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Manas Machine-Ballista


aidenpons
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So I got the Viking Heavy Artillery Wagon for Christmas, and it has a very interesting firing mechanism. Turning the crank pushes down the soccer seats, which then spring back and fire the bolt - and on a good day it fires a whole meter.

 

The logical step was to build an oversize one capable of firing more... and motorized.

 

I had the choice between Mindstorms, Manas, or an incompete set (two motors + two battery boxes) of Power Functions. I decided to go with the Manas because they could be remote controlled (we didn't have any Power Function remote controls).

 

That was a decently wise choice, because the Mindstorms motors don't produce nearly enough torque to drive the mechanism in mind... but the Manas barely does either. Also, because the Manas uses infrared it won't work in sunlight.

 

But despite all of this, it works.

 

large.0_Main.png.1b1e7bd356f955f69d710c8

 

I needed two Manas motors (=4 outputs, as one Manas brick contains two feeble motors). One for moving around and the other for rotating / firing.

 

Here are the wheels. Because they're geared down with only two gears to go forward you have to press reverse... oops =P It also barely turns, as you can see in the first video down the bottom. There's not really much to see here except excessive reinforcement.

 

large.1_Wheel.png.3baee7128936de318cc046

 

Oh yeah... about excessive reinforcement... I'm running out of long beams so had to do this. It works.

 

large.2_FunnyReinforcment.png.71af1c3c5b

 

Now onto how the thing actually fires. One of the quirks of the Manas motors is that each brick has a total of four outputs, but two of those outputs are linked. I attached manual cranks to the side ones (which click horribly, ugh) but put the main mechanism attached to the ones at the "back." The one on the left drives a short gear chain which leads to a beam. The other, on the right, drives a set of bevel gears (gears at 90 deg to each other), driving a shaft, driving another set of bevel gears attached to a gear chain... yeah, I was running out of gears by the time I finished that. Except for the Bionicle small gears that don't fit nicely on a single Technic beam - got bucketloads of those. More than I do regular spaces in fact, which is why I've used them so often as spacers - it's because spacers are rarer than these gears. The reason I haven't just used those gears is because they're really fiddly to fit on a regular Technic beam.

 

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On the left of the above image are two ultra-heavy Technic joints from amusingly, of all things, Exo-Force Striking Venom! A testament to the fact that you can grab bricks from one theme and put them in something completely different. The beam is rigged up to a Universal Joint (which we got from a Creator boat set of some sort), which is the best way to rotate a rotating beam (and that makes no sense. That is, this position is basically what the Universal Joint is designed for).

 

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That then drives a wormgear with casing taken straight out of Slizers, which heads over to yet some more gears on the right, driving the main final mechanism... Of worth noting is that six rotations of that transparent yellow tooth = one projectile.

 

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Rotating that final beam causes the white things to rotate, pushing the soccer seats, which then spring back when you rotate it a little further, going past their resting point and finally firing the projectiles!

 

large.7_Firingmechanism.png.72f2ec939a41

 

The ammunition salvos are designed to be extended ad infinitum - but I ran out of beams and five-bears. I still haven't run out of those gears. -.-

 

large.6_Ammunition.png.9286996c6faf1ca91

 

Here, have a video of the whole thing working:

 

 

As you can see, it's incredibly ponderous, creaks, shakes, doesn't turn, and fires two shots per minute. I need something with higher torque...

... and that's what I got. Replacing the Manas Motor with a Power Functions motor works brilliantly.

 

 

... but wait, what if we just rigged up that motor straight to the final drive shaft?

 

large.8_PowerFunctions.png.7fe35caa6c9d4

 

 

.... Oh. That's what happens.

 

(and yes my camera sucks at video recording. Hey, at least I had a tripod.)

 

 

I can trace bricks for this creation to:

- Very large quantities of Toa Mata / Nuva / Metru for those gears

- Slizers, for the wormgear box

- Power Miners, for the attachement for the giant gear to the hinges...

-... and the hinges are from Exo-Force

- Nitro Race Team provided every orange brick you see

- Visorak Oohnorakhsjhjbblahblah for that transparent yellow piece

- Some Sport seats for those seats

- Power Miners again, for those wheels

- Manas (dur)

 

 

At some future point in time, when I get a Power Functions remote controller, I will build a sequel - faster, quicker, and better! :D

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