The Linkage Driven Ball Contraption

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If you know me, then you know I can get easily distracted. This was the case with this project, where I set out to test the Chebyshev straight line mechanism which is part of my much larger Rube Goldberg Project, and ended up with a gravity powered looping ball contraption. The main challenge was designing the escapement, which I was able to do with the help of this app: motiongen.io (Not sponsored, but really great)
If you want to help support the greater Rube Goldberg Project, or my channel, check out engineezy.com
I also have a patreon: / engineezy
Much of this project was printed on my Bambulab X1 Carbon which I HIGHLY recommend (seriously, nothing beats it) Here’s my affiliate link:
shrsl.com/2a5d5-2yn7-1cwx9
Also, the electric screwdriver I used to assemble and disassemble this thing many times is a game changer: geni.us/f6oJ
Here are links to all the shorts so far in this series:
Short 1: The First Prototype
• Quick Release Mechanis...
Short 2: The First Module
• Ball Machine First Pro...
Short 3: The Waves Module
• Ball Surfing Wave Machine
Short 4: Chebyshev Side Quest
• Crazy Mechanical Linkage
Short 5: Finishing off the Waves Module
• Inertial Governor Soft...
Short 6: Closer look at the inertial governor
• How an Inertial Govern...

[@QuincyGonzales]

This is just delightful! Please make this available to the community for sale. I would love to have something like this in my house. I could stare at it the whole day.

[@Engineezy]

Might have to put something together after this project is wrapped up!

[@malllc2]

@@Engineezy if you do end up selling them a marble sized version would be a great desk toy

[@TheChzoronzon]

@@Engineezy Awesome! How many cycles until the weight touches the floor?

[@ironman_muz]

@JBVCreative Curious to find out how long does it loop for as well!?

[@GuyBurdick]

Totally. Crowdfund the first production run. Just sell it as a kit. Even better, license this to Mark Rober and be done

[@BenKDesigns]

In one shot, it looked like you had the weight positioned directly over a light switch. It would have been a cool ending for the weight to hit the switch and the light go out. Awesome designs as usual.

[@Engineezy]

Haha that would be very Rube Goldberg wouldn’t it!

[@BenKDesigns]

@@Engineezy Exactly!!

[@RoccosStuff]

Love the mechanical designs - so cool!! Can't wait for the full Rube Goldberg machine!

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Rocco! Me too 🙌🙌

[@InheritanceMachining]

Dude, nice troubleshooting. So true how almost every project has some aspect that looks good on paper but is hard to predict in reality. Also, I really dig the fully mechanical-ness of this!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! No matter how many of these I make they always end up teaching me something somewhere

[@InheritanceMachining]

@@Engineezy A sign of a good project!

[@SturleyArt]

I love watching the problem solving part of your builds. Great engineering principles.

[@Engineezy]

Glad you can get something out of it!

[@michaelcross3744]

This feels a lot like an overcomplicated modern version of the drinking bird toy people used to have years ago and I love it

[@Darknynja2]

I’m like you, I don’t know why but I like this thing and all of your designs so much too. There’s something so satisfying about each one of them that I just want to keep watching them over and o er again. Great work.

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Joey! Appreciate your support 🙏

[@weston3303]

What's kind of funny is that the mechanism you ended up with is almost the same single sear safety that modern rifles use to maintain semi-auto fire. Brilliant sculpture!

[@Engineezy]

Interesting!

[@varunoregunta7320]

I love how jbv is making this community interested with the mechanisms that's why i love mechanical engineering and this channel.

[@MrDonSocke]

Again such a nice project. The engineering and the creativity that you give into this project is so nice to watch! Well done kind sir!

[@Engineezy]

Appreciate you watching 🙏

[@Rouverius]

Yeah, Dr.Thang is the man! Seriously, it's so cool to hear about your growing journey of discovery and creativity. Thanks for sharing. BTW, that thing is amazing to watch!

[@Engineezy]

The legend of legends! Thanks for watching!

[@fra5715]

Thank you so much for referring to motiongen. I really want to learn more on motion and kinematics, especially in robotics. This will help me visually and practically understand without racking my brain too much.

