[TC14] Trabant Amusement Ride

[Erik Leppen]

There seems to be some serious engineering conencted to that ring of 8 universal joints distributing power to each car. Looks to be related to the restraints. They're even connected to 8 other pairs of the next car. Getting it all to fit and then build it 8 times must have been nightmarish.

But it's looking great. I like it. I also like the use of quarter gearracks for decoration.

I think it would come out better if you photographed it standing on the floor instead of the table. You use a lot of black and red, so I think a lighter background works better. Also, the floor is a more uniform surface than the table with the gray grid-mat and floor also on the background, detracting from the main attraction (literally).

I hope you can get everything done in time, including the video.

Edited September 7, 2018 by Erik Leppen

[terryli]

That's huge!!! Awesome design!!! Will you make a vedio for this? XD

[mocbuild101]

10 hours ago, terryli said:

Will you make a video for this?

He will need to if he wants to enter it 

[Bublehead]

@Erik Leppen, thank you for the comments, and yes, a better photo is coming... I have to Shanghai my wife into being my camera person for the video, since her controlling the ride while I film would be a disaster.   Since this ride is built to be “permanently” installed like the original ride, the base mechanics need to be sunk in a well. I can either did a hole in the ground, or I can cut a hole in some foam core board and fake it... at this stage, and seeing how hard Arizona ground is to dig up (seriously, this stuff is like digging through concrete, they use jack hammers to dig post holes...), I am going to go get the foam core and a knife and leave the dirt alone.

On the nightmarish safety bar mechanism... yes when faced with having to up my game due to the other awesome entries, I had to get motive force to 16 cars around a huge circle to make the seat restraints work.  I had to do it through one turntable interface, so no electric wires. The upper carousel was getting heavy so I had to limit the amount of bracing and get the movement from vertical rotation so it could pass through the turntable, then split that rotation into linear motion using two small LA, this linear motion drives     a lift arm lever that passes the linear motion from the center of the carousel, up and over the gear rack central hub, out to the hex universal jointed distribution shaft ring, this drives eight 90 degree transfer meshes that distribute rotational force then to 8 cars, which gang that to 8 additional cars using ball jointed 1x9 links.

So yeah, now, at the end and beginning of the ride cycle, the little bars go up and down   Before they were just manual... how passé...

But this is engineering under pressure, kind of crazy, and not a bad job since I only decided to design and build it 3 weeks ago.  My first amusement ride took 8 months. This one took less than 28 days, but the performance is pretty amazing. 

Edited September 8, 2018 by Bublehead

[Bublehead]

Well it’s finished.... glad that I could get it in... 

A note on the sound in the video... the clicking you hear are the two small LA at the end of their travel.  This is unavoidable...  you can’t pass rotation through a turntable without interaction and the added weight of another motor to engage or disengage a clutch was unacceptable.  You can drive the safety harness motor to counter this but I am a lazy carny ride operator...

Some vital statistics....

100% Lego

2 L motors, 2 M motors, 2 IR receivers, 1 rechargeable battery box

30 curved gearracks

2 Turntables

Performance:

Total all out combined RPM greater than 60 RPM which is twice as fast as the real ride. The original amusement ride has a lower base RPM of 10 and the upper carousel has a 20 RPM limit for a combined 30 RPM total.

Can run in forward or reverse on both rotary stages, lift and lower while turning at top speeds.

Can extract the contents of any stomach in 30.5 seconds....

Enjoy!

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by Bublehead

[HallBricks]

Impressive model! There's quite some Lego math needed to create those geometrical shapes. Well done!

[Bublehead]

@HallBricks, that’s the 40 plus years of playing with Lego finally paying off... some of those relationships are well known spacing, at least to us old schoolers who built a lot of axle/connector constructs to enhance the rather blocky appearance of studded beam Technic models in the old days. And turning octagons into circles is a mainstay of Technic lego 

[Jim]

Hey,

I won't be "that guy", but I do like to mention that adding the cart board elements to your ride, does feel like cheating. Technically only non-LEGO elements can be used to contain or transfer water. You are basically hiding part of the mechanics to make it look better and to create ground level for the entrance. I will give you the benefit of the doubt, since contests are for fun, but I am not too happy with it.

[Seasider]

Didn’t realise until seeing this thread that there’s a whole lot of stuff under a hole. Fantastic motion of the model

[Bublehead]

@Seasider, nothing is going on down in the hole...  it just lets my ride sit like the ride does in real life. In the three photos in the entry post, the last one shows the bottom side of the base assembly that it sits on.  Four 1x15 beams.  That’s it. No counterweight, no additional motors, no smoke or mirrors.  It is simply a stack up of 3 beams, the RTC bearing, then the lift and lower drive motors, scissor lift, upper RTC bearing, and finally upper ride carousel.  The battery box and IR receivers are tucked between the scissor jack lift arms.  The thing is very compact, doesn’t require any ballast to keep It stationary.  The picture of the initial ride above shows the base exactly like it sits when down in the hole.  What makes this thing perform so well is that RTC bearing construct. That thing is the bomb.

[Seasider]

Thanks for the detailed explanation it’s a very impressive model, what’s an RTC bearing ?

[Bublehead]

@Seasider, Rough Terrain Crane = RTC.

[Bublehead]

So after getting this thing done, and now that I have had some time to play with it,  I can see now how the ride operators were able to scramble (or descramble) your lunch with this thing.  There is a “sweet spot” where the speed of the base matches the speed of the carousel and the rider starts experiencing the “not rotating” just moving up and down, tilting forward and backwards in your seat ride... if you speed up or slow down the ride starts slowly advancing forward or retreating in reverse so you feel like riding a dolphin going forwards or like you are on a bucking bronco when in reverse. At one point, when the base comes to a stop, the ride becomes a Banyan Curve type ride, then it starts picking up speed as the base turns in positive reinforcement until the ride is at top speed... then the ride starts leveling off and the centrifugal forces reach their peak until the ride then slowly coasts down to a stop.  I have been having fun as a carny ride operator 

There is something about the fluid relationship of the motion around the sweet spot, it is very mesmerizing and fluid, not jerky and mechanical. And the thing doesn’t burn through the battery charge either,,, it will run for a very long time on a single charge.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Bublehead

[Bublehead]

Just need to ask because not sure anyone would want any more pictures or video of my ride before I disassemble it? The donor sets are screaming for their missing pieces.