Moira Rose is DEAD!
urgggh there is so much shit i wanna work on right now, but its so damn hot.
I want continue building up the waltzer, i want solder up a few rafters to make sure they are functional & i want to print some more parts for the waltzer but noooo the weather says no 😒
I cant even watch any tv shows cause my headset just makes me hot and sweaty😭
Distribution board all soldered up
I fucked up the pinout for the headers, so i had to rotate the connector 180 degrees, i was high when designing it, so it could have gone way worse lol
I could have left it as it was, but the cable colors are reversed. I could rearrange all the wires in the connectors, but thats way to much work, especially considering im probably the only person who will ever use one of these pcbs 😂
I have no idea why my phone appears to have such a shallow depth of field, its pretty annoying, especially when something like this board should fairly easily fit, in focus, in a single image.
They have arrived😈
The rafter pcbs
I haven't got any bananas, so heres a pencil for scale
G for Ground
5 for 5V
I for data input
O for data output.
I ordered 100, received 107
The distribution board
The distribution board sits recessed into the paybox roof, I was originally going to have a hole in the paybox roof for the data and power wires to go though, but i realized i could just solder them to the underside of the board.
This is the distribution board PCB, The markings for the connectors are, P# for paybox, and R# for the rafters.
The pins for 5v, gnd, pdi and rdi wont actually be pins, ill probably directly solder them as i cant see a reason for the distribution board to be removed.
This is the rafter led board, cant really get a good image of it cause its so long.
Its 228mm long by 3mm wide... which will be fun to solder lmao.
This pcb is made to fit all the rafters, I have some marks on the back to indicate the place to cut it for the shorter rafters.
When you cut the board to length for the shorter rafters, there is some pads on the back of the pcb to join it to the data input/output for the next rafter. I was laying the board out when i was high, so im not 100% sure i put the pads in the right place 😂
At the paybox end of the rafter pcb, it has solder pads for data in, data out, 5v and gnd.
The distribution board is basically 2 massive copper pours, one side for 5v and one for gnd, that way there shouldn't be any issue with voltage drop like on those led strips you can buy.
I know your probably thinking, "why didn't he just buy some led strips instead of making his own", well, those led strips, the thinnest i could find was 4mm and they were EXPENSIVE, also they had slightly larger leds (im using ws2812c-2020 leds (2mm x 2mm)), oh and they didnt have the right spacing between the leds. Im using 4.5mm spacing on centers and in the end, it was cheaper to make my own 🤷♂️
I worked out the spacing by using countless pictures and videos of waltzer rides, and then buying some Cabochon and using those dimensions to figure out the spacing.
Thats a Cabochon btw, not the actual gemstones they are (presumably) named after.
That was much longer post than expected😂
THEY ARE COMING!!!
just woke up cause of the heat, the pcbs are now 40.7 miles away🤞
The rafter pcbs are on the way, its in the DHL facility 50 miles away, lets see how long it takes to arrive
I forgot the picture of them all finished
The stringing between bulbs is easily resolved with a lighter.
I wanna get one of those mini blowtorches that chefs use, but it feels wrong to pay 30 for something a lighter can do just as well.
Ive been gluing the "bulbs" into the rafters, It seems to be going rather well.
I tried 2 different ways of glueing them in, one by putting the glue on the bulbs, and one by putting the glue on the rafter and then inserting the bulbs. I would say the glue on the rafters worked way better, but does use a but more glue.
Oh, and if u end up doing this... yeah, do it outside. I did it whilst watching Bargain Hunt and my nose and eyes are irritated, which is unsurprising considering its almost 1000 drops of super glue 😂
Here are some pictures of the process. I cant be bothered to annotate them, they should be pretty self explanatory.
The bulbs are 3mm diameter, So i dont think these turned out to bad for an FDM printer🤷♂️
I have kinda worked out how to keep the steps in place.
Its a bit janky, and needs another hole in the front posts (might weaken them?), but it might work ok🤷♂️
Just realized i have to re-print the front 2 posts, The handrail holes are in the wrong place 😭
Thankfully, its cooled down a bit now.
