Adjustable Spirograph

[Alasdair Ryan]

Is that the updated on from Freakwave?

I still have a green 1/2 bush on my v12 which makes me think that it is my own....

Edited November 17, 2013 by Alasdair Ryan

[legolijntje]

Yep, it's the one with the green bush...

[Alasdair Ryan]

Is Freakwave is still updating his version?

Edited November 17, 2013 by Alasdair Ryan

[freakwave]

Loks like I still couldn't convince anybody on the font, well I give in :-)

- The arrows of the same color as the callout box is a nice touch, but as mentionned by Alasdair, maybe they don't show enough on white background?

- I am not so fan either of step number font, but I can live with this ;)

- Speaking of font, I have a problem here: all fonts are significantly bigger when I render the buildings instructions here (about 50% bigger). Because of this, some pages do not fit paper area. I think it might be caused by some Windows font size setting issue on my machine, does anybody has a hint?

- Was the blank page 100 issue corrected? I have no problem here!?!

- I've got a LDraw pencil model, available here, maybe it could be added at last step?

-I make the colors for the callout a bit darker!

- Page 100 still working on >> Corrected that one! "LPUB NOSTEP" needs to be placed before "0 STEP"

- Thanks for the pencil!

Anyway, I finished buildin the model. It looks and works great. I made a list of notes while building, which you can read here. Red means it's best to really fix those, underlined is less important and normal text is only for the perfectionists

Thanks for your efforts!

BUT: What is the reason for some complete blank pages and some pages where is displayed only a part-list for the step X but nothing else (i.e. nothing how to build step X)?

Can you tell me tha pages in question, I ahve only issues wiht P100

Is Freakwave is still updating his version?

Yes, I will work from V12 trying to fix the issues tonight

Edited November 17, 2013 by freakwave

[Alasdair Ryan]

Ok,I did not bother to start any of the changes that legolijnje said,I can to that tomorrow and Tuesday if need be....

[freakwave]

So, here we are, I have been busy updating the file taking into account legolijntje's comments on dropbox

• Step 6 page 2: very unclear. There are also invisible parts: pin invisible behind beam and blue pins.
  OPEN: Needs work, will make a sub out of them
  
• Step 5 page 7: the arrow of the sub model prevents to see clearly where the middle sub model has to be placed.
  CORRECTED: Have a look what I did with arrows
  
• Step 9 page 8: a rotation to a more front-view would be useful.
  ROTATED in a different way, better use Arrows
  
• Step 11 page 12: It was unclear for me that the sub model had to be placed over the edge on the end. Rotation step to show underside would be better.
  CORRECTED: Have a look what I did with arrows
  
• Step 18/19 page 15/16: Because I knew that both axles should only be pushed halfway through the middle hole, I did it right, but someone who doesn’t know can’t see it. This can’t be made clear in the instructions, but a note in the final pdf on these pages would do the job.
  OPEN: Still thinking how to present this best
  
• Step 20 page 16: Shouldn’t the 2 black pins be blue?
  CORRECTED: That’s right, no need for black Axle Pins
  
• Step 44 page 33: maybe an arrow?
  OPEN: TRUE, needs an arrow
  
• Step 45 page 34: the arrow of the callout points at the wrong side (it points at the same sub model, but the one that was added a bunch of page back).
  CORRECTED!
  
• Step 48 page 37: dark tan axle might need an arrow?
  OPEN: YES!
  
• Step 1-5 page 45-47: these loose pieces are annoying. The beams appear at step 6, but should be at step 1 to make building a lot easier.
  YES, we need to change the order of steps
  
• Sub model “base-motor.ldr” can be made a bit more compact. A little more steps a page.
  
• Step 19 page 58: the other pages have the flexible thing broken in subparts in the parts list, here it’s finally in one piece, but it’s the old version in the parts list (I believe)….
  CORRECTED! Added an Ignore Statement
  
• Step 61 page 66: totally unable to see where to place the wheels. Needs an rotation step to the underside.
  CORRECTED! And will make them a SUB
  
• Page 67: needs a divider.Page 68: needs a divider.
  CORRECTED!
  
• Step 62 page 70: add a warning to make sure to place the levers into the driving rings. Can be done in the final pdf.
  OPEN
  
• Sub model “platter3.ldr” on page 76-78 can easily be placed on 1 page. The same model on the other side (page 93) is done correctly one 1 page.
  CORRECTED!
  
• Step 19 page 92: impossible to place the callout models, because you have to remove the 3L axles again toe place them.
  OPEN: This is part of the table
  
• Page 99: empty
  CORRECTED! wrong placement of NOSTEP
  
• Page 100: make clear that you have to remove the axle to place it and lock again with the axle. Needs an separate image, can be done in final pdf.
  OPEN
  
• Page 102: random “3” appears, there’s also a step 3 on the next page.
  CORRECTED!
  
• Step 4 page 104: the 2 red axles in the parts list were already added in de previous step.
  OPEN: Need to check
  
• Step 3-4 page 106: the red axles are placed both in step 3, but 1 is shown in the parts list at step 3 and 1 in step 4.
  OPEN: Need to check
  
• Step 2 page 108: Unable to see the 2L beam and the arrow where to place it. Need a different viewing angle (rotation step).
  OPEN: You are right!
  
