ALittleSlow

Eurobricks Citizen
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About ALittleSlow

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    http://alittleslow.wikidot.com

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    Male
  • Location
    Indiana, USA
  • Interests
    Great Ball Contraptions
    Global warming (local chaos)

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    United States

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  1. ALittleSlow
    Bryan Bonahoom wrote a Vex Ball Contraption (VBC) standard. You might also check with Steve Canvin, who coordinated the VBC at Vex Worlds 2016 and Philippe Hurbain (Philo), who developed a Vex CAD package.
  2. ALittleSlow
    Balls are evil. 90 degrees. My rule of thumb in to go no less than one plate drop per six studs. One plate per four studs is probably the number you're looking for, though. Most balls have a small pit. Rest a ball on this pit on a level surface. Now tip the surface until the ball starts rolling. The angle of the surface when the ball starts rolling is your minimum.
  3. ALittleSlow
    It's simple and reversible and 100% LEGO. Requires a #1 Phillips screwdriver and a 1 x 6 brick. That's probably enough information for most people on this thread. :-) Or you could watch this amateur video.
  4. ALittleSlow
    Yeah, ball spillage must be a factor.
  5. ALittleSlow
    Look at Lasse Deleuran's pump mechanism. He has a number of innovations on this piston pump mechanism, but the use of a wheel as the "head" of the piston may be the most important. I haven't tried it myself. 1/3 bps is consistent with my experience at Brickworld shows. I timed a large Maico Arts contraption a few years ago and also got about 1/3 bps. Since a GBC will only go as fast as its slowest module, it follows that the slowest module on most GBCs averages 1/3 bps. I suppose the reason is that any module slower than 1/3 bps gets removed from the GBC.
  6. ALittleSlow
    Tire bits. Right. That's why a certain GBC Coordinator reportedly banned tire-using GBCs modules.
  7. ALittleSlow
    I wipe the worst offenders clean during the show with a damp towel. I like the washing machine idea for bulk cleaning. Similar to what Akiyuki must have concluded, in a ball cleaner module (two failed attempts so far) I found that wiping them with a dry towel is as effective as using a solvent. This begs the question: what is the dirt composed of? My hypothesis is 90% ball paint and 10% human skin cells and oils.
  8. ALittleSlow
    I found this video helpful: . I haven't tried this method myself yet.
  9. ALittleSlow
    LUGBULK works the same with GBC balls as it does other parts. More info about LUGBULK here.
  10. ALittleSlow
    Of course I'm in favor. For example, over there we just had a long forum discussion on the Akiyuki Train. Some of that content deserves not to be buried in a forum, and should be part of the Akiyuki Project. Wiki articles always have an associated discussion (or "talk") page, which functions like a forum for that article. An article for this project would be nice, too, to better organize the collaboration. If there's support for that from the major contributors, I'll go ahead and stub it next week. This is something the Wiki could satisfy nicely. It's currently a pain to upload images/videos and impossible to upload CAD files, but linking to them is trivial. Although the infrastructure isn't currently in place for a seamless repository, one thing a wiki is good at is extensibility. Come to think of it, legolijntje, if your hands are itching, maybe you'd like to at least collect and organize links to these files in a GBC Wiki article? On forums at the GBC wiki: One current problem with the GBC Wiki Forum (but not the rest of the Wiki) is that it can't email notifications. I think a fix is imminent, though. What I would love is to be able to cross-post between a specific thread on the Wiki and the GBC thread here. Incidentally, if you've never logged into the GBC Wiki, it's hosted on http://www.brickimedia.org (the Brickipedia folks) and uses the same login account.
  11. ALittleSlow
    This is discussed in the Balls article on http://www.greatballcontraption.com/. Sorry I can't access the direct link from the network I'm currently on.
  12. ALittleSlow
    Nice work, 9v system. Looking forward to more.
  13. ALittleSlow
    Perhaps a rake <http://greatballcontraption.com/wiki/Rake>, or Archimedes' screw <http://greatballcontraption.com/wiki/Archimedes_screw>, or clock lift <http://greatballcontraption.com/wiki/Clock_lift>. I don't have good pictures handy, but Bill Bourn built a pump with the piston laid horizontally as part of his balldozer module. You might find it in a Brickfair, VA youtube video.
  14. ALittleSlow

    Lego Balls for GBC (Canada)

    ALittleSlow replied to Snoopy1980's topic in General LEGO Discussion

    Thanks for the Bricks and Pieces tip, dr_spock. I added it to GBC ball information at http://greatballcontraption.com/wiki/Balls Snoopy1980, if you are part of a club, I would try to order them from the 2016 LUGBULK program.
  15. ALittleSlow
    Nicely done! Any problems with the conveyor belt in-basket being shallow? I'm going to build one with the belt on the side. I don't have one like that yet. Thanks for the instructions!