Many designs showcases this line of thinking : the creator of such design usually shows that the mass must go to the outside on the down going side and then return to the inside on the up going side .
There are usually two kinds of general designs to be found with this type of concept , one type attempt to move the weights in somewhere on the way up past 6 and attempts to move the mass out somewhere from 12 again .
Both examples fail usually for one reason , the typical energy required to lift/shift the weights in to the lifted positions is more than what can be done with what is available , and these designs also typically does not revolve much when the weights cannot move to their required positions in time , because if the weights are not moved in to the inner positions they create counter force against the other outer weights ,and if they aren't moved in to the outer positions they cant provide a larger force against the inner weights.
We all know how that story goes , and no one has ever demonstrated a working concept that overcomes those problems .
My thought process was still that gravitating (falling) in to position was the only free way (via gravity) to move a mass in and out to a smaller and larger radius because anything that attempts to lift a mass against gravity (while lifting can be done) would result in a tradeoff with an energy loss , and that it is an impossibility to lift as high or higher as the dropping mass proven through the laws and nature and which is displayed by many many failed designs .
Imo any mass that goes past 6 which has not returned to its former inner position is already a loss , because once a mass passed 6 while still in an outer position , it becomes a situation that the mass needs to be lifted in to the inner radius (which will be a loss of energy) to stop it from being a counter force .
The only way to get the mass in to positions i thought , was via gravity with no addition energy losses like that of levers etc , to fall in to position and not lift , however note that any mass on the outside (larger radius or further distance from the center) past 6 is a lift requirement , in fact anything going past 6 is going against gravity (as is usually referred to the upgoing side) , and anything past 6 going upwards also becomes a counter force , so i thought the only way was to get the mass in to position before it becomes a counter force and at the same time i had to find a way to do it without expending energy of another mass like the typical levers and such .
This is what i eventually first came up with , a very simple concept to achieve it all :
Whether this concept was applied with free moving masses in slots or with guided mechanisms or whatever was not my concern , so at that time i came to this first drawing :
Now clearly the lift of weights like the other failed designs are solved , however this simple design drawn up with no regard to torque or anything specifically except for looking at how to apply the concept , comes a new problem , while some of the inner weights balance out , there are more weights on the inner radius that add up together in force/torque against the outer weights in force/torque , and that is because the amount of weights on the outside is not enough in numbers and not far enough to counter those inner weights which aren't counter balanced.
Having moved on further to attempt to create a design that would have enough torque/force for the weight on the outside and have less weights on the inside that does not counter balance against others , ant still adheres to the concept of gravitating in to positions , i did this one where the green weights were counter balanced and the 2 blue inner weights were to be overcome by the outer blue weight's torque and still enough torque to rotate the wheel :
Even though i managed to come up with a principle that solves the need for lifting the weights to the positions , they are also failures for other reasons , plus need i mention CF would never work for a design like this even though the concept was promising , so i formulated a new goal which includes these lessons and move on.