• Step 3 page 109: arrow of the callout is pointing a bit weird.
  OPEN
  
• The electricity wire from the motor is missing the whole instructions.
  NOTE!!!: Even my LSYNTH Ddirectory is listed in the config of LDRAW. LDVIEW somehow does not render it through LPUB. LDVIEW is fine. WORKAROUND: I placed the necessary file (LS70.dat) into the "parts" directory seperately
  
• There’s nowhere some information where to put the rubber bands (on the sides of the table and on the arms). Can be done using LSynth, but can also be done with some text or images in the final pdf.
  OPEN: HELP: Can somebody take a picture how exactly the rubberbands are fixed to make the LSYNTH for them
  

[legolijntje]

Step 18/19 page 15/16: Because I knew that both axles should only be pushed halfway through the middle hole, I did it right, but someone who doesn’t know can’t see it. This can’t be made clear in the instructions, but a note in the final pdf on these pages would do the job.

OPEN: Still thinking how to present this best

What about adding a picture like this?

There’s nowhere some information where to put the rubber bands (on the sides of the table and on the arms). Can be done using LSynth, but can also be done with some text or images in the final pdf.

OPEN: HELP: Can somebody take a picture how exactly the rubberbands are fixed to make the LSYNTH for them

The rubber bands on the sides of the table are very easy, just a very small rubber band over the 2 bushes. I can make a picture of it, if you want. The rubber band holding the pen is a lot more difficult. In fact, I haven't used any rubber bands to hold the pen. I tried, but I failed and in the end, I opted for some tape, because I wanted to test it. It looks very ugly though, and rubber bands are probably better, because they put some tension on the the pen to make it vribrate less.

Thanks for all your work freakwave!

[freakwave]

What about adding a picture like this?

That's good. I thought of using a half-bush in the assembly so you will see that the distance is not one hole but only half of it

The rubber bands on the sides of the table are very easy, just a very small rubber band over the 2 bushes. I can make a picture of it, if you want. The rubber band holding the pen is a lot more difficult. In fact, I haven't used any rubber bands to hold the pen. I tried, but I failed and in the end, I opted for some tape, because I wanted to test it. It looks very ugly though, and rubber bands are probably better, because they put some tension on the the pen to make it vribrate less.

The rubberbands on the side need to go in during the table assembly.

I had to laugh at your attempt to fix the pen! Great!

[legolijntje]

That's good. I thought of using a half-bush in the assembly so you will see that the distance is not one hole but only half of it

The rubberbands on the side need to go in during the table assembly.

Yea, that half bush solution also sounds nice.

The rubber bands at the side of the table have to be placed during building. I only realized that when I was finished, so I had to break it down a bit to add the rubber bands.

I had to laugh at your attempt to fix the pen! Great!

Well, you even haven't seen it

[Alasdair Ryan]

I don't know quite what I did with the motor cable,I will see If I can find out what....

[freakwave]

I don't know quite what I did with the motor cable,I will see If I can find out what....

Nothing in the file! See my response above, it is somehow an issue of the location of the LSYNTH parts

The electricity wire from the motor is missing the whole instructions.

NOTE!!!: Even my LSYNTH Ddirectory is listed in the config of LDRAW. LDVIEW somehow does not render it through LPUB. LDVIEW is fine. WORKAROUND: I placed the necessary file (LS70.dat) into the "parts" directory seperately

[Alasdair Ryan]

Nothing in the file! See my response above, it is somehow an issue of the location of the LSYNTH parts

The electricity wire from the motor is missing the whole instructions.

NOTE!!!: Even my LSYNTH Ddirectory is listed in the config of LDRAW. LDVIEW somehow does not render it through LPUB. LDVIEW is fine. WORKAROUND: I placed the necessary file (LS70.dat) into the "parts" directory seperately

Well I can see it in my v12 file.

[freakwave]

Well I can see it in my v12 file.

That is interesting, so most probably some path definition in my ldraw config file is missing

In the meantime I also tried to add the rubberbands at the platter submodel, V13 is here.

I am currently re-arraning the steps 19 to 30 to make it build-able and show the half bush offset in the drive.

[Alasdair Ryan]

The cable is showing for me in V13.

I have all the Lsynth parts in all of the dictionary's and sub dictionary's ,also if you have two ldraw parts folders (sr3d) I have them in there too.

[Philo]

I didn't have ls70 installed either, so at first I didn't see PF cable. I generally put everything (official, unofficial and lsynth constraints) in my LDraw folder, this is the best bet to make sure everything works without headeache, but this time I used the recommended way with separated folder. All I had to do was to explain LDview where my constraints folder was located, and cable showed properly in LDView and LPub. freakwave, could it be possible that you have two LDView installed and the one used by lpub is not the same as the stand-alone one?

Otherwise it seems that table rubber bands still need some work (I have not looked closely at LPub code)? right one seems to miss a buffer exchange, I see a round rubber band AND a formed one at page 79, and left one is not there at all. Also, page 87 is weird, with only 4 axle4?

