Absolutely wild seeing a motor with both the precision to gently pick up marbles and the power to fling them across the room, all without any springs or rubber bands to store mechanical energy. This is certainly good marketing for them.
@@hoakuroija1089 Of course you could do that, and it would make a much more efficient catapult, but it wouldn't show off the capabilities of the motor as well.
I love how much fun you had with this. An engineer living his best life, using servo motors to throw marbles through cardboard. Most enjoyable thing I've seen in a while.
It's always surprising to see the accuracy of a real industral motion system hitting the exact same point on the cardboard. I built a sewing machine before and was surprised to put the material back through for a second pass during debug and see it apparently not sew at all.... On investigation, it was passing the needle through the same holes it made on the first pass!
I saw a video on something similar with those ultra precise bench guns. Guy dialing in a bunch of settings and hit the sweet spot for repeatability but didn't realise, and spent several minutes trying to figure out what happened to his bullets, figuring he'd screwed something up. He'd actually put 4 bullets through the same hole from some unreasonable distance, without even tearing the edges.
That acceleration is impressive. I saw a battery-powered Milwaukee framing nailer at a job site yesterday and I was wondering how it worked without gas cartridges. No one I asked was even curious about how an electric motor could accelerate a nail fast enough to be effective.
Why, I personally never leave the house without my 50cm tall capacitor, you never know when the local nuclear plant might need some temporary storage real quick
So jealous of this guy. Seems successful, beautiful wife who's willing to share in his hobbies, couple of kids, nerding out in the workshop he built himself, and he lives in Canada. The real American dream.
Magnificent! I particularly love the cap that you added. When I was a kid (I'm about at parity with you age-wise, I think) the local telephone exchange got ripped out and upgraded, as well as a long distance fiber termination. The dumpster diving got me a half-dozen capacitors about that physical size: 1.68 F at 70v. My dad and I took to calling them "electrolytic soup cans"
Great demo of the servo motor. Learning how to take advantage of the motor's capabilities is the first step in any application. BONUS: Fun time with your kids!
It's awesome to see some less serious projects on your channel! I also like playing with tech in non-serious way, it is fun and somehow fills life with a meaning!
I like the sound of stepper motors. Was given two bags of motors many years ago, real expensive ones from a billion dollar machine sorting mail that was being parcially decomissioned. perfect stuff to play with, so far i have used like 3 % of all the motors but i have some ideas of what to do :) :) :)
You know, I don't know jack about coding, but I keep coming back for more of these vids. Keep up the AWESOME content man. I can't get enough of your beautiful mind.
I still think one of the neatest applications of servo motors was ServoDrive's subwoofers. Apparently compared to traditional magnet/cone design, the servo subs were much more linear as they approached their limits. Only downside was, that they needed belts that were sometimes a pain to replace.
How about you make the spoon hold the marble so that the only way it will release is if the motor stops. That would allow you to spin a full revolution to get up to max rpm before throwing. Then maybe you could cut a circle in a piece of plywood... lol.
My wood lathe has a 220v Servo Spindle Motor and it's a delightful feature. Instant response to torque needs and wide range for speed control. Not sure if the motor you have would be a good fit for that application,.
It could do that too. But what it can also do is go to positions precisely and quickly, which your lathe motor probably can't do, cause there's no need for it.
You are a penultimate creator. Boggles my mind seeing you work through mastering problems. Keep on thinking and doing and sharing with us. Oops, change penultimate to ultimate, the best.
I've been using servos a lot lately. Mostly 400V 3-5kW. They are fun. I used ethercat and industrial PLCs to control them. You can actually control ethercat servo drives with a raspberry pi and codesys.
Oh, that's interesting to know! I've written Modbus programs for use in the lab and I've been thinking about adding Ethernet/IP support if I ever get a chance, but we don't normally work with Ethercat and I guess I assumed it would require special hardware. We mostly do oil & gas stuff but we do pick up oddball jobs from time to time and Ethercat might be another useful tool in the kit.
My first thought would be to make the marble cup deep enough to hold the marble at the very bottom position. You could then use the longer arm and accelerate for 180 degrees to the top position. Instead of the immediate stop it could slow just enough to release the marble then use the remaining forward rotation to slow down to the bottom starting position. That deceleration would be much more gentle. The feeder would need a little redesign with a spring catch to allow the arm to pass by then back into it.
