Fyredog

Taking your idea and adding a 3x5 lift arm - nice sturdy support.

Here is a simple support added easily. I plan to add additional support later after the show next week. 1x5 lift arm added. It helps a lot with keeping the 40t gear from moving around so much.

Another little mod to be able to adjust the amplitude in either direction on bucket shifter in/out motion.

Another small mod I did was to change the #3 axle for a #4 axle to give support on both sides in the sub-assembly step #1. the other end of the axle would slide into the hole that the arrow is pointing to.

Hi Berthil, Your right, seems the bucket shifter pushrod has some push back on both sides of that motion. I will address that as that would alleviate some momentary binding. Stay tuned for some more refining and tuning. I adjusted Bob a bit, He's now serving buckets back to the wheel pretty smoothly. Seems once you get things just right, this module really comes to life.

Here is my first run with balls, I have done most of the improvements suggested by @Berthil. It looks like I need to work on bucket placement by Bob. I did have a jam because of the buckets not being in place on the previous video which I did not post.

Here is a small mod I did to help support the back and forth movement of the Bucket Picker. I think it could be built into the Bucket Emptier tower for more support, but so far seems to be holding up just fine. BEFORE: AFTER: Here are the support pieces assembly - easily added to the bottom of the Bucket Emptier Tower:

Excellent! I also found that setting 3 on train controller is the comfortable speed for this module. I am going to make the controller only go to speed 3 and unable to reverse. Thank you again for your help!

Gotcha on the blue gear. #10 - I'm having a hard time seeing where Part 2853 (Technic Engine Cranckshaft) is placed. I was probably editing while you were replying...LOL

@Berthil - Thank you for this! These I will apply to mine - I really appreciate the incite. I cant help but notice in 3,6 & 7 the blue gear on Bob's mechanism. Can you expand on that please? #4 is also an area I was having issues with the same thing. I did the same thing on #5 #10 - I'm having a hard time seeing where Part 2853 (Technic Engine Cranckshaft) is placed.

I have dealt with many issues in the fine tuning stages. Some of them because I was not familiar enough with this module, and some of them just needed to be methodically worked through. I am now comfortable with where I'm at and time for time trials. Main issues I had were bucket shifter, bucket emptier, Input box to spiral lift (jamming), picker, lifter and Bob. The bucket shifter was not returning all the way and was erratic (side to side movement). I rebuilt that and is now smooth and has full movement in both directions. I had a lot of issues with the bucket emptier and buckets turning on their sides and jamming. I played with timing quite a bit trying to solve this. I finally determined that the bucket needed more room when being returned back to the slide table. I removed one of the Connectors and replaced it with a 1x4 thin arm and a bush. This allowed the bucket to be placed flat. Next I had issues with the bucket lifter. The buckets would not lift and remove from the wheel. For the life of me I wasn't understanding why until I kneeled down and noticed the ridge of the bottom of the bucket wasn't clearing. I felt pretty dumb at that moment and adjusted the amplitude and that solved that issue. Next issue was Bob. Bob had a lot of binding which I finally found that the red rubber band was causing. I tried running with out the band but Bob is pretty wild without it. I changed to a blue band, and that took most of the binding out. and Bob is now tame and smooth. The ball picker seemed to be dropping balls on its way over to the buckets to be dropped off. Anyone who has a Ball factory knows what happens if those balls are not moved! I determined that the white band was not giving enough tension. So I took a smaller white band and rebuilt the picker. That was my last short test this morning. The input box for the spiral list was my first and almost my last issue to work through. I posted a picture of my solution above. I also feel like the input box needs an agitator. I may try and tackle that before my show. It is now time for time trial testing, which will involve me making a return ramp so I can let it self feed. My BF does have some slight binding with Bob and I believe the wheel. I may or may not work that out of it. It doesn't effect the operation of the module at all other than Berthil's doesn't seem to bind at all. If it bothers me enough I will spend the time working it out. @Berthil I commend you for what you did on this redesign I know it could not have been easy. Although I have not built V2 BF (yet) I see the similarities and I see everything that you worked through, and all the improvements you made to solve certain problems. I also see where you made it so it could be tuned and timed. There were a few steps in the instructions that I had to just figure it out because the view and angle just wasn't there. But I appreciate that because it made me think about it and work through it making it a more challenging build. I like that you can roll this thing around and have all the timing points that you documented very well in place. It makes it easier to work through any issues that may arise. This build was and is not easy, especially fine tuning it. It is VERY satisfying and very fun to watch. Thank you for the time you put in to creating instructions for those of us who love this module. I am looking forward to sharing it to the public and running it at a show next month. I now feel like I know this module very well, and can determine what and why something happens. Thank you again for your time you put into the instructions. If you do decide to update the building instructions, I have a few things to suggest, hopefully I can remember. I am looking forward to seeing your newest changes to the BF and the new feeder system.

Here is what I came up with to deal with the jamming of the balls in the spiral lift input box. Initial tests are good. This version ended up failing so a complete redesign (Photo below) widening the box by 1 stud and added 2 studs to the length. Much better performance, and recycles any overages that are pushed to the front of the box. New Box - Good constant feed. I had added an agitator to a few other try's, but this one does not need it.

Everything seems to be pretty close in timing. Now it is time for the fine tuning. I mainly need to deal with the bucket emptier and the shifter timing. Bob is not as smooth as I would like so I may have to look at his situation . I am still having issues with jamming at the spiral lift, so I will need to focus on that once the fine tuning is set.

First timing run:

Coming along. Have small issues with balls jamming at entrance to spiral lift - I think I may have that solved.

Timing mechanism installed. This will allow advance or delay of the spiral lift to the picker

@Berthil Would it be possible to see step 77 from the left side please? I think step 90 answered my question.

@Berthil Do you think it would be beneficial to build in a timing mechanism for the spiral lift? Thus being able to adjust when the balls drop into the ball pusher?

May I asked what you updated, and your adjustments?

All parts gathered and ordered ready for assembly. I'm pretty excited to get this running and tested for a show in August and October. If your interested I'll post pix during construction, since I haven't seen much of this module lately.

@Berthil - Yes the small one. Do you have some good photos of it you would be willing to share? I like the mods you did and it seems to operate smoothly and reliably.

Hey Berthil, I was rummaging through this thread and was watching the trains video. I noticed you have done several mods to the unloader. Did you happen to document your changes? How reliable is your unloader? Thanks in advance. What do you have in the works? I went through Akiuki's Zig Zag module and had made it pretty dependable. Then I had all of my modules tip over in their containers at a show in the wind. So I am now putting them back together, which now presents a bunch of other hidden issues due to bent or damaged parts. I will post video once I have it back to 100% health.

I just downloaded the app to my iphone.

So after thoroughly reading this and other threads I have changed my mind to build Berthil's V3 Ball factory for a show next year. I was hell bent on building and modifying Akiuki's to alleviate the base plates, as I prefer his layout better. But I LOVE the solid frame design of Berthil's version for shows. So now the dreaded collection of parts starts. After I have a working show version, I do plan on going back and building Akiuki's and modifying to be base plate-less. It seems that I am pretty stuck with Dark Bluish Grey (One of my favorite colors) and yellow. I don't think there is any other color that has all the components that yellow has. So I will go with that. I want to thank EVERYONE who has contributed and special thanks @Berthil for conquering a truly complex beast of a GBC and making available to fans like me your Instructions that you so diligently perfected.

Thank you!!