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A few balls drop out on the way down, but a lot less than did before I inclined it more.
Here's a video of it in action:
In doing so I learned a lot about collaborative GBC displays so I thought I'd document it here to, hopefully, encourage the adoption of best practice at Bricktastic:
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I may add to this if antthing else comes to mind.
When in doubt, lubricate (drip into the motors as well). Use a dropper, squirt bottle, or syringe for tiny amounts, don't make a mess with spray (still have rags for wiping though).
If you use it and it gets on the balls then they spread it everywhere, and if friction is causing plastic dust it's probably better for it to be dry so it can be blown away rather than the oil turning it into a sticky goo.
@Huw was there a video of the layout you participated in with Maico and Ben?
I've been pretty busy lately with not much time for GBC, I'm working on a few modules slowly.
This is 90% made from parts in the set:
It's not finished yet - it needs an input and a lift to the left 'in slope', and it needs tidying up somewhat, but it's getting there!
Bonus photo of my worktop, with all the BWE parts:
I have tomorrow to get everything ready for my 'dry run' display at Lymm on Sunday. I need to fix one of my modules, build a 'return' module (to run along the back of the display) from scratch, build a couple of ball containers, and build a ball hook.
The next chance I'll get to do anything will be next Friday...
The intention was to display all my modules, with the exception of my loop-the-loop one. When I got there I realised the 'return' module wasn't long enough for me to have my balldozer module working, so that got left out too.
Setup went well, connecting everything went well (apart from the two original power adaptors not working), and it was all running fairly well. Robert had offered to lend me 300 balls, which he brought along, but it turned out that about 250 of them were Bionicle Zamor spheres, which are too large!
My main problem was that the two triple-circle lifters I have were not working very smoothly. I swapped the M motors to XL motors, which made them run better, but then one of them threw a gear. And then the other one did. And when I fixed them, they looked like they'd throw a lot more, so I took them out of the layout.
Re-builds required there, I suspect. Unless a miracle happens, they won't be shown at Bricktastic. The remaining 11 modules ran well-ish for most of the morning, and you can see a video of them below:
I only say 'ish' because my 'river run' module (the green one at the start and end of the video) broke after about half an hour. I fixed it, and half an hour or so later it broke again. Then again 15 mins later, then 5 mins later, and eventually it was so problematical that I just took it off altogether. I'm not sure whether it's fixable so that it doesn't break - I pulled part of it apart to remove something it was slightly catching on, and that didn't fix it, so...
That left 10 modules. Then my Minecraft (Brickworld) module stopped. I suspected a thrown gear or a slipped axle, but no, the M motor was dead. So that got removed from the layout too. Odd, given that there's not really much load on that module. I plugged it in again 10 minutes later and it worked fine... But by then it was out of the layout.
So the remaining 9 modules ran until the end. My Archimedes Screw module jammed occasionally, when balls got caught just as the bottom of the screw was coming around, but there's not much I can do about that. My Spiral Lift module started jamming occasionally early in the afternoon. I thought I'd worked out why, and kind of fixed it, but then it started again near the end, with no visible reason why. Again, I suspect a rebuild of the central column may be needed, and I may be able to do that before Bricktastic.
The other seven modules worked almost flawlessly, which was nice to see! It was a nice little exercise and dry-run for Bricktastic, and I was very glad that I did it. The 100 balls I had were probably just about enough for the 9 modules I ran most of the afternoon with.
Building a 10x10 tub was very useful! As was a poking stick I made from a 32L axle, and the polarity switches I connected to every module. Interestingly, yesterday when testing my return module, I somehow managed to kill one of the polarity switches completely dead :/
I'm looking forward to Bricktastic now! Setup didn't take as long as I feared, and strip-down was pretty quick too.
As I said above somewhere, bring spare parts and work on them at the event if they cause problems. Then you can test them properly again while there.
I've had problems with M motors as well. I think they just overheat internally or something and as you have found will run again if left for a while. I'll be bringing spares in case.
A good thing about GBCs is that they robust, easy to transport, easy to set up and put away again, far more so than the houses of parliament!
As for my Palace of Westminster, that takes half an hour to setup and 15 mins to put away, so definitely quicker than my GBCs! ;)
Otherwise mine have pretty much behaved themselves although a few need tweaking to improve reliability.
Now to do it all again tomorrow...
I also managed to get my two unreliable modules to run fairly reliably, which was good.
It was indeed a long day though - we had the modules running for over an hour before opening to test them.
Any of your sections coming up this way in a few weeks or is it just Westminster?
Pretty sure that's my fave - there's a LOT of kinetic energy being controlled there.
It uses a polarity switch to change direction, but the middle setting for the switch is 'off'. So it needs to run at speed so that it doesn't just turn the thing off when it gets to the top of the ramp - especially when pushing some balls.
Go longer!
And for the record chaps, you were worth every penny!