I've found the slow-motion video recording of my phone invaluable for diagnosing misbehaving machinery. If the pocket in the arm is properly shaped you might be able to give the arm a full rotation and a third for more launch speed!
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Perhaps some sort of rudimentary ratchet system or latch could make it so that the gate only opens when the motor is spinning "backwards"/down. Maybe even just a very slight ramp leading up to the actuator on the loading gate? The speeds involved might make things... interesting, though.
If you could accelerate the arm before it gets to the marble? That would make it very powerful. Starting from a standing start everytime can't be nearly as quick? The marble feed would need a little work though.
The beauty of using the motor like this is that it doesn't self destruct like catapults often do. Hitting the marble that stationary on the other hand would cause it to self destruct rather quickly.
You should curve the throwing arm and have it load closer to the motor shaft and then roll up the arm through the rotation. This way you could make the arm longer and you would have more torque to get the marble in motion, and also more speed as it reaches the end of the arm. Kind of like cracking a whip.
Hey! Since you have a Servo you could just accelerate constantly over multiple revolutions and time it nicely so when approaching max motor rpm the shoot happens by inversing the direction. This way you could go much much faster. Just the auto reloading wont work any more.
Could you get more velocity by accelerating for a full circle before release? If spoon speed can be smoothly increased throughout, it might help to keep the marble in until it's at the right spot again?
With a bigger spoon, would it be possible to accelerate the marble for a whole turn, or even longer? That way it should be possible to accelerate an arm of almost any length up to speed fully. It would need a different loading mechanism if you do this manually and a very stable control curve, or good covers. But that could make it properly dangerous and bring the marble up to much greater speeds.
the problem with going a whole turn is I wouldn't be able to use the pickup lever to trigger marble releases anymore. But I since realized I could go 3/4 of a turn and shoot underhand.
"I'm probably including too many clips of this thing shooting marbles" Don't kid yourself, you know why we're here, we all wanted to see it cut out a circle just as much as you did 😅
I wonder if you would get more power if you had the pickup point under the servo so it can do 180 before releasing and get up more speed. might need a redesigned cup to not launch prematurely.
Can it decelerate faster? You could maybe have it do a full rotation before releasing, with some adjustments to the arm to keep the marble from releasing
Looking forward to future videos on these devices. Is there a way you can show what kind of motor is used? I wasn't sure if it was a brushed DC design or something along those lines as servo motors are often just conventional motors (brushed or brushless) with a feedback device like a rotary encoder and controller.
How fast can you stop? If you can't get enough speed with that lever length ....if 1/4 of a circle is not enough to achieve max speed because acceleration requirement is insane, you could rotate the lever for a full circle + 1/4 of turn. Marble setting would need to be redesigned...maybe make it deeper to resist centripetal force so when the lever stops inertia steps in? :)
To get more marble speed, could you modify the spoon such that the marble would stay in place for a full (or several) revolutions of the arm instead of just 120 degrees or whatever that is, giving the motor more of a chance to accelerate closer to its full speed? I was thinking how a hand-powered sling works
The most convoluted circle cutting jig I've ever seen. I love it.
edge quality isn't great, and plywood would take forever
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Sounds like you're describing most youtube CNCs
Hey I was going to say that. Perfectly sensible haha
You mean axial rail gun.
Another thought: trebuchet 😈
I assume the guys from DMM didn't know what video they would get but I think they were served really well.
they know they will get servod well ;)
They were actually quite happy with the pre-release I showed them. Surprisingly!
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221marble joy is universal
Hear me out:
A remake of Home Alone only Kevin defends his home with things Matthias built.
Like the wasp killing machines? Matthias takes no prisoners.
Bad guys die in first five minutes. Only works as a preview to the main feature :)
Absolutely wild seeing a motor with both the precision to gently pick up marbles and the power to fling them across the room, all without any springs or rubber bands to store mechanical energy. This is certainly good marketing for them.
How about adding a spring or a rubber band to store energy and get the thing spinning faster
@@hoakuroija1089 Of course you could do that, and it would make a much more efficient catapult, but it wouldn't show off the capabilities of the motor as well.
Can't help laugh that this video was interrupted by an ad for industrial injury compensation 😅.
Brilliant video Matthias.
