the great ball contraption

In this challenge we were tasked with creating a contraption out of lego and the components we had used up until this point, with each students section connecting to the one ahead and behind it. The whole contraption would transport a series of small plastic balls in a loop. It did not come together, in the end. Pictured above is a rough sketch of my concept.

plans changed allot during the challenge. the structure that had the balls fall down proved incredibly fragile, and after it all shattered after taking it out, i decided to change it greatly. in the end it turned out to be that original structure, but compressed to one, less fragile tower. with many slope blocks within that makes the balls fall back and forth, making a sound like shaking balls in a drink mixer.

Final reflection:

in the process of completing this challenge i learned that regular Lego is much, much better for building proper structure than the EV3 "Lego". i also learned the way that a standard Lego escalator interacts with its pick up and drop off point. I learned about the limitations of my own abilities in executing on big, ambitious projects.

One thing that went well was that the module that i made worked, more or less, As it was supposed to, which was great! i really liked just feeding it balls, and watching my creation work on it own.

The one, big thing that didn't go as planned was connecting my module to the next, and getting the previous to connect to mine. Specifically, the previous module, which was a conveyor belt, couldn't connect to mine, often getting stuck on the ramp leading up to mine, and then breaking it. and connecting mine to the next was an even bigger challenge. The next module had to be fed higher than first expected, so i had to make an escalator. Not only did i not have enough pins to have it pick up balls at the needed rate, but i couldn't connect the exit of the tower, to the ramp itself. Similar problems applied to basically all the others modules, and as of now, we have not been able to make a complete loop.

One thing that i need to improve upon in order for this to work is getting it so that my module connects to the next. and i think that applies to everyone's module.

as far as code goes, there isn't all that much, but, this is the code that makes it all work.

ill upload a video once i can get it to upload to you tube

I hereby dub this robot: The Great Ball Contraption.