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I don't have specific data, but in my experience knob gears perform very poorly under load especially when run for an extended period. The surfaces degrade quickly, increasing the friction, and after a while pieces start chipping off the teeth.

8480!

Oops Many thanks for the render! I find it interesting that this is enough to hold it together...

Yes, it's fully mechanical. There is just one motor, running continuously. It would not work from an arbitrary arrangement of discs - only one on the shortest route between start and finish. However, it's not a predetermined sequence - it does "work it out" as it goes along. In principle it would work with 10 or any number of discs (although not practical with LEGO). The three pegs have different colours. After it transfers all the discs to one, it moves on to the next, and so on forever. There are quite a few more details in thread about v1. This was partly pneumatic, but used otherwise the same method. https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/168443-moc-mechanical-tower-of-hanoi-solver/

This is brilliant! Elephant simplicity, and at the same time it's clear how much thought has gone in to it. Do you happen to have some static pictures of the wheels? The internal structure is not obvious to me.

Probably the Tower of Hanoi solver. Still not completely happy with it, as it's not really reliable enough to run at a show: https://youtu.be/MHBsQS34Tu8

This looks extremely useful! Thanks for putting in all this work.

I've now built this, and I regard it as one of the best sets ever. It's a pity there wasn't a bit more effort put into making it beautiful (especially the base), but the mechanics are outstanding, and it's a real pleasure to witness it IRL!

To be more precise, to a good approximation the Earth's axis points in a fixed direction relative to the stars (towards Polaris, in fact). This is what the model does, which requires that this part does rotate relative to the main sun-earth arm. This is achieved through gearing. Arguably the nicest feature of the model.

8480. Incredible blend of form and function. Every part is there for a reason. Some of them for more than one reason. Also some nostalgia as it was my first complex post dark age set.

I am far from a typical builder, but fwiw: Ideally I prefer to do things that have not been done before, so there is no actual mechanics to copy. Mechanics always comes first. If I can shape it into something elegant, that's a bonus. Whatever parts are needed (but in practice not much system). Dunno really - ideas from random sources, imagination, building on others ideas... Lots of trial and error. Start with the hardest bit. Lego has its own constraints. See above. Start with official sets. There is lots to learn from the designers!

Thanks for the enthusiasm! Indeed I had to do some prying to adjust it. There is actually a better way, which is to use clutch gears, like in the later "Pangolin" Surprisingly, they do not seem to gradually slip over time. Of course, it would need a redesign to incorporate them into Synchropods. I've been meaning to do this but have not got around to it. I also have the key parts collected for a 33 pod mega version....

Hopefully this will quiet down all the moaning! 😉 It looks quite useful. Even just for rigidly connecting two parallel liftarms it is quite handy, while the additional hole brings plenty of further possibilities.

Yeah I agree. I like the look of many parts of it - the rings, the core structures etc. But the base is just a mess. I guess some of it is colour coding to help with the build - the unsecured 3L blue liftarm matches the exposed blue axle pin (which I think should be 1/2 a unit lower btw), and there is probably a red one on the other side. But it would be so easy to tidy these things up at the end. Still, let's not lose sight of the many positives. It's a very clever piece of engineering, and completely unexpected as a set. We can hope that it heralds a new era of interesting mechanisms.

Wow! Brilliant! This is clearly it. I am quite surprised and impressed that they got it so accurate, and even more impressed with your powers of deduction. I had actually started to ponder the possibilities of 8t-36t, but I don't think I would ever have got it.