Thank goodness he's on our side.
I love how much fun you had with this. An engineer living his best life, using servo motors to throw marbles through cardboard. Most enjoyable thing I've seen in a while.
It's always surprising to see the accuracy of a real industral motion system hitting the exact same point on the cardboard. I built a sewing machine before and was surprised to put the material back through for a second pass during debug and see it apparently not sew at all.... On investigation, it was passing the needle through the same holes it made on the first pass!
I saw a video on something similar with those ultra precise bench guns. Guy dialing in a bunch of settings and hit the sweet spot for repeatability but didn't realise, and spent several minutes trying to figure out what happened to his bullets, figuring he'd screwed something up. He'd actually put 4 bullets through the same hole from some unreasonable distance, without even tearing the edges.
The medical examiner was baffled, they had never seen a home invader killed with marbles.
Thanks to Jörg Sprave, they do, I guess.
MATTHIAS!!! You are having WAY too much fun learning and pushing the boundaries of stepper/servo technology.
Adorable Canadian kids with eye protection helping dad with his cool marble gun. This is why I come to RUclips
Matthias could make kinetic sculptures with these industrial servos
I love how well PID control works with servos. Once you've got braking and acceleration dialed in, you could put those marbles through the wall!
That acceleration is impressive. I saw a battery-powered Milwaukee framing nailer at a job site yesterday and I was wondering how it worked without gas cartridges. No one I asked was even curious about how an electric motor could accelerate a nail fast enough to be effective.
as far as I know, they pressurize air and use that. Could also be spring loaded, but probably air.
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221I'd imagine it works similar to an electric airsoft gun
Great video! DMM is about to witness an unexpected peak of sales for Christmas.
This is at the same time both terrifying and awesome. Great video!
"I guess it's a lot bigger than the one in the supply itself" - you think?
Why, I personally never leave the house without my 50cm tall capacitor, you never know when the local nuclear plant might need some temporary storage real quick
Still the best engineering content on RUclips.
So jealous of this guy. Seems successful, beautiful wife who's willing to share in his hobbies, couple of kids, nerding out in the workshop he built himself, and he lives in Canada. The real American dream.
you see the instagram version of life, but on youtube
You had a fun time, it's my kind of fun. This is a huge stepper motor
Magnificent!
I particularly love the cap that you added.
When I was a kid (I'm about at parity with you age-wise, I think) the local telephone exchange got ripped out and upgraded, as well as a long distance fiber termination.
The dumpster diving got me a half-dozen capacitors about that physical size: 1.68 F at 70v.
My dad and I took to calling them "electrolytic soup cans"
not sure where I saved that one from, but glad I had it
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 everybody needs an electrolytic soup can once in a while!
What a rather convoluted circle cutting jig, thanks Matthias, helps a lot!
Great demo of the servo motor. Learning how to take advantage of the motor's capabilities is the first step in any application. BONUS: Fun time with your kids!
It's awesome to see some less serious projects on your channel! I also like playing with tech in non-serious way, it is fun and somehow fills life with a meaning!
Use paintballs and see if you can make some art. Possibilities are endless. Very cool.
If it's the torque that's an issue, and not speed, you can modify the cup so you can do a full rotation (or more) before launching.
At the cost of being able to use this kind of reloading mechanism, I think.
@robertobryk4989 Yes, that's true
I wondered about that too
This is a more entertaining demonstration than the "stepper symphony" videos that play songs from poorly tuned stepper drives. Bravo!
Woot! Marble mayhem. Nice to see the lads in the shop with Dad. Merry Christmas to you & the family. Take care & stay safe
This is a brilliant use of expensive precision apparatus!
I like the sound of stepper motors.
Was given two bags of motors many years ago, real expensive ones from a billion dollar machine sorting mail that was being parcially decomissioned.
perfect stuff to play with, so far i have used like 3 % of all the motors but i have some ideas of what to do :) :) :)
🏆 Simplicity of auto-advancing marble...
I was hoping you might take it apart and explain how servo motors work.
Just another "I only adult when really necessary" video. Love it.
Impressive setup! And it's the first time I've seen a servo motor used to throw marbles 🙂
Finally a useful application for all the servos. Thanks!
You know, I don't know jack about coding, but I keep coming back for more of these vids. Keep up the AWESOME content man. I can't get enough of your beautiful mind.
