Zeroing in on Bessler's wheel

[Sam Peppiatt]

Some things are working.
The rollers are working, the cross-bar is working, and the crank shaft is working. All working nicely. I tried a weighted lever hooked directly to the crank shaft,(on the center line). It try's to go but, produces a reverse torque and every thing stalls out.

I think the problem is; it can't be on the axes of the wheel. Maybe, if it was away from the center of rotation it would do better. I'll try three spur gears, one on the crank-shaft, an idler gear,(to reverse rotation), and a weighted lever / pendulum on the other gear.

Not sure if it will work, nothing ever does,(the wheel that is)---------------------Sam

ETA, If the wheel turns CCW, the crank-shaft, rotates CW,(with respect to the wheel), but remains stationary with respect to ground.

[Sam Peppiatt]

A follow up,
The pendulum or weighted lever, is like a small gravity motor. The 'Idea' is to use it to rotate the crank-shaft, which moves the cross-bar; then it shifts the rollers to one side. The rollers of coarse, turn the wheel. The gears are needed to get it, the pend., away from the center of rotation.

Maybe that will make a difference----------------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

Fletcher has just given me an idea!
Put a long roller chain around both rollers,(with sprockets), and drive them with a sprocket / pendulum in the center. At least it would be very thin and, would be easily reversible. If the rollers were thin, that is--------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

The new wheel.
There will be two drums, each drum will have it's own crank-shaft to rotate the rollers. Each C-S has a sprocket. The cross-bar is no longer needed, it can go away. A big pendulum in the center with a sprocket, drives the crank-shafts with roller chain. If the wheel and rollers turn CCW, the pendulum turns CW with respect to the wheel. So; to get the rotation right, the roller chain has to loop up over the top of the center sprocket. To say it with different words, it, the sprocket, has to drive the back side of the chain, to reverse the rotation.

Hope fully this will eliminate the problem of equal and opposite torque------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

I screwed up the rotation.
For the wheel to turn CCW, the rollers have to shift / roll to the left. To do that the crank has to rotate CW; (the same as the pendulum). The chain can hook up in the normal way.

I claim to be only half assed right half the time---------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

An "Idea",
All day long I've been thinking about a double pendulum. The drive pendulum, (for driving the crank-shafts), would mount onto a 2nd pendulum to counter balance the weight of the first one, or drive pendulum. It seams like the best and, probably the only chance for success.

The roller chain would have to lengthen and shorten by some amount as the wheel rotates, (some how)----------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

Looks like the two pendulums can't be together. That was a bad idea. However, two pends. may still be a way out of the problem. But, they do have to be separate from one another. One would shift the rollers in the usual way,(for rotation).

Then the idea is; the other pendulum would shift a weight continuously,(somehow), to up set the balance of every thing, maybe-------------Sam

It's a real SOB to resolve.

[Sam Peppiatt]

I think I've figured it out, then again maybe not--------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

I'll take another stab at this.
My idea is to raise the cross-bar up to the center line of the wheel, to provide a simple way to displace the rollers. Normally the cross-bar is below the axle. There would be a big pendulum at the center, similar to MT-13, with a pin say to the left of it's pivot point.

The center of the cross-bar would rotate on this pin and would shift the rollers to the left for CCW rotation, when they are horizontal. The ends of the cross-bar would need a slot,(90 degrees with the bar), so the rollers could shift back and forth when it is in a vertical positions. At which point they would return to there balanced position.

For every 90 degrees of rotation the wheel would go from balanced to OOB and then
back to balanced. OOB when the bar is horizontal and balanced when it is vertical. But, I'm still looking for the hook----------------Sam

ETA The slot might have to be curved.