[GBC] Akiyuki Ball Factory

[Berthil]

Akiyuki Hockey Stick Lift XXL as bypass for the BF

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Berthil

[OneMoreRobot]

Excellent as always, thanks for sharing 

[9v system]

i did some searching and found lots of photos of the mega ball factory @Ankoku

there are more on my bricksafe here https://bricksafe.com/pages/gbcbuilder/akiyuki/mega-ball-factory-gbc

@Berthil interesting enough akiyuki built this factory first acording to his blog, then he built the V1

Edited November 27, 2019 by 9v system
link

[Berthil]

It looks more like a prototype to me.

[rskamen]

@Berthil, I have looked at all of your updates since your November 3rd posting. All excellent improvements. As soon as I finish my Bugatti Chiron I will go back and do all the modifications to my Ver 3 Ball Factory. Great work and glad I looked back at this topic. I may bring the Ball Factory and the Catch and Spin Robots to our community clubhouse (I live in a 55+ community) over the Christmas vacation period. We have a lot of children visiting. I am sure they will be totally intrigued.

[t0mster]

On 11/25/2019 at 8:01 PM, Berthil said:

Akiyuki Hockey Stick Lift XXL as bypass for the BF

 

Hi Berthil, 

What a nice improvement!. I have bought the origional instructions from akiyuki and took it down this morning to see what parts i need to make your XXL Version. The video is clear on most of the parts. Are you going to create some more detailed images on flickr?

I also orderd the last bricklink orders for the BallFactory. I hope everything arrives before December 5th ;)
Of course my kids get boxes of lego from the goodsaint, but dad also needs to be sadiesfied ;)

PS Still a bummer i couldnt be at legoworld to see everything in action and meet you in person.

Edited December 1, 2019 by t0mster

[Berthil]

@t0mster I was not planning on making more pictures of the Hockey Stick Lift. It is made higher with two 15L beams so just do that and repeat what is at the 15L beam already there. Tricky part is the fortification of the tower on the back as that is half stud offset to the frame and to the existing tower. The fortification is needed to prevent too much twisting of the tower because twisting means hockey sticks will touch. Have fun with Sinterklaas :)

[rskamen]

On 11/9/2019 at 9:53 AM, Berthil said:

Snake Bypass (WIP). Not only to bypass the BF (temporarily) but also other GBCs for less stress during events.

@Berthil, Is there any possibility that you can make a stud.io file or basic instructions for the "Snake Bypass" that is shown here? Even a parts list would be helpful. If I built one like this, I could use it in multiple applications, and use only the heights that I need. Thank you for considering this.

[Berthil]

@rskamen in principle it's the snake from the Akiyuki Cup to Cup V2, no.4 in the Akiyuki Project here and has a building instruction for the snake in it.
Every step is one liftarm high and has 3 studs length so it's easy to calculate how many steps you need to achieve the length and starting height needed.

[9v system]

hello all,

i have had my V3 ball factory build together for a while now, but im still haveing issues with the ball picker, it still keeps causing a large amount of friction and sometimes slips on the gears too.

is there anything else i should change to get it to work better?

[rskamen]

On 12/5/2019 at 8:34 PM, Berthil said:

@rskamen in principle it's the snake from the Akiyuki Cup to Cup V2, no.4 in the Akiyuki Project here and has a building instruction for the snake in it.
Every step is one liftarm high and has 3 studs length so it's easy to calculate how many steps you need to achieve the length and starting height needed.

@Berthil, thank you for your reply and information. I am pretty sure I can get it worked out.

[NicoChato9]

Wow really cool!

[t0mster]

On 12/2/2019 at 10:58 AM, Berthil said:

@t0mster I was not planning on making more pictures of the Hockey Stick Lift. It is made higher with two 15L beams so just do that and repeat what is at the 15L beam already there. Tricky part is the fortification of the tower on the back as that is half stud offset to the frame and to the existing tower. The fortification is needed to prevent too much twisting of the tower because twisting means hockey sticks will touch. Have fun with Sinterklaas :)

Sinterklaas has theatend me (and the kids) well this year

I really enjoyed building the ball factory. Again great thanks for the building instructions. I still have some friction here and there. Iam thinking of getting some silicone spray for the axels.
Do some of you also use some kind of lubricant? and if so which brand?

 

The hockey stick XXL, also a great addition to the origional. I tried the "reverse engineer" the ball exit / baseball bracket output ramp thing.

 

[Berthil]

@t0mster I use PTFE from WD40, so not the regular WD40. Apply with a small brush.

[9v system]

@Jonas with your XT ball factory on the cup to cup mechanism i see a 24 tooth gear on one of the arms right next to the spiral lift,

what does that gear drive?

Aron

[Jonas]

2 hours ago, 9v system said:

@Jonas with your XT ball factory on the cup to cup mechanism i see a 24 tooth gear on one of the arms right next to the spiral lift,

what does that gear drive?

