Powell's Power Pendulum

[1quasar1]

Hello again everyone. I have a new video posted on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/1quasar1 please forgive the quality and amateur presentation. Not my bag.   I will try to get a better camera and have a better layout as soon as possible. Until then. 
Thanks for watching and please feel free to comment.

[1quasar1]

Hello Jim. It is a simple question and my answer  is yes but to achieve that for me is a lofty goal. However I am quite a stubborn mechanic and not afraid of failure or criticism. The problem as I see it, is maintaining any consistent arc with variables in the load. I think that 90 degrees would be sufficient if lash and friction were reduced. As to driving the pendulum I have tried a crank and collapsing rod approach and found that the gear motor driven unloaded used as much energy as the unit put out and spiked from being push back loaded. Can't use that approach but it showed me that this will not come easy. Any advice is welcome and appreciated. I will keep trying and posting any finds.
Dave

[oscar]

Hi 1quasar1,

I hope you manage to achieve your goal.
I recently did some searching in the database of the European patent office.
And I found an oldish patent (DE3326663) and got reminded of it when i saw your set-up.
One difference to your's is, that you have the 'carriage' sliding horizontally below the pendulum whereas in the patent he has placed it above.
There also seems to be a ratchet mechanism involved to keep it going.
And as far as I understand his carriage gets tilted a tiny bit, when it is in the displaced position. But am not sure.

You probably won't be able to read it, for German not being your language, but maybe you 'enjoy' the drawings.

See at:
http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=DE&NR=3326663A1&KC=A1&FT=D&date=19850502&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_V3
The drawings are at the end of the original document.
You can download the whole pdf document.

Good luck with your endeavors.

[gyulasun]

You probably won't be able to read it, for German not being your language, but maybe you 'enjoy' the drawings.

Hi Folks,

http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?adjacent=true&KC=A1&date=19850502&NR=3326663A1&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&CC=DE&FT=D

If you click on the Description icon in the Menu line under the title of the patent you will get the German text page of the patent (unfortunately with several spelling mistakes, unlike the PDF text)  and you will see a Translate icon in the right hand side. By clicking on the Translate, you will receive the computer translation of the German text into English in a new page.  Unfortunately the spelling problems will be 'untranslateable' to the their software, besides some technical words, but all in all it will be more useful than nothing.

rgds, Gyula

[1quasar1]

Many thanks Oscar and Gyula. I looked at this device and I'm not sure I fully grasp the concept but I have picked the site as a favorite and will study it more. I would not have seen the translation button had you not mentioned it Gyula. Thanks again.

Dave