After the chain belt moves the ball, the ball falls onto another ramp and is scooped up by the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel is powered by a medium motor with a worm gearbox and a long gear train. The little “seats” pass through the ramp and pick up the ball. When the seats reach the top of the wheel, a horizontal axle pushes a peg on the top of the seats that make them tip forward. This causes the ball to roll onto the edge of the wheel, where it is then pushed onto another ramp by an axle attached to the wheel.
Picture 1 The Ferris Wheel
Picture 2 The Ball in the seat
Picture 3 The wheel lifting the ball
Picture 4 The seat before tipping
Picture 5 The seat tipping
Once the ball rolls off the ramp after the Ferris wheel, it falls onto a very long green ramp. The ball accelerates down the ramp towards a jump at the end. When the ball hits the jump it flies up into the air over a gap in the track and lands on another ramp above the jump. (Yes, it actually works.) From there, the ball rolls onto yet another ram and into a sort of bowl with slits in the floor. An NXT motor spins two bent beams around and lifts the ball onto the next ramp. The ball rolls down that ramp and into the hole at the base of the first conveyor belt, and the process begins again!
Picture 1 The long ramp
Picture 2 The Jump
Picture 3 The Scooper
Picture 4 The ball in the scooper
Picture 5 The last ramp
The second path is much shorter than the first path, but it still does some extremely interesting things. First, the ball rolls down a curved ramp made of exo-force fiber optic parts. The ball rolls on that ramp, under the common path, and onto yet another ramp. From there, the ball rolls between two spinning tires that shoot the ball up a short slope. The ball flies over a hole and lands in a large funnel. The ball then rolls down the funnel and through a hole in the bottom. It then falls onto a curving set of rails made of Lego tubes. The tubes make a small loop which the ball travels down.
Picture 1 The fiber optic ramp
Picture 2 The second ramp
Picture 3 The Spinning tires
Picture 4 The funnel
Picture 5 The loop
After the ball completes the loop it falls into another bowl with a scooper, like the one on the first path. An XL motor powers a worm gear box which turns the scooper. The ball then falls down the ramp and into a hole guarded by the brave Dastan, the Prince of Persia! The ball lands on a short incline with a bent beam at the end to stop the ball. It then is grabbed by the arm which I will discuss in the next section.
Picture 1 The scooper
Picture 2 The gears
Picture 3 The hole
Picture 4 The ramp
Picture 5 The arm
The arm is controlled by two NXT motors. Basically it is just a hand with a joint at the wrist. The hand opens and closes with two perpendicular 4-prong gears. The arm holds the ball between two rubber grippers on its fingers. It then lifts the ball up and moves it over the next ramp. The hand releases the ball, which then rolls down the ramp. The ball then rolls under a glowing arch made of an exo-force fiber optic cord and a light sensor. The ball drops onto the first conveyor belt, and the cycle is completed.
Picture 1 The gears
Picture 2 The arm grabbing the ball
Picture 3 The arm lifting the ball
Picture 4 The ball over the ramp
Picture 5 The finish
This concludes the description in this project. I will provide a description of the program, a download, and a video in another project. I know this looks very odd and confusing, but as you will see in the video, Circular Reasoning 2 is very neat to watch. Thanks. Please rate this project 5 stars for the crazy contraption challenge. Any comments, suggestions, or criticisms are appreciated. MSEP