Posted by grim (206.162.192.40) on July 13, 2003 at 06:18:07:
In Reply to: Question for grim posted by ovyyus on July 13, 2003 at 02:43:16:
: Hi grim,
: I've had a little time to review your design and have a couple of questions:
: It would appear that the two weights that are connected to each other, 1.5 lb off-centre lead disk with attached 6 oz lead weight on arm, can be represented as a single weight with appropriate mass distribution around the pivot point. Would you agree? -- As long as you can simulate the massless (relative to the mass of the weights) lever to accomplish heaviness on one side of the large lead mass without moving the COG out of the large mass, then yes.
: Each mass/spring element appears to act independently of the other (not directly connected) and therefore the simplest overall device design would consist of a single mass/spring element (don't need to build two mass/spring elements to prove a gain). My reasoning here is that if two discrete mass/spring elements experience gain then a single mass/spring element represents half that gain and would therefore work (assuming there is in fact a gain) on it's own, ie: the system can be reduced to a single mass/spring element. Would you agree?
--They are actually linked by by the timing of their movements, but yes its not a true physical linkage between them, save their tie to the disk through their pivot points. The function of the spring was to aid the lever in lifting the lower weight off the bottom perimeter at the proper time (helper spring).
The reasoning for the two weight pairs was to raise the bottom weight to make the disk topheavy and unstable, then allow the top weight to release and swing its mass in a direction to make the topheavy disk tumble in that particular direction.
Give your theory a shot; like I stated I was unhappy with the ops of this thing, and posted it so all here who have worked hard towards this goal would have something to work with that at least wanted to run. Give it a go! You may have seen something that I didn't and can make it better.
: Thanks grim.
: Regards, ovyyus
You're welcome!
Regards
grim