Im trying to work out the best way to handle the front steps of the waltzer.
This is what i currently have.
I dont know if i should print them as they exist in the real world, i.e each step its own separate object, or if i should just print them as a 4 objects.
This is the underside, they have a frame support for the ends of each steps, i cant decide if i want to add something else to help prevent the steps from slipping off.
At the moment i have the frame support "booled" into the steps, so there is a little notch for the frame to sit in, which should help prevent side to side movement.
I get the feeling that it wont be enough and that i should have something to stop them from sliding forward and coming loose, But i cant work out how to do it, the steps are too thin to reliably hold a steel dowel, so i dont think that would work.
If i print the steps in 4 parts (most likely), it would be less likely to slip... maybe?🤷♂️
Its 29c outside and damn near close to 40 inside. I hate this fucking weather. Give me cold and rainy any day of the week.
I wanna work more on the waltzer, but the heat is fucking horrible😭
The hinges have been attached.
I have no idea what these are called, so i just call them hinge bar supports. They exist on the real ride, presumably to keep the hinge bar from just flapping around and letting the wheel come into contact with the moving platforms.
The top of the moving platforms. I tried to add some kinda wood design to make it a little more realistic, i did print a plain topped one ages ago, but it looks... odd.
The ring on the blue platforms is for the car wheels to ride on. I was originally going to just have them recessed for a washer or something to fit in the space, so it was actually metal, but i couldn't find any thing fit and still looked right. I could cover these with aluminum tape i suppose, i might give that a try at some point.
Hinge bars are constructed.
I used 2x10mm steel dowel pins as axles.
They work well, i could have used the old ones i made, but i fucked up the hole diameter and glued the pins in, so they wernt removable without destroying the little wheel mount thing😬
I knew i was gonna post updated to here about the waltzer, but its basically becoming a waltzer build log 😂
Just put the wheels together, Im using 18 5x4x10mm (10mm outer, 4mm inner & 5mm thickness) bearings as i was the closest i could get to the correct scale (1/24).
I would like to add a cover of some kind around the outside of the bearing, something grippy, but i couldn't come up with anything.
Lego wheels are to big (at least the ones i found).
TPU is soft, but not grippy.
I did try heatshrink tubing, but if i shrunk the tubing around a single bearing, its REALLY hard to trim it flush enough it doesn't interfere with anything else. Then i tried doing a bunch in a single tube, shrink it, then cut the tube to separate each bearing, but they would slide out of the tubing.
I did try adhesive tubing too, but the glue interfered with the rotation of the bearing.
So im kinda at a loss what else to try 🤷♂️
Just tested the chamfered version and its greatly improved the swing angle of the hingebar.
Here is a terrible picture of the increased swing angle.
Hopefully that increase will make it easier for the wheels to maintain contact with the track, and not require any extra weights.
Last night i printed the first batch of "new" hingebars, the same model as the one i test printed and i know i said it had a steep angle to it, but looking at it this morning, it could be better.
Where the moving platform butts up against the hinge bar, there is still a gap, which means something is keeping it from fully reaching its potential swing angle.
I have added a chamfer to the edge, which should give it a few more degrees of movement, hopefully...
I would add a chamfer to the other edge, but it would only be a visual thing and almost never seen, and thats the print bed side, so eh
Just spent 20 on DK (Dorling Kindersley) pc cd-roms🤷♂️
So i adjusted the hinge bars of the waltzer the other day. The then current ones were working fine, but i miscalculated the distance needed between the track and the top of the moving platform, so when the walkways were in place, the moving platforms were scraping against them when it was in a valley.
I moved the location of the wheel axle hole so it raises the platforms 2mm higher, printed out a test piece and gave it a go, but the swing radius was really bad, so it will make it even more difficult for the wheel to be in constant contact with the track.
I just adjusted the design again, this time ive moved the hinge hole so its 1mm closer to the edge, it doesn't sound like alot, but i just tested it and even without any breaking in, it wants to rest at a pretty steep angle, so im printing a new set and im gonna test it on the ride and see how it handles the valleys and hills now.
My words suck, here is some pictures.
Ignore the thing sticking out the side.