flipping the magnet on a TOMI Track. MM Concept.

[PwrDream]

Ok, I probably should have put this in the Half Baked forum, and I'll move it if necessary, but I was wanting to get some ideas, opinions from magnetic motor forum posters to see if I could get pointed in the right direction.

I've been playing with tomi tracks, and while i was playing with the idea, I was sitting at my desk clicking away at a ballpoint pen.  This pen happens to have messages that rotate in place every time you click it... and then it hit me... what if I was to put a spring loaded mechanism on each side of my traveling magnet that would click/flip with the force of impact once the traveling magnet hit the end of the track.

Once flipped, the magnet would travel back into the opposite direction and flip again.

Anyone have any ideas on how to make a spring loaded mechanism that "flips" the magnet?  I'm working on dissecting them mechanical flip-message pen I have, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel... if anyone knows of a child's toy or item that does this "flipping" via a mechanical spring/gear mechanism, please let me know.... I'm googling like crazy....

Thanks,

PwrDream

[mscoffman]

Good idea. There are almost as many designs for this as there are
clickable ballpoint pens. What happens I think is as you press down on
the button, a rotary spring torsion is created, sometimes by a mechanical spring
sometimes on the plastic cartridge holding the ink. By a little gear tooth type
method. At a certain level torsion that gear tooth thingy in the button, "strips"
with a click and the cartridge is rotated one gear tooth notch and the torsion
reset. The stripping action doesn't damage the plastic gear teeth permanently.
The cartridge rotation is what makes the cartridge and point go in and out, it can
also make a message revolve through a clear window in the pen body. If you
release the button before the threshold tension is released by the click, things
rotate back to normal. I believe this a variant of the verge and folio method
devised for pendulum clocks.

I was thinking this weekend how magnetic fields seem to lack the "impulse" that comes
automatically with an electrical current and are extremely useful in getting mechanical
systems moving in the right/certain direction rather than moving to an intermediate balanced
position. These impulses must be energetically somewhat expensive to produce.  The "click"
is such an impulse and the "ballpoint" method directs the reaction properly inline with the
motion.


S: MarkSCoffman