GearHeads Forum

Ron:

  Thx, Ill try to make sure I emphasis some of those.

>>?Virtual Is Different Than Real?..., a lot more design freedom is allowed here in Gerotic2.

  Too true. Ive tried hard not to make it obvious, but no object on the screen has any idea what other objects are on the screen. The only thing controlling all objects really is their linkages. So your hour hand can be controlled from anywhere you arbitrarily say so, all just a matter of modifying various linkages. Just remember the golden rule. "An object may drive any number of objects, but it may be driven by only one. "

Art

Hello Art,

Just thought I?d share a few of my learnings, since you are currently developing a manual for Gerotic2.  Here is where I struggled the most as an old mechanical type guy.

?Trust But Verify? - When naming components be sure that the part selected is exactly what you had intended and named properly. Quite a few times, in my rush, I had mistakenly grabbed and accidentally renamed a part incorrectly, which will lead to a real mess!

?Virtual Is Different Than Real?. Your comment, ?Think of G2's simulator as a series of objects linked to each other by default linkages which you can change at will??, helped me finally understand.  I slept on your statement and finally realized what you were saying. I?m not working in the real world of a CAD program or with real physical parts, a lot more design freedom is allowed here in Gerotic2.

?Shaft To Shaft?.  I must have been distracted during this portion of your video, for I missed the entire concept.  Shaft to shaft makes me think of a coupling of some sort that is locked to the shaft.  I hadn?t really thought about being able to virtually, assign a ?virtual? shaft to anything I wanted. 

Anyway, I thank you for your hard work and envy your math and programming expertise.

Thanks,
Ron

Ron:

Np, its more my failure than yours.

Its kinda hard to get the linkage thing across. Ill focus on that in the upcoming manual which is
in the works.. Once you understand linkages, you can make anything drive anything..

Art

Hi Art,

Aha!  I finally understand how it works. Sweet!

Thanks so much for your patience!
Ron

Ron:

>>If I select the Hour Wheel from the tree on the left and click Add Linkage, a prompt appears that states, "No undriven object available". 

  Your almost there, thats the proper thing to do,..but first you need to select the shaft that's linked to the hour hand and delete its linkage to it.  You can only add a link if there is an undriven object in the project. When you dropped the hour hand into the project you probably attached it to a shaft. Select that shaft in the tree, and youll notice in its linkage list is a link to the hour hand. Delete that link. Then do the Add link thing, the undriven hourhand will now appear as a selection for linking... 

Art

Hi Art,
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't see that the hour wheel is an option to choose from on the pop up list. I rebuilt the entire train and verified that one thing is pushing the other throughout the train, but it still doesn't offer me the option to select the hour wheel for placement of the hour hand.  I'm sure you have better things to work on but I was hoping to better understand what I'm doing wrong before I begin cutting wood. If I select the Hour Wheel from the tree on the left and click Add Linkage, a prompt appears that states, "No undriven object available". 

Does this have something to do with the fact that I am running a shaft (Minute Hand) thru a tube (Hour Hand) where they both have the same centers but rotate at different speeds?  I'm not sure if this is considered, "sharing a shaft" or something like maybe "duel shafts"?

Thanks,
Ron

Hi Ron:

  You can attach an indicator to any shaft.  Lets say your sharing a shaft with two different speed gears. ( The hour and minute on one shaft for example ). Add an hour hand to the shaft. Now, select that shaft in the tree. Youll see in the properties screen at this point a linkage to the hour hand indicator. Press the remove link button, it will ask for confirmation and then remove its linakge to the indicator. Now select the hour gear, and press "Add linkage" . The indicator will be in the possible
linake list which is reported. Select it and confirm. The hour hand is now linked to the hour gear.

  You may place indicators on any shaft, an if you remove the linkage from that shaft to the indicator, you may then link that indicator to any gear or shaft with the add linkage button. Think of G2's simulator as a series of objects linked to each other by default linkages which you can change at will, the only rule being that an object may be driven by only one object. The principle rule to
keep in mind is this " An object may drive many objects, but any object may be driven by only one."
If you keep this in mind you cant go wrong.

  In GM , backlash was added at the time of placement. In G2, I recommend using the WIDTH setting to loosen tooth mesh, this is more effective and proper than adjusting shaft to shaft distance as GM did. Change it to .45 from .5 and the tooth will now be 45% of total tooth space, which is just loose enough for comfort in most woods. Over time and with experience youll find the numbers that work best for you and your materials.


Art

Hi Art,
Is there a way to attach an hour hand to an hour wheel shaft (tube)?  You probably know what I'm asking but incase I'm unclear.  The minute hand is rotated by a shaft that runs from the center wheel, thru the cannon wheel and also thru the hour wheel but the hour hand is driven from the hour wheel via a tube that is attached to its center. The minute hand indicator attaches fine and rotates as expected but I can't figure out how to attach the hour hand to the tube that runs from the center of the hour wheel.  I have attached a sketch which may better explain what I'm attempting to do.  I believe I was able to do this in GM. 

Also, are the default settings acceptable to build the gears from wood or do they need to be adjusted and loosened up? If adjustments are needed, what might those recommended setting be?

And one last question. When rotating the Hour wheel into position over the Cannon wheel, does it "snap" into position so that the shafts can pass thru in perfect alignment? Or do the gears need to be adjusted by playing with the diameters so that the shafts are not in a bind?

P.S The more I work with GT, the more I am amazed at your programming abilities!
Thanks,
Ron