Sjack Abeling Gravity Wheel and the Worlds first Weight Power Plant

[mondrasek]

You need to let it run for a few seconds before you remove the motor and you will see what I mean. It also depends where you remove the motor, bit hard to explain.

I will update the picture above to again show the extended axle dumbbells from the front so it is clear that the spheres are NOT the weights itself, but rather a sideview of one of the axles. (in yellow).

I do not know about you, but this flow concept is good enough for me to start building a prototype which will fit on a desktop. Initial size estimate would be 40cm height, including stands. ALL WOOD except for bearing, weight and axles.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say.  I removed the motor by deleting it.  I replaced it with a pin joint (axle).  The wheel will sway back and forth but not spin.  If you add a free falling weight to collide with one arm to induce an initial spin it will also stop quickly.  So far the model appears to mimic the real world actions of any gravity wheel built with ramps to move the balls towards the axle.

I'm not saying Abeling does not have something real.  And I believe you have done a hell of a job investigating and modeling the path.  But I don't think the device is complete yet.  I think there must be some other mechanism(s) that gather energy in the lower left quadrant and use that to somehow accelerate the ball up the ramp.  And somehow this must also create an energy gain, if the wheel is to spin.

Abeling may have been happy to allow the video team to see the wheel as shown.  The critical piece(s) might not have been on display.

M.

[mondrasek]

The safest way is to use a pin, and then to drop a weight on it what will fall off.. Then you have a starting speed, with no after influence.

Exactly!  I also put a fixed barrier with elasticity of .005 under the weight so it has a place to land.  If not it continues to fall forever and may blow up the program.  Also, if not stopped it is wasting computation cycles (time).

[Cherryman]

Exactly!

Better will be a selfstarting one! 

[mindsweeper]

A note on deleting calculated frames in WM2D

After you reset the simulation click Measure then Time, (time measure window opens) click it and delete or cut, all calculated frames are gone, save for minimal size.

Quick and easy and you don't have to touch the model.

Great thread by the way...

[Omnibus]

So, how does one get rid of this motor and why was it part of this construction in the first place?