A big kid at heart. I like the giggle you let sneak out.
Cool use of a large stepper. With a bit of pvc, you could probably make up an auto-return and load so it could run continuously.
I still think one of the neatest applications of servo motors was ServoDrive's subwoofers. Apparently compared to traditional magnet/cone design, the servo subs were much more linear as they approached their limits. Only downside was, that they needed belts that were sometimes a pain to replace.
I love it!! Definitely interested in hearing why one type of servo/stepper motor might be used over another.
Going back to your roots and its still fun!
What a fantastic piece of kit I can't wait for the next video
Looking forward to more knowledge on the servos, etc. This was fun and educational.
With free server motors now you could build your dream CNC machine. Look forward to your next video.
How about you make the spoon hold the marble so that the only way it will release is if the motor stops. That would allow you to spin a full revolution to get up to max rpm before throwing. Then maybe you could cut a circle in a piece of plywood... lol.
My wood lathe has a 220v Servo Spindle Motor and it's a delightful feature. Instant response to torque needs and wide range for speed control. Not sure if the motor you have would be a good fit for that application,.
It could do that too. But what it can also do is go to positions precisely and quickly, which your lathe motor probably can't do, cause there's no need for it.
You are a penultimate creator. Boggles my mind seeing you work through mastering problems. Keep on thinking and doing and sharing with us. Oops, change penultimate to ultimate, the best.
It become a point now that every company has to send their product to Matthias to try to jump test or to do durability testing.
Fantastic work, Matthias! It really looks like a LOT of fun! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I'd love a video of you explaining different motor types.
I've been using servos a lot lately. Mostly 400V 3-5kW. They are fun. I used ethercat and industrial PLCs to control them. You can actually control ethercat servo drives with a raspberry pi and codesys.
Oh, that's interesting to know! I've written Modbus programs for use in the lab and I've been thinking about adding Ethernet/IP support if I ever get a chance, but we don't normally work with Ethercat and I guess I assumed it would require special hardware.
We mostly do oil & gas stuff but we do pick up oddball jobs from time to time and Ethercat might be another useful tool in the kit.
Lots of fun! Maybe add preload with a spring?
I have the most state of the art server, that works better than anything I've ever seen... let's fling marbles with it! 😅
Looks like it needs a marble catchment and return ramp for unlimited continuous run :D
FICOU MUITO BOM AGORA NÓS BRASILEIROS 🇧🇷 PODEMOS ENTENDER POIS A DUBLAGEM ARTIFICIAL AJUDA MUITO
Had anyone said "servo catapult", I would not have guessed Matthias Wandel as the creator...
Thanks! Keep up the great work and fun. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Steppers can be very quiet too with newer drivers, e.g. from trinamic. 3D printers now pretty much all use them and they're essentially silent.
I can't believe how fascinated I became with this. What fun.😊
A Matthias home security/defense system would be epic.
You could make a much deeper pocket and spin all the way around once or twice to get to max speed, then decelerate to release. Marble spin launch
My first thought would be to make the marble cup deep enough to hold the marble at the very bottom position. You could then use the longer arm and accelerate for 180 degrees to the top position. Instead of the immediate stop it could slow just enough to release the marble then use the remaining forward rotation to slow down to the bottom starting position. That deceleration would be much more gentle. The feeder would need a little redesign with a spring catch to allow the arm to pass by then back into it.
I've found the slow-motion video recording of my phone invaluable for diagnosing misbehaving machinery.
If the pocket in the arm is properly shaped you might be able to give the arm a full rotation and a third for more launch speed!
but that means no self-loading
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Perhaps some sort of rudimentary ratchet system or latch could make it so that the gate only opens when the motor is spinning "backwards"/down. Maybe even just a very slight ramp leading up to the actuator on the loading gate? The speeds involved might make things... interesting, though.
If you could accelerate the arm before it gets to the marble? That would make it very powerful. Starting from a standing start everytime can't be nearly as quick? The marble feed would need a little work though.
The beauty of using the motor like this is that it doesn't self destruct like catapults often do.
Hitting the marble that stationary on the other hand would cause it to self destruct rather quickly.
I can watch this for all day long
I thought I was a grown Kevin McCallister but you win.
Matthias, perhaps you can get through corrugated cardboard with an atlatl arrangement for the arm?