[@Engineezy]

Enjoy :)

[@jameslaliberte8404]

My first exposure to your creativity and engineering brilliance. Can't wait to see what else you've posted. A new subscriber....

[@Engineezy]

Much appreciated James!

[@PresidentPaul2024]

You are the man! I appreciate how you walk us through the emotional process of a creative engineering project!

[@Engineezy]

Thanks for watching!

[@lassarch9209]

Amazing content creators like you deserve much more appreciation and support... keep going man ❤️

[@Engineezy]

Appreciate that! 🙏🙏

[@michaeldiamond2269]

Genius! I always love your videos. The engineering is a delight to observe and the end result is always entertaining and hypnotic! Really great work!

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Michael! Appreciate your support 🙏

[@BuildNowQuestionLater]

I'm loving this whole build process series seeing it all come together.

[@Engineezy]

Appreciate you following along!

[@izzyyanowitz6240]

Could we just get an hour king video of this thing going in loops

[@RoccosStuff]

He'd need to cut a hole in the floor and get a longer spool!

[@Csw7878]

Or use gear reduction!

[@RoccosStuff]

@@Csw7878 Even better!

[@Flagg1]

kzbin.info/aero/PLElOK3eZ5OO9uhBTi2aK1ifjDBhTVe2bu&si=w4VqbH-A7F1LEFHM

[@Engineezy]

Or both!

[@Coolfwip]

12/10 your videos never get old, keep it up. Love seeing your progress

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!! Will do :)

[@TyeMadeIt]

Wow this is so awesome! Love the design and how smooth it turned out!

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Tye! Me too 😀

[@dexterm2003]

Very cool project. In design of mechanisms and linkage text books there are stability analysis techniques that you can use to analyze compliance. Which will indicate thinks like poor stiffness at end ranges and then look for other solutions to the problems that stiffen at end ranges. It is definitely a 5-600 level mech-e type course, but it is very cool stuff and can be integrated into CAD without too much issue.

[@Engineezy]

Definitely worth learning more about! Ill have to do some research

[@jacknesbitt240]

How many lifts can this mechanism do before needing to be recharged? Is there any possibility of using a differently sized string drum (the thing the string wraps around and pulls on) to allow for more "charges" for the same amount of weight and same length of string? Great project!

[@Engineezy]

It can do about 10! By adding some gears, and then adding some weight this can actually be increased quite a bit- maybe on the next iteration

[@DoombringerDad]

@@MrHellraiser0815 Sorry. There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. Everything would need to be absolutely frictionless to keep the system going indefinitely.

[@DoombringerDad]

@lizday8140 You're joking, right? "They" want to keep it quiet but it's on KZbin. Governments can't keep nuclear secrets. How are they going to keep breaking the laws of physics quiet? Please use your head. There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. Period.

[@audreydoyle5268]

​​@@lizday8140 it wouldn't damage the economy... Not straight away that is. It would take several years, perhaps a decade or two for a truly perpetual motion generator to be adopted widely. By then, A.I. would want a piece of that, and if Roko's Basilisk turns out to be true, well.. all humans who had the capacity to aid its development and did will be spared. The rest 😬 Also, the video you saw was a scam. If perpetual motion were possible, magnets alone wouldn't be enough. Perhaps magnetic bearings to remove a fraction of potential friction, however, magnetic bearings are far more fallible to part failure with enough time, as natural magnets loose magnetism, electro magnets do not. The video you saw had secret electro magnets, and possibly editing. That disqualifies it as perpetual, as the definition of a perpetual motion generator means consistently moving and has a 100% kinetic energy output, with no potential energy loss to maintaining motion.

[@Creative_Electronics]

That's just so cool! Love the mechanical touch of it and that you didn't use a stepper motor!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you very much!

[@1ronm4n42]

Dude this is the coolest thing I’ve seen all week thanks for the content as always!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! Appreciate it 😀🙏

[@randfur]

Love hearing the little journey of how these things come to be.

[@Engineezy]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@michaelbinion2555]

You should love it. You did a great job designing your gizmo. I am also impressed with the quality of your 3D printing. Keep up the good work.

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!! Will do :)

[@Se9n.]

