Sjack Abeling Gravity Wheel and the Worlds first Weight Power Plant

[i_ron]

Larry,

Is this what other prefer to call "grooves"?

ruggero

ruggero,

The use of the word groove confused me also...

A groove generally has a bottom and does not go all the way
through...

" a long, narrow cut or indentation in a surface, as the cut in a board to receive the tongue of another board (tongue-and-groove joint), a furrow, or a natural indentation on an organism."

Another example would be..." a vee belt runs in a groove"

So Larry's terminology is good english if the "groove" callers
would take note, thanks

Larry, good observation on the inclined plane!

Ron
PS: generally a slot goes all the way through as in a coin slot,
or mail slot. Whereas a grove generally has a bottom and two sides as in the following graphics... of a coin slot and a deep groove ball bearing...but english does have it's peculiarities... as for example, a slot car racer runs in a groove!

[ruggero]

  Thank you Larry and I-ron,

I fell enlightened...

Now I will call a 'cut-all-the-way-through-guide-track' a slot.
And call a 'cut-half-through-...' a groove.

ruggero 

[rlortie]

Hello Ron,

I too have been confused with the term 'groove'...

Luckily Dusty who appears to be the major if not only hands on builder of this machine calls them 'slots' as he knows that a groove would be impractical.

@Larry

Your ramp to slot angles look good, this I would call the 'angle of attack' and the more oblique you can keep it the less friction you will encounter. That is up to a point of where the higher percentage is resting on the wheel.

I have high respect for Dusty, he is my kind of man. Just build the darn thing and quit using this thread as a simulation tutorial. Dusty will discover more by accident than any of you will achieve with your simulations.

This does not mean that I believe or endorse this Sjack design, my experience with comparable designs tells me that it will never reach any farther than Dusty has already achieved.

As Bessler stated and translated by John Collins; if it will not run with one then adding more is futile. Adding more increases the symmetrical pattern and the points of equilibrium will stay the same. If it will not run with one with a counter weight at 180 from the point of expulsion from the inner ramp then it will never turn.

A suggestion to Dusty; please try what I have explained above. with only one set of weights installed add the equivalent in a fixed counter weight. You may find the results interesting.

Ralph Lortie 

[Omnibus]

Don't discard simulations. They have their own very important role in scientific research. @Dusty is doing a great job and ultimately, as is usually the case in science, that will be the experimental confirmation of the conjecture that such devices are physical. However, simulations help in uncovering the underlying phenomena and among other things help to optimize the design by making easy the testing of multiple parameters which otherwise will be very difficult to do, if at all possible. Too bad that people don't have Autodesk 3ds Max easily available to have more activity in this area. The unavailability of the program is the real problem here, not that simulations are under way.

One solution is to have those who make the simulations post vids. Unfortunately, my computer is too slow for such rendering and I'm unable to post videos of what we're doing. I wish @Cherryman liberates himself again from the MiB's (remember how he resisted and won over them the last time) and participates in these simulations. Recall how he was looking for a way to do 3D simulations. We also need @mondrasek's expertise in this. Where has he gone? Hans too. @AquariuZ, Stefan, @einsenficker2000, @ruggero. Well, I can't list everybody obviously. @Jubjub, did something fantastic and we have to jump right in that marvelous possibility he opened before us to have a realistic simulation of such devices. I'm looking very much forward to more simulations.

[Omnibus]

Stefan,

Wonder if a dxf from @Jubjub's device will do any good. This 30 degree offset of the second pair of wheels will be lost in the wm2d sim. As a matter of fact, I think we already have wm2d sims with that kind of slotted wheel. Although, @rlortie may have a point in that if one wheel doesn't work more won't help. Hard to tell. Too many factors are involved and we see sometimes we observe counter intuitive things (CCW rotation while intuitively it appears the expected to be CW and so on).