LOL. We never stop being children.We just change our toys.
You should curve the throwing arm and have it load closer to the motor shaft and then roll up the arm through the rotation. This way you could make the arm longer and you would have more torque to get the marble in motion, and also more speed as it reaches the end of the arm. Kind of like cracking a whip.
Hahaha.. guessing that this was not at all what they had in mind! 😁
Marbles, servos, Raspberry Pi. A lot to like in this video.
I really wanted you to modify it to do a full turn and add a release mechanism. I wanna see you put a marble through a piece of drywall.
You could also shoot some paintballs with it and make some nice artwork!!!
Hey! Since you have a Servo you could just accelerate constantly over multiple revolutions and time it nicely so when approaching max motor rpm the shoot happens by inversing the direction. This way you could go much much faster. Just the auto reloading wont work any more.
nice ! experiments with adding a sling would be nice, also springs, maybe a servo actuated air gun preload system
1970s tape (mainframe computer) drives had a /much/ bigger motor driving each spool directly.
It might help if you got a bigger capacitor.
I believe this could count as your formal entry into the process art movement.
Put a magnet in the cup and use a steel bearing.
It'll let you start from lower down, giving you a long acceleration time. Plus... you know.. magnets!
Couple more cervos, a few lazy Suzan's, and some sensors, and you could make a home defence system.
You should try doing a full revolution to accelerate the stepper motor to max speed before releasing. Like a slingshot.
Could you get more velocity by accelerating for a full circle before release? If spoon speed can be smoothly increased throughout, it might help to keep the marble in until it's at the right spot again?
With a bigger spoon, would it be possible to accelerate the marble for a whole turn, or even longer?
That way it should be possible to accelerate an arm of almost any length up to speed fully.
It would need a different loading mechanism if you do this manually and a very stable control curve, or good covers.
But that could make it properly dangerous and bring the marble up to much greater speeds.
the problem with going a whole turn is I wouldn't be able to use the pickup lever to trigger marble releases anymore. But I since realized I could go 3/4 of a turn and shoot underhand.
"I'm probably including too many clips of this thing shooting marbles" Don't kid yourself, you know why we're here, we all wanted to see it cut out a circle just as much as you did 😅
I wonder if you would get more power if you had the pickup point under the servo so it can do 180 before releasing and get up more speed. might need a redesigned cup to not launch prematurely.
Finally an efficient way to cut cardboard down!
I feel like there's some kind of jointed trebuchet ATM which would let you get more torque by showing the motor to rotate further.
Can it decelerate faster? You could maybe have it do a full rotation before releasing, with some adjustments to the arm to keep the marble from releasing
Crazy but entertaining - and funny to watch in action.
Looking forward to future videos on these devices. Is there a way you can show what kind of motor is used? I wasn't sure if it was a brushed DC design or something along those lines as servo motors are often just conventional motors (brushed or brushless) with a feedback device like a rotary encoder and controller.
Well Done, looks like a Hoot
How fast can you stop? If you can't get enough speed with that lever length ....if 1/4 of a circle is not enough to achieve max speed because acceleration requirement is insane, you could rotate the lever for a full circle + 1/4 of turn. Marble setting would need to be redesigned...maybe make it deeper to resist centripetal force so when the lever stops inertia steps in? :)
We miss the days of building tools. We understand why. Considering building a robot with these servos, but made out of wood.
Cool must have been fun to play with it
It would be cool to use a trebuchet type launch mechanism. Or even something like Tom Stanton's flywheel trebuchet. But powered by a servo motor.
Need more momentum. I recommend a trebuchet could be an interesting bit of engineering
show me how to make a self-loading one
To get more marble speed, could you modify the spoon such that the marble would stay in place for a full (or several) revolutions of the arm instead of just 120 degrees or whatever that is, giving the motor more of a chance to accelerate closer to its full speed? I was thinking how a hand-powered sling works
Naturally for testing you would need an impeller-like enclosure so you're not whipping marbles through the ceiling xD
That's next year's Christmas presents for the kids sorted.
Hmmm any interest in using motors like this to make a pitching machine which mimics a human baseball player?
You could remove the autoloader and use a full turn for acceleration
Have you seen the carnival game "Shoot Out The Star" ("Shoot Out The *")? Your contraption reminded me of it.