[TC14] Inverting Centrifuge, "Round, up and over"

[Marxpek]

Hey all,

This is a recreation/expansion of a ride i once went on in my youth, now i cannot find any videos or images online about this kind of attraction, maybe someone else can, but i can very well imagine these things are banned, it kind of lacks a fail safe on a power outage , my version would never pass any inspection i guess, if people would even dare to try...

Here is the idea: a spinning drum that presses the people that ride it into the back wall by centrifugal force, there is nothing to hold you in place, except for a dimple in the back wall in the form of a person and a small chain in front of it (which really does nothing except closing your position). after reaching enough speed, the entire drum starts to tilt on a swing arm to vertical position, that is what the ride i went on in my youth did, i will expand on that and try to make the drum go into (near) inverted horizontal position by swing the arm further. 

For now i have only built a proof of concept, nothing pretty yet, but i had to know if it was doable before presenting anything, i think the test went ok considering the fact it is not 100% built balanced due to colors and minor build variations, as long as you do not move the swing-arm to violently (gyroscopic effect kicks in) the whole runs pretty stable and works well, even upside down keeping the figures in place by centrifugal force until you slow down the drum.

(the last heroic figure hung by its feet..lucky bastard! can't have that! redesign needed!) 

I am convinced i can make the spinning drum work with at least 8, but i am hoping for 16 Technic figures, a total rebuild of the proof of concept will be done later, now i will be focusing on the last big mechanical issue, actually moving the swing-arm, this thing is pretty heavy, and with a spinning drum on it, forces are pretty big and it will have to move slow, so the gyroscopic effect does not destabilize it, very likely i will be using more of the big gear racks to make the arm move, but first i might try to do it directly from turntables mounted in the base of the arm.

Let me know what you think! and if anyone knows a video about a similar type of ride i would love to get a link!

 

Edited July 9, 2018 by Marxpek

[BusterHaus]

I'm glad to see this one being built! You are right about the safety issues... My dad went to one about 40 years ago with some friends. The ride reached its top speed, and the floor was removed, so they were spinning in a cylinder. One of his friends started screaming in panic, as he slowly started sliding down. He ended up holding on to something until the end of the ride, but had quite a scare. 

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

Awesome (and somewhat similar to my idea)! Looks like a really fun ride and a great concept to build!

[pagicence]

"If you build it they will come." In this case I will. I would definitely love to try this.

[mocbuild101]

Nice idea, I'm surprised you're not using a buggy motor...

16 hours ago, Marxpek said:

i cannot find any videos or images online about this kind of attraction, maybe someone else can

Here's one:

And here's the Wikipedia page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Up_(ride)

[Bublehead]

Look up the amusement ride called Super Star, but the Roundup ride does not go inverted.

Edited July 9, 2018 by Bublehead

[mocbuild101]

13 minutes ago, Bublehead said:

Look up the amusement ride called Super Star, but the Roundup ride does not go inverted.

That is probably more like it... It certainly looks safer...

Edited July 9, 2018 by mocbuild101

[Bublehead]

Check my revised post

Edited July 9, 2018 by Bublehead

[Seasider]

I remember these from years ago.  Never saw one that went inverted, I do remember some had slightly angled boards you leant against and as it sped up the board slid up a bit and lifted your feet off the ground.

I never went on one as I knew it would make me motion sick 

[Marxpek]

thanks @Bublehead and @mocbuild101 for looking into the real rides, the superstar ride is not what i had in mind, that still contains people with a brace, the round-up was exactly what i was looking for, and what i will build and expand on.

Round-up. even the name is deadly (for the ones that do not know: round-up is the name of a very bad type of herbicide, killing any plant in the neighborhood)

for now i will call this project "Round up and over"

8 hours ago, Seasider said:

I do remember some had slightly angled boards you leant against and as it sped up the board slid up a bit and lifted your feet off the ground.

the version i went on did not do this, but i like the idea i might try to implement it! thanks for the input!

[Jurss]

Have been in thing like that, but it was some 30 years ago ...

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

Sure looks deadly, but really cool project. I wonder how you will control the actuator going up & down (regular IR vs. some sort of cycle where it reaches max height then goes down automatically).

[Marxpek]

13 hours ago, BrickbyBrickTechnic said:

I wonder how you will control the actuator going up & down (regular IR vs. some sort of cycle where it reaches max height then goes down automatically).

well at the moment i am struggling to make the arm swing more then 90 degrees without a counterbalance, this means linear actuators are out of the question, the motion on them just is not enough. I thought about making a cycle or switching system to limit the movement, this is the easy part, the initial idea is to use 1 or 2 train regulators for power (and weight in the base) and have a electrical switch limit the motion and reversing it. If that fails i can always integrate an s-brick and just time the cycle with a programmed button, this will be by far the easiest way..

But i have to find a sturdy way to move the arm first, it just cannot be done with an axle, that will twist, now looking into a self made gear rack meshing directly with the turntables, that seems the most viable to me, also using the quarter gear rack does not really work, they are too weak especially the halfbeam cross axle part at the ends and that is where all forces will accumulate.. I hope to get a bit of build time in tonight..

[Frequenzberater]

You could extend the range of the actuators by using some kind of a lever system. 

Edited July 11, 2018 by Frequenzberater

[Marxpek]

After a week of trying several setups with huge and sturdy linear actuators ( i even made a curvilinear actuator..) i have to admit defeat considering the movement of the arm, there is just too much force without a counterweight, i could  add a few battery packs maybe, but the hinge point would have to be raised a lot, making it very unstable and awkward looking.

i could make the arm shorter but that would blow the entire thing out of proportion.

At the moment i am looking at a lot of wasted time and considering the amount of spare time i have, For now i am considering 2 options, radically change the design to a ride never seen before, its will be the spinning drum on a horizontal beam that will climb 2 towers and when it reaches the top, the drum will spin around the axis of the beam, still inverting the drum.

Or... abandon this one and make my new idea , which is smaller, less thrilling, but a very original build utilizing water... i haven't decided yet..

 

[Erik Leppen]

Have you tried a string-based approach? Either by having a string pull out a cylinder, or by having a string above the arm, pulling it up? Like the attached image? That way, you don't have to raise the main hinge, It might pull some hefty forces on the string, maybe you need to wind it multiple times, like in cranes. But the motion doesn't have to be fast.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Erik Leppen

[Marxpek]

@Erik Leppen the goal was to invert the drum. I considered winches but it would need one on either side and be perfectly scynchronized. But maybe i will play with the idea first before going in another direction. Thanks!

[Frequenzberater]

Another Idea could be to use the Arocs pinion racks. Would love to see you get this working! 

[arijitdas]

@Marxpek This set is turning out to be excellent one and looks really cool. Please do not loose hope and abandon it yet. May be you could take a look at the mechanism used in LEGO Technic Container Truck 8052 for some idea on how to flip the arm - look at the youtube video from 1:50 to 2:28

 

[shadow_elenter]

I don't know if you own them, but have you considered using the gear arcs found in the BWE set( and the new crane)?

[Marxpek]

I have considered and tested all these options except for the winch setup.

[MangaNOID]

I guess you tried pneumatics to lift this thing? I'm finding they can lift a mighty load. put the xl motor elsewhere to save weight. no doubt you tried everything :(

[Carsten Svendsen]

Why not just skip the inverted part and make one that looks like the video further up in this thread? That way you could just install a bunch of actuators on the bottom and I'm sure it would still be a cool ride.

[Seasider]

I'd just ditch the "inverted" part of your ride and see what angle you can sensibly get to. if you went to "almost" vertical like the video mocbuild has posted then that would still be very impressive and representative of something real world

[Bublehead]

Take it from a guy who used string to lift heavy things on his amusement ride, string is the bomb. Take a look at the Twirl & Hurl ride on my Flickr page. (Link in signature)