[TC14] Drop Tower (Finished)

[tkel86]

FINAL RESULT:

 

The tower is fully automatic, it operates with 2 motors, 1 M and 1 XL, it uses an old Pole Reversing Switch (970653-1) to toggle rotation.
It has two modules one support and one with the chairs, the first serves to raise the second as well as to alternate the rotations, the second will rotate as it rises and is in free fall when it reaches the top.
Inside the towers there is a set of counterweights that are triggered during freefall to soften it.
The rotation alteration automatically deactivates the opening and closing of the doors.
The cycle repeats indefinitely.

- more than 1m in height
- only 2 PF engines
- two independent modules the two go up and the lower one unlocks being in free fall.
- the lower module turns when it is rising but not when it is descending
- The chair security bars opens when the top module reaches below and joins the lower module.
- led lights on top 

 

_______________________________

 

Hello,this contest is the best, so this time I decided to participate , I have always loved  Theme Park Rides  and I have done quite a lot in lego but never one 100% technic.

I have already chosen and started a new project, it will be inspired by the Drop Tower, I already have more or less everything in mind and I have already defined the parameters:

- more than 1m in height
- only 2 PF engines
- two independent modules the two go up and the lower one unlocks being in free fall.
- the lower module turns when it is rising but not when it is descending
- The chair security bars opens when the top module reaches below and joins the lower module.
- led lights on top

Extra- the doors of the ride open and close with each new cycle.

I already started yesterday building the lower module. and as expected the mecanhism to rotate the chair didn't work as designed, but after some minutes trying other solutions i came with a better.

Some LDD sketchs:

 

 

More updates soon , I hope.

Edited August 30, 2018 by tkel86

[seinfeldpt]

Great! Congrats for the project!!!

[MangaNOID]

Looks good so far.

how will it lift up the tower?

How will it slow down at the end of the drop?

[Erik Leppen]

Interesting idea, and first renders seem pretty nice.

How are you going to do the actual drop motion? Are you going to slow it down to make it seem realistic as a scale model? As a coincidence, I have once thought about this, and I would probably use a large heavy wheel hidden underneath the tower, connected to a winch from which a string runs through the tower, over the top, to the car. Then when the car falls, the string pulls the wheel into motion. This would slow down the motion of the car, so that it looks realistic and the motion isn't over in a half second. Doing this in reverse, that is, motorizing the flywheel to high speeds to "wind up" energy, you could maybe even do an upward launch (but that will be much harder). But I presume you're not going to do an upward launch.

Edit: the other hard part will be slowing down the car nicely so that it doesn't slam against the floor. After all, you can only pull 5 G or so before the ride becomes unsafe. That is, you'd need at least 1/6 of the drop height as a brake run.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Erik Leppen

[tkel86]

17 hours ago, Erik Leppen said:

Interesting idea, and first renders seem pretty nice.

How are you going to do the actual drop motion? Are you going to slow it down to make it seem realistic as a scale model? As a coincidence, I have once thought about this, and I would probably use a large heavy wheel hidden underneath the tower, connected to a winch from which a string runs through the tower, over the top, to the car. Then when the car falls, the string pulls the wheel into motion. This would slow down the motion of the car, so that it looks realistic and the motion isn't over in a half second. Doing this in reverse, that is, motorizing the flywheel to high speeds to "wind up" energy, you could maybe even do an upward launch (but that will be much harder). But I presume you're not going to do an upward launch.

Edit: the other hard part will be slowing down the car nicely so that it doesn't slam against the floor. After all, you can only pull 5 G or so before the ride becomes unsafe. That is, you'd need at least 1/6 of the drop height as a brake run.

I just thought about dropping the module in a free fall. It's true that it will last half a second but it will be a good one, at least I expect.

To slow down the fall I thought of several options,lego imans (i love them and i think they are kind of undervalued parts) would be the most innovative and realistic choice but also the hardest , if it does not work I will experience a very very very small "slope" applied to the wheels on either sides. Upward launch wasn-t in the plan the rise will be constant, because there is 2 modules, the one with the chairs and another one separated that only goes up and down like in the video exemple.

Last night updates:

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by tkel86

[doug72]

A Whitworth Quick return mechanism might work if hidden under base and connected to the drop section by cords.

Has a slow motion at each end of stroke  with a fast travel in between. see this video.

