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Mechanical and mechatronics design engineer here. The complexity isn't in the manufacturing of the gears. It was extremely difficult back then, easy now. The

Mechanical and mechatronics design engineer here. The complexity isn't in the manufacturing of the gears. It was extremely difficult back then, easy now. The challenge is in the design. Even with today's advanced CAD software I use and access to CNC machines, etc. It would be quite the project for me to design one of these. A lot of it is that much of the real in depth complicated mechanical engineering isn't super common anymore, much of it has been replaced with electronics and computers. I've made a good niche for myself kind of being the old school mechanical engineer who knows how to design those old school type mechanisms, but with modern CAD and design automation software tools.

djmips 3y ago
Have you thought of making an automata? Perhaps not as complex as this but just as a cool hobby project?
- iancmceachern 3y ago
  Not really (although thinking now!). My dad's a master jeweler, I've always wanted to make a fancy Orrey with him.
6510 3y ago
If imagined as discrete logic components there could be a HDL to model the logic while ignoring the challenges of folding it into a box. The cam is an immutable fixed length array of fixed length arrays. It actually seems like a useful enough thing to have it in a programming language. The arms read a value from one place and write it some place else like a multiplication or division like contraption that turns 1 cm of motion into 2. Having it do one thing after the other (by default) seems challenging but not impossible. What would a for loop look like? I cant begin to imagine how to design such a device but if you provided less complicated building blocks it seems something one could learn pretty fast.
- iancmceachern 3y ago
  This video from Technology Connections on old mechanical pinball machines does a great job of explaining how a lot of this stuff can be done mechanically. Re: your for loop question, check out how they handle the scoring and I think it'll give you some ideas. https://youtu.be/ue-1JoJQaEg?si=k2uUkNuO6cVKcTk6 https://youtu.be/ue-1JoJQaEg?si=k2uUkNuO6cVKcTk6
  - 6510 3y ago
    you were right, I get it now. The score wheel (by lack of better term) can be used as a variable if it outputs cam positions for each digit but it can also trigger a mechanism with each increment. You can have for loop kind of operations using multiple variables.

djmips 3y ago

Have you thought of making an automata? Perhaps not as complex as this but just as a cool hobby project?

iancmceachern 3y ago
Not really (although thinking now!). My dad's a master jeweler, I've always wanted to make a fancy Orrey with him.

6510 3y ago

If imagined as discrete logic components there could be a HDL to model the logic while ignoring the challenges of folding it into a box. The cam is an immutable fixed length array of fixed length arrays. It actually seems like a useful enough thing to have it in a programming language. The arms read a value from one place and write it some place else like a multiplication or division like contraption that turns 1 cm of motion into 2. Having it do one thing after the other (by default) seems challenging but not impossible. What would a for loop look like? I cant begin to imagine how to design such a device but if you provided less complicated building blocks it seems something one could learn pretty fast.

iancmceachern 3y ago
This video from Technology Connections on old mechanical pinball machines does a great job of explaining how a lot of this stuff can be done mechanically. Re: your for loop question, check out how they handle the scoring and I think it'll give you some ideas. https://youtu.be/ue-1JoJQaEg?si=k2uUkNuO6cVKcTk6 https://youtu.be/ue-1JoJQaEg?si=k2uUkNuO6cVKcTk6
- 6510 3y ago
  you were right, I get it now. The score wheel (by lack of better term) can be used as a variable if it outputs cam positions for each digit but it can also trigger a mechanism with each increment. You can have for loop kind of operations using multiple variables.