Aron

I had to look at the video to see what you mean.

If I remember well that gear was prepared for the case that the additional (relay) module would be driven by the main drive - via a gear train attached to the spiral lift. That idea did not prove to work well, so I added an additional motor. The 24t gear was left on its place.

Jonas

[9v system]

@Berthil i finished my build of the module with all new parts, but i had to make some minor changes, this video explains what i have done

 

[tismabrick]

@9v system, thanks for sharing your improvements.

Maybe @Berthil can add them to his instructions.

BTW: The video itself is quite dark and a bit shaky. So it‘s hard to spot the details.

[9v system]

1 hour ago, tismabrick said:

@9v system, thanks for sharing your improvements.

Maybe @Berthil can add them to his instructions.

BTW: The video itself is quite dark and a bit shaky. So it‘s hard to spot the details.

yea the lighting in my room is not great so i apologize for that

@Ankoku what do you think?

Edited January 12, 2020 by 9v system

[Berthil]

@9v system If the changes work for you than that's okay. I've got my machine running very reliable on speeds 2 to 6 according to the current instructions.

 If I understood your video well you changed the timing of the Bob lifter by turning the cam 90 degrees but if this is done it is not in sync with the bucket lifter that takes the bucket of the wheel. They need to be in sync to take the bucket of the wheel and put the bucket on the wheel so don't I understand this change. The timing of the Bucket emptier is not determined by this cam and can be changed independently but has its drive on the same axle.

I've had somebody over at my home with his build of the BF3 and helped him to time everything. However, his build was running very heavy and could not run with the clutch gear in place. We checked everything but we were not able to solve it, everything seemed to be running smoothly but still a lot of resistance. An axle checker was used during the build. I could only advise to rebuild the machine and check every component manually before building and hooking up the next.

I'm planning to ad a 'timing chart' to the instructions with a top down view of the construction with numbered timing sequence.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Berthil
typos

[Ankoku]

You had me for a moment with the wedges. I actually had to go back and check. Akiyuki doesn't use wedges, he uses 2 x Panel 1 x 1 x 1 Corner to left the bottom outside edge of the buckets.

I will certainly give the wedges a try though. The bit that I find fascinating is that on mine, the ball unloader works differently at different speeds. I suspect this is down to warped axles. I need to check all the axles on the whole thing.

For me, I wanted to get it corrected back to the original. Past that, I started to make some mods of my own. One of which was to remove universal joints. So I think it is good to mod any GBC to make it work well for you. Akiyuki himself admitted the module had issues. As with all of his modules, he made changes after the video we have of it.

As @Berthil mentions, LEGO isn't the most consistent medium, so yours will work differently to his. Just like my Cup-to-Cup works differently, gear alignment wise, to Innocity's.

The most important thing for me, is that people post their mods, like you have here. Which is why I added the mod section for The Sun page. What doesn't work for one person will work for another.

When it comes to the Ball Factory, regardless of version, I think the most important thing you can do is hand crank it. Feel where the issues are. The smooth you can get it, however you do it, the better.

For the minute, I am finishing off Invisible Lift, will most likely do Peanut. Along with those, I am going to redo the axles on Fork-to-Fork and see if I can post 3D visuals of the changes I did to that one, to get it back to the original version.

Ball Factory v2 will get worked on once I have the new base constructed. So that will be a while yet.

@9v system You might want to post a video of it running with balls, so people can see your changes in action. That would be helpful.

Anyway, I loved your vid and I think these things are helpful.

One thing worth remembering, is the amount of slack you get in gears, axle bending etc. You can be a tooth or two different and it still work out. It is the reason I ended up powering Catch & Release from both ends and why Akiyuki changed Cup-to-Cup. Having the Cup-to-Cup mechanism so far from the motor was not good news.

The ultimate mission, especially for Berthil's version is to get the Ball Factory working reliably enough to be at events. It is the module which got mainstream attention, so it is nice for people to be able to see it up close. Anything which gets a person's own version of it to that point, is a good thing.

[9v system]

@Berthil @Ankoku my version of the build runs of the clutch gear with no slippage, the main sources of friction are the bushings rubbing against bricks, and i also had friction in the bucket placer crank as well, also the ball picker can cause friction too due to the backlash on the gears, i will screenshot the v2 instructions and the v3 ones so you can see what i mean with the bucket unloader.

[Ankoku]

My comment about friction and hang cranking it was just a general comment for those building it. It helped me no end.

In regards to the wedges, my comment relates to what he used. No idea what is in the v2 instructions.

[9v system]

heres the difference between the v2 and v3 bucket unloader crank

Edited January 12, 2020 by 9v system
typo

[Berthil]

I timed mine differently in the instructions, my Bob is already on its way to the wheel on that point so its just a matter of a different moment in time. Obviously there is only one way to time it or otherwise buckets or balls drop.
I agree with Ankoku, my goal was and is to show it on events to the public, please feel free to make any changes that work and share them here.