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Doug72

[Seasider]

You’ll definitely need some form of deceleration device at the bottom of the drop. If the passenger car hits the bottom with no pre-braking mechanism the resulting deceleration on the rides occupants will be fatal causing both spinal and brain injuries ... all to scale of course ;)

 

[tkel86]

Love the ideia @Doug72  but i will need to convert the translation motion to a rotation one for a winch and multiply by a lot to get the lenght of the string, the torque may be too much. Nonetheless i will give it a try.

@Seasider a safety system is being developed by our best engineers to predict possible physical damage. :)

A schema to explain my plans:

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by tkel86

[pagicence]

4 hours ago, tkel86 said:

I just thought about dropping the module in a free fall. It's true that it will last half a second but it will be a good one, at least I expect.

I would actually like to see that the most.

But why not just use rubber bands (imitating bungee cords) to slow down the drop at its very end?

[tkel86]

1 hour ago, pagicence said:

I would actually like to see that the most.

But why not just use rubber bands (imitating bungee cords) to slow down the drop at its very end?

I thought about it, but the module coming to an end will bounce and I do not like that effect I would prefer and try something that make a smooth stop.

[tkel86]

After sometime thinking about the slowdown motion for the end of the fall, i came out with this idea:

 

So when the module came near the end i can stack counterweight after counterweight and that way slowing down the movement. I just thought of that because it looks kind of reliable. 

now i got to choose which mecanism to test first, this one, magnets or Whitworth Quick return.

[HallBricks]

I'm actually working on a drop tower for this contest as well, but unfortunately not near the scale of this one. The size is impressive! I find the slow down mechanism to be the most challenging part to create.

[Aventador2004]

Great so far, I have been at that ride in person. I like the counterweight idea.

[Jim]

Nice nice nice!! 

I love the looks (digital concept) and I like the work you are putting into this project, making schematics etc. Keep it up.

[doug72]

This hoist control method might be workable, slow start / stop - fast in between and upper & lower limits easy to set.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Doug72

[tkel86]

last night new update:

It's getting pretty good so far, alll the mecanisms works as plan, 

the platform, the winch, the mechanism for changing the rotation still  and the slow down mechanism have to be made, i think i will try first the counterweight  idea.

 

 

sorry about the photo i'm using my phone.

[Seasider]

At least I no longer have to worry about the only person working with a large model!

looks impressive 

[tkel86]

Now the hard stuff, the mechanism, i'm using 2 motores one XL for the lifting/descent and one M to alternate the rotation of the XL.

I could use a single motor and force the gearbox or pf swith to prevent a stop at the middle, but by experience that solution tend to be unreliable. 

So i'm using 2 motors. the XL alternate the M rotation when the module reach the top and the bottom and the M rotation alternate the XL rotation . That way it can't be stop.

I made this first working version, it's quite messy so a few minutes on LDD and i got a better, stronger one. Time to rebuild that.

ps: let me know if I do too many updates.

[Carsten Svendsen]

If you swap the white z24 and normal z24 around, you will get more torgue delivered. 

Looks good so far though.

[vascolp]

I everybody,

What about rubber bands (as @pagicence said) and using magnets to stick the device to the ground when it reachs the ground, avoiding bouncing?

@tkel86 Força nisso, torço por ti!

My very first post...

vascolp

[tkel86]

It's pretty much done, just waiting for some stickers and that's it. 

 It is not 100% perfect, but given the deadline this will have to serve.

My biggest problem and what  annoys me the most it's that it doesn't fit my homemade studio.

Edited August 28, 2018 by tkel86

[tkel86]

So it's done, i had to remove the studio top light to fit this MOC.I'm quite satisfied with the final result.

Although i didn't have time to apply led's at the top, I was able to do all the other goals.

  

  

 

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

This is actually so cool! I love how everything is automated. This is a serious piece of engineering.

[shadow_elenter]

That turned out very nice,

I love how the safety bars fold down, and the grabber/release mechanism, very neat! 

The only thing that really bother's me is that "crash"...
The 3 core things this type of ride must do are lift, release, catch safely... That last one seems to be missing and from the topic I gathered you had figured out a way...
What goes on inside the shaft now, do you have any pictures?

Looks are quite good though!

 

[tkel86]

There is a 2 X triple stage counterweights inside the tower but you're right they should be heavier to slow down even more the fall. I thought of using 1x2 plates but i didn't had the required quantity.

Some poor quality videos: