Hello fellow LEGO fans.

Please help me push this product through on LEGO Cuusoo.

It's a turntable that supports continuous rotation while passing 4 channels of Power Function signal.

I think its uses are pretty self explanatory but I'd love to hear what you would make if you had one of these parts.

Thank you!

Matt

http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/35486

That is a interesting idea..!

I'd be better if you'd make some contact points inside of the turntable. It'd be cleaner and better to just put your selected wires on to the turntable, then you'd still be able to run hoses or other mechanical functions through it.

Just like there are in these things

I would go for a wireless solution, I have done several experiments with this already and it is a mess ;)

But if you really want to:

See this topic (in Dutch: http://themepark.nl/...ego_vragen.html)

Conrad has those 'anti-twisters': http://www.conrad.be...Kabelontwarders

Update: they call it untangler:

https://www.hama.com...ansparent-black

Another option is using ball bearings (but make sure they are conductive of course ;))

While I think this is a great idea, I don't understand how you can transfer four channels of current when the contacts inside the turntable are moving?

that themepark site has an explaination how it works (at least for non-lego applications).

what the heck? why you want this?

what the heck? why you want this?

So you can run wires through a turntable and have the turntable spin indefinitly. It is an interesting idea that could use some more polishing.

tim

At first i thought you are meant a new turntable part whuich would allow more then 2 mechanical functions to pass. I think electrical version is not really viable, sooner or latter contacts will corrode, or someone might split the turntable and bend them...

sorry, but to get slewing rings for four pf circuits in a turntable it must have a diameter of 13 or 15 studs (ok this would be nice) and would cost 15 or 20 €uros. do you want pay this and what for a original set could use this turntable?

they should better design parts to get more than 2 functions through turntable

I think it would be possible to get 2 channels on a small enough scale by having 8 rings on a printed circuit board on the bottom half and 8 pickups on a small board on the top half. It would probably be as much as a pf motor so not too much but out of all the new parts they could make i'm not sure if this would bring the greatest benefit. Would be pretty useful tho.

Edit:

Edited February 16, 201312 yr by allanp

Hi, thank you all for the responses. You can see from the Cuusoo page, my original idea was to have the connections right on the turntable as illustrated above. However, this would limit the use of beams around this area. The short extension cords coming out of the part would still allow you great mounting flexibility. there is that Technic piece, i believe it is called a frame. It is often used to hold differentials in trucks. It is also often used to hold the turntable. Putting the terminals right on the turntable would prevent the use of this part. :/

Thanks for doing the leg work on the rendering. Very nicely done.

I think if 8 traces per board is the maximum, you could have two layers of boards, like hard drive platters, with "read heads" in between layers.

Keeping the contacts clean will definitely be an issue. Let's solve the problems together!

-Matt

This is not all that far fetched, it would be a interesting thing to have for some applications. I dont have a problem feeding all the wire sets needed to run something through one, you just have too remember you can't just keep spinning it in the same direction indefinately

Why 8 copper rings inside the turntable for 2 functions? Why not 6 and use positive an negative for both?

Edited February 17, 201312 yr by dikkie klijn

Hi, thank you all for the responses. You can see from the Cuusoo page, my original idea was to have the connections right on the turntable as illustrated above. However, this would limit the use of beams around this area. The short extension cords coming out of the part would still allow you great mounting flexibility. there is that Technic piece, i believe it is called a frame. It is often used to hold differentials in trucks. It is also often used to hold the turntable. Putting the terminals right on the turntable would prevent the use of this part. :/

Thanks for doing the leg work on the rendering. Very nicely done.

I think if 8 traces per board is the maximum, you could have two layers of boards, like hard drive platters, with "read heads" in between layers.

Keeping the contacts clean will definitely be an issue. Let's solve the problems together!

-Matt

Yeah, you could still have the wires it was just kind of a sketch to show you the rings. I think having two layers would increase the iternal complexity and manufacturing costs quite significantly. Already the simple two channel design I posted could be as much as a motor. It would help to know what kind of price point you were looking to keep to. Keeping the contacts clean is a big issue because it is not a totally sealed unit. Hopefully the action of the contacts rubbing will help a bit.

It is a nice idea, but i would say that reliability and cost of manufacture will prevent this getting very far. Also the challenge of sending drive throught the middle of the turntable is a nice mechanical solution, which creates a measure of "amazement" to the user anyway. We need to be careful that we don't "over-electrify" the original Lego product. Even with the brightest minds in industry, those same units used in track machines eventually give problems.

AllanP, thank you for the rendering. Can I ask, which packages are you using to sketch those images?

Also, I love your Avatar, that was my all time favorite set before I discovered the new studless pieces.

The price point I was hoping for would definitely be in the PF accessories range. Around US $15 tops.

Trekman, I completely agree. I love the mechanical solution but it's just not always practical when more functions are needed, or where space is limited.

The turntable is definitely meant to be an accessory and would likely not come with any set. It's for the die-hard fan, someone who has all the power functions components. (which also do not come with sets, such as XL motors, speed controller, etc.)

I do agree the manufacturing costs and reliability of contacts could be prohibiting. But if LEGO is able to use a sealed off the shelf component for the slip ring, it may be extremely reliable and cheap.

Dikkie Klijn, it would be preferable to have the connections fully wired. That way, in the future, new uses of the part are not limited by earlier assumptions about the wiring. It's always preferable to have a "fully wired" cable rather than a partially wired cable. This will ensure that in any extreme uses cases (mismatched power supplies, mad scientist hacking, NXT sensors) all will work with the turntable since no assumptions about the "content" of the wire have been made.

I have submitted another Cuusoo Power Functions component, I'm excited to share it with you all when it's published!

Would love to see this as at least an 11 stud diameter turntable. I think 11 is small enough for smaller MOC applications, and big enough for things like the new 42009

Edited February 19, 201312 yr by manbearpig

Looks like a well needed piece. Will the new MindStorm series change the PowerFunctions products? Have we heard if Lego is switching to one uniform product or will be maintaining 2-3 separate lines of powered products?

AllanP, thank you for the rendering. Can I ask, which packages are you using to sketch those images?

Also, I love your Avatar, that was my all time favorite set before I discovered the new studless pieces.

I just used microsoft paint and used some screen grabs of indidual parts from mlcad as starting points. Thanks I didn't think the colours were right for my avatar so I altered them in a free program called gimp.

Would love to see this as at least an 11 stud diameter turntable. I think 11 is small enough for smaller MOC applications, and big enough for things like the new 42009

Yeah, I think that would be a good size. I think you could also finally introduce ball bearings into it, all plastic of course and assembled by the customer.