Frisby

This wasn't an easy ride to build.

The swinging mechanism caused me a lot of trouble.
I used a non-lego switch to change the spinning direction
of the upper motor automatically on the turning points.
This worked fine without the gondola. But when I connected the
gondola to the arm it was so heavy that the switch turned only
half the way and cut the power.

Then I tried to use the gondola as a flywheel to make the arm
rise a bit higher than the critical point. It didn't work.

Then I changed the switch to a normal on-off switch and used
a relay to change the spinning direction of the motor.
When the switch is on the arm goes right.
When the switch is off the arm goes left.
A problem again: when the switch goes off the arm starts to go
left but the switch hasn't locked to the OFF-position. So it
goes ON again and the arm starts to go right which causes the
switch to go OFF and arm to go left and so on... So the arm
shakes on the other end until the whole trailer falls to pieces.

In order to keep the power on extra 0.5 seconds (so that the
switch will lock to the OFF-position) I used a capacitor.
I made some tests and find a perfect capacitor for that.
It's 220 uF. It's quite big so I put it in the ticket booth.

The ride worked couple of swings and crashed. I made the weakest
point stronger. It worked a little longer until it crashed again.
This way I continued to eliminate all the weak points.

NOW IT FINALLY WORKS!



Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Photo by Markku Jaaskelainen at Kristinehamn, Sweden 2004


Video here:
Frisby.mp4