together makes sure they are all synchronized because when not you can hear the motor working more so it's also a detection for hidden friction caused by 1 tooth difference between the group drives on the main shaft. Synchronizing them when all attached to each other is quite some work. Your idea might also work and is probably easier to synchronize. But may be with this method the two pistons at the end of every group are not perfectly in sync causing the balls to stop. Please try :)

Getting the balls onto the lift was the most difficult part of this GBC. The lower axle of the belt also lifts the bottom part slightly up with a thin liftarm to act as an agitator, otherwise the balls bridge before the 2 x 2,5 opening to the belt. I guess it's also possible to use another ball feeder like a stepper. As long as it's synchronized with the belt any solution should work.

Just let me know if you need more help, I'll make pictures then.

Edited by Berthil

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I think I will have to try recreating this as well!  Again, it's an awesome creation.

If I understand correctly, the second double layer of of 2x8 technic plates from the top is not supported by anything from below - it is just "hanging" from the 1x1 round bricks and the "cross beam".  Is that right?  (Not a criticism - just making sure I know how to build it!)

Edited by aeh5040

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1 hour ago, aeh5040 said:

If I understand correctly, the second double layer of of 2x8 technic plates from the top is not supported by anything from below - it is just "hanging" from the 1x1 round bricks and the "cross beam".  Is that right?  (Not a criticism - just making sure I know how to build it!)

Criticism is no problem and should be learned from :)

You are right about the construction but  I wouldn't call it 'hanging', with the 1x1 round bricks in between where there is room it is a very rigid construction to minimise friction and/or prevent pistons sticking. I could hold the whole rail with double plate layers in my hand on one end without it bending much. The 'cross' beams of 1 stud just keeps it in place. Hope that helps. But may be BrianTG can comment on the use of 1 layer of technic plates if he tried that.

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On 3/1/2017 at 4:16 AM, Berthil said:

You are right about the construction but  I wouldn't call it 'hanging', with the 1x1 round bricks in between where there is room it is a very rigid construction to minimise friction and/or prevent pistons sticking. I could hold the whole rail with double plate layers in my hand on one end without it bending much. The 'cross' beams of 1 stud just keeps it in place. Hope that helps. But may be BrianTG can comment on the use of 1 layer of technic plates if he tried that.

I ended up trying to replicate your design as closely as possible, with the plate setup:

https://goo.gl/photos/ck3E4EfRTWGYdNp59

I ended up having to redo it a couple of times to resolve friction issues with the quad plates.  I had issues with misalignment of the plates vertically and laterally.  I shifted the plate stack 2 studs from where it appears to be in the original to allow for more 1x1 round bricks between the pairs, and added 1x1 round plates and tiles to the parts elsewhere to keep it more contiguous, which seemed to fix the vertical issues.  For the lateral movement, I found that when I first assembled it, the stack ended up with a bit of a curve in it, causing a lot of friction for the axles in a few spots.  I had to take it apart and straighten it out on a flat table.  Also had issues initially with some axles not being 100% straight.  It spins easily now by hand.  I received the wrong parts from my bricklink order for the 1x2x1 panels, without rounded edge, so need to reorder.

Still trying to decide what to do before and after the wave, might figure out a way to integrate more closely with my ball factory moc.

Thanks again for sharing,

-Brian

 

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Looks like I'm going to be on Spanish TV with the Rainbow Wave.
I've been invited to fly to Madrid in April and show it on the El Hormiguero 3.0 show, possibly as a technical sidekick.
Doesn't matter, I would welcome the experience and good for promotion of GBC!

It looks like it is very popular and I might see Will Smith or other celebrity there :)

 

On 6-3-2017 at 2:47 PM, BrianGT said:

I ended up trying to replicate your design as closely as possible, with the plate setup

Somehow I'm not getting emails when new posts are here.

That looks very good Brian. I also had to replace about ten bended axles, it's a good testing machine for axles that are not straight.
Courbet is making a very nice building instruction, I've send him some detailed pictures of the Inbox.

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