Motorized Cap for Tulio's Marble Machine #3

thingiverse

This device replaces the cap pieces of Tulio's "The 3D Printed Marble Machine #3", allowing you to attach a VEX robotics motor to run it. It simply seemed like it needed to be done. A smaller spiral section was necessary because the spheres I'm using are slightly too large. This piece allows the blue marbles which I used to travel up the center of the machine. It seems to work okay, though not perfectly, for spheres of around 10-10.2mm in diameter. I would have scaled the entire machine up if I'd acquired the marbles before printing, but I'd already printed the track by the time I realized my marbles were inconsistently sized and too large, and I didn't want to print a whole new one. Print Settings: Printer Brand: MakerBot Printer: MakerBot Replicator (5th Generation) Rafts: Yes Supports: Yes Resolution: High Infill: Default Post-Printing: Need motor, half-inch square shaft, and 2 motor mounting screws. Use the square shaft to attach the Turncap to the motor. Use the screws to mount the motor; the screw heads should sink into the Lockcap. That's it. Just pop it onto the marble machine, and power it to go. How I Designed This: I imported Tulio's STL files into Sketchup using the SketchUp STL plugin. For the Lockcap, I added VEX motor mount holes. For the Turncap, I re-designed the base to connect with the motor using a square shaft. For the Smaller Spiral, I separated the outside faces of the Spiral STL from the holes which fit into the Track and Turncap, and scaled those outside faces to 90.5% of their original size on the X and Y axes. Powering the Motor: To power the motor directly with a 9v battery... Cables should match: Motor red to 9v black; 9v red to motor black. Adjustable Power: To be able to adjust the motor's speed... Cables should match: Motor red to 9v black; 9v red to VEX potentiometer white; VEX potentiometer black to motor black. (I used a VEX 3-wire "Y" cable as a coupler to connect these two male ends.)