LOL!

Code:

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I put together the windmill in Anim8or, so if anybody has any ideas I can actualy see if they work...

Here's a render; I know the textures dont match very well with the in-game ones, but they work well enough. The image is a 1600x1200 Jpeg, click the thumbnail to enlarge it to full size.

Yes my solution is etremely complex and epicyclic gears are not a area for the faint hearted.

If you really want to do your head in follow the link
[url]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicyclic_gearing

[/url]

To be honest it is unlikely that the windmill would use this as a solution it is far to complex to engineer for a visual effect.

It is however one possible solution.

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however Jkla, i f no one comes up with a better idea then we may be forced to go with that. lol.

Mabe it was part of one of Atrus's science projects, and didn't want it to go to waste, lol.

A small back story could be writte around that

Thanks for provinding that link by the way, The math part goes over my head, but the images made sense



/\ from Jkla's link /\

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I've been thinking about this far too much since my initial post.

It is kind of possible, but pretty pointless because the top part wouldn't actually do anything. Here's a simple example - unfortunately the parts I had at my disposal didn't allow me to put the central shaft in, but you should get the idea. This picture is with the handle and counterweight removed for clarity. Sorry that it's slightly out of focus...



The green bit at the bottom is the bottom wooden part. It has a large cog attached to the top of it which doesn't rotate. In the real item the central shaft would pass down through a hole in the middle of the large cog and down into the ground. The large cog in this instance doesn't allow the shaft to rotate in the central hole (it's for turning the cog normally).

Sat on top of the large cog is a plate which the central shaft would attach to. Depending on how the handle is attached, the central shaft could either carry up on and the handle/counterweight pivots to the side of it, or the shaft could stop and restart from the top plate.

On either end of the plate are two smaller cogs that connect to the stationary large cog. The slightly larger cogs below the smaller cogs are to stop the other cogs from disengaging. (The end bits don't have to be cogs at all - I just needed something wider than the small cogs).

The small cogs each have a shaft that goes straight up, through the upper plate and connects to another small cog at the top. This then transfers the motion to another large cog at the top. The upper wooden part would then be fastened to this second large cog.



Standing up, with the handle and counterweight attached.



Side view.

It does work. Because the gear ratios top and bottom are the same, as the central bit turns the upper cog stays at the same angle as the lower cog. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to get my camera to do video (and I can't find my tripod), so I can't show it in action right now.

I think I've just earned my "geek" badge.

haha, thats awsome! And here I was about to but out my 800 pices of K'nex

I would love to see it in action!

Yes and an epicyclic would internalise the gearing so it would not be visible. Stunning model given the problem and the time restraints.

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this type of gear set (planetary) is often found in overdrive gear boxes in cars and trucks.

fantastic model by the way. well done. ty

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semplers' shards

Great work

The next question would have to be: Why has it been built this way?