And... if you feel like it, here is an icon to indicate assembly rotation. Note on usage: using LPub>edit>Add picture tend to place image command at the wrong place in source file, and it does use an absolute path making the mpd not portable. The best way is thus to place this command in the source before end of step command:

0 !LPUB INSERT PICTURE "RotIcon.png" SCALE 1 OFFSET 0.8 0.8

It is even more tricky on multistep pages, image must be added in last step code (you may place several images there if needed - the images are global to the page).

Note that you don't have to refresh the code (lengthy process!!!) to show image, just go to previous/next step and come back.

[Alasdair Ryan]

If you want I can do something....just say what.

[freakwave]

I consider myself done with the base ! Just letting LPUB produce all the pictures for a review. I have added a ton of arrows, some more sub-models.

It should be fine by now.

The table etc. would need some adjustment of the rotation steps which are currently in. I will upload V14 in about an hour.

[Blakbird]

I have to say that I'm amazed by this topic. I originally started the topic to present this MOC and see if others were as interested in it as I was. Then I went away on vacation for a couple of weeks and the amount of effort that has been put into the project by the community in the interim is astonishing! I'm looking forward to building the model this weekend. Thanks everyone for all the work. This project should help to show the EB community just how much work producing instructions is and why there are so few people doing it, especially for free.

You are welcome to use my render for the cover, if you wish, or I could make another one if someone has something specific in mind.

[freakwave]

So, here's V14 it looks good to me and I did it till step 53, page 38.

Don't comment on steps 6 and 7, I need to polish them :-)

AND I did not incorporate the improvement to hold the gear.

I will do them independently of the other works that will continue on the model

Now the motor-base needs some cleanup as there were the beams missing in the first step. I move one to the front, but it is better to unpack one of the sub-models as a step 1 for the motor base.

The table needs to be optimized for the placement of the rubberbands.

@philo: I did not clean them up and I used the MLCAD rubberbands so it will involve some tweaking to have them in a proper place. Can SR3D do this automatically?

I think the Rotation Icon shall be placed in the PDF. This is a function I am dearly missing in LPUB. The definition of a ROTSTEP ICON, would not be much code in the LPUB file itself but would be great to have.

[Alasdair Ryan]

SR3D's band generator is not going to work I don't think,you would be better just using MLcad.

[freakwave]

Well, you even haven't seen it

Hm, I know now why you had issues fixing the pen. There is an error in the arms. The 2x4 Liftarm needs to be placed one hole to the front and fitted with two tow-ball pins. Now the rubberbands go in easy!

See the picture over there

[Philo]

Ah - yes! we can see the pen attachment more clearly

[Blakbird]

I built this model this weekend using the V14 instructions and manually making the changes needed to the pen holder bottom bracket. The model works great! My family can't stop playing with it. I built mine with an M motor instead of an L motor because I did not have one available. M-motor works fine and has plenty of torque, just harder to attach.

Once we get the instructions done, the next logical step is to make some sort of list of settings which make good drawings. In his video, PG52 shows R412L which is the first thing I tried and works great. However, some settings don't look good at all, and of course there are many possible combinations (256?). In fact, I also discovered that in addition to driving each arm clockwise or counterclockwise, another option is disabling one of the arms altogether. This also produces some interesting results. Finally, some settings are sensitive to initial conditions. For example, when both the left and right arms are driven at the same speed, you get a different drawing depending on whether the arms begin in phase or out of phase with each other. So far I have tried about 30 different combinations and about half of them produce a result that I would consider worthy of repetition. The others are either boring or a mess.

In terms of future improvements, I think the main thing that would be helpful is the ability to drive the center channel (turntable rotation) at a much slower rate, and perhaps at a ratio that is not a simple multiple of the arms (center gearbox could have different ratios than outer gearboxes).

[TinkerBrick]

I have to second Blakbirds thoughts about this thread. I've been looking into this topic every few days or so. The discussion and the efforts of its participants a stunning. This is so much more than the usual show and tell of forums. I applaud to your commitment to our hobby and to bring its fellowers to a new skills.

[DrJB]

You can also get different patterns if you change the location of the pen. I've been working the math to 'simulate' all such patterns in Matlab ... but work got in the way and time is very 'rare' lately. Another variable I experimented with, is to change the length of the radius on both left/right 40T gears, by using 3L/3L thin liftarms, instead of the 4L. I am guessing that some of the 'boring' patterns you're referring to are those with a period of 7 cycles, and I'm guessing this comes from all the gearboxes using the 'same' gear ratios. I think more 'variety' can be accomplished with different gears (on the front of the unit, all the black DB gears). I also initially calculated that the number of 'unique' combinations is 4×4×4×2×2 = 256 ... but I think there is some symmetry and hence the reason for me writing some Matlab code. Would be much faster to 'explore' the possibilities on a computer screen, finding nice patterns, then reproducing them on the actual machine. Overall though, I can say I'm very pleased with it and here too, the kids have been having a lot of fun with it.