Very cool video and great design, love seeing your eye of designs, especially love that you use gravity

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! Appreciate you watching 🙏

[@laupetre]

as always, top engineering ! but I'm starting to realize, that what really attracted me to your channel, is the way you edit your videos, and I don't think people give you enough credit for all the work you put into your art.

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! Appreciate you appreciating those aspects 🙏🙏

[@davidltodd]

Seriously mate, you got me to so something I’ve honestly, never done before. I am commenting on a KZbin video. Found your video in my reels, got me hooked. I have now subscribed to your channel, and I need to know, where do you come up with these ideas. I love it, genuinely. Thanks bro.

[@Engineezy]

Thanks David! Appreciate you watching 👊🙏 couldn’t tell you where they come from 😅

[@juancesaretti]

That ended up being extremely smooth, congrats! You are getting stupidly good at this.

[@Engineezy]

Appreciate it! Definitely got some reps under my belt

[@Cread_]

I just love these kinds of mechanical machine videos!

[@Engineezy]

Glad you can appreciate:)

[@Binchicken_productions]

I liked this contraption especially because I reckon it was pretty cool how the whole thing was mechanical such as the trigger which triggers the ball lifting system.👍 good job

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!

[@Dglinski2]

So excited for this full Rube Goldberg machine! Killing the game J!

[@Engineezy]

Thanks G! Me too!

[@biekgiek]

Awesome! Thank you youtube algorithm for recommending this video. And thank you Mr. JBV for making this video.

[@Engineezy]

Thanks so much for watching 👊👊

[@biekgiek]

@@Engineezy Now that I've found your channel, I'm anxious to see your Rube Goldberg machine!

[@CDRaff]

That MotionGen stuff literally just changed my life. Thank you.

[@Engineezy]

Me too! Haha enjoy

[@alsymiya413]

As the one of two main developers I would say I am so happy it helped! 😀😀

[@alemazza87]

Beautiful creation! I think this is my favourite!!

[@Engineezy]

Me too! Thank you

[@dannylumcreative]

Brilliant as always! Will be trying out the motion simulator for linkages myself thats awesome

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Danny! Yeah its a pretty amazing tool!

[@a_marshmallow_called_luka]

I think I need a one hour loop of this it's so satisfying :D

[@Engineezy]

Hahaha! Might have to do it!

[@a_marshmallow_called_luka]

@@Engineezy nice ^^

[@jjmelo]

Great video. No fluff, entertaining and fun. Thanks!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed

[@AaronMunro77]

Thank you for the software plug! I was looking for exactly this. But only stumbled upon your video while not looking for it.

[@Engineezy]

Glad I could help!

[@Wintergatan_2]

Sweet! Thanks for the motiongen tip, wish that was simpler in fusion natively, going to be really useful.

[@Engineezy]

Yeah its definitely an area where CAD tools are lacking! Enjoy

[@colleenforrest7936]

Love the mechanism. Thinking of this out of context as a stand alone mechanism. If there was something like a wind device, or maybe even solar that could reset the falling weight as the ball rolled down the track, you could keep the ball rolling all day 😊

[@Engineezy]

Very true!

[@SJIMichaelp]

Thaks for your wonderful sharing. Will let my students take a look and hopefully inspire them to make interesting things like this! God bless you, bro!

[@Engineezy]

🙏🙏🙏

[@geckoman1011]

That's really cool. I'm glad the video was recommended to me

[@Engineezy]

🙏🙏 thanks for watching!

[@thamires.magalhaes]

Don't give up on the rude goldberg, I'm sure you'll make it and it'll be incredible. Awesome project, love the in between shortcomings and flaws, that's how we learn and get better

[@Engineezy]

Just need a bit more space and its going to happen!

[@thamires.magalhaes]

@@Engineezy Anxious to see the day you get it done :D

[@mccraveiro]

You should definitely make a clock with this mechanism. I've seen one many years ago where there were 3 levels and you just counted the balls on each level to read the hour/minutes/seconds.

[@Engineezy]

One day! I’ve seen that clock style, super cool

[@ramonhamm3885]

That is awesome! I don't know which CAD you use but I think for example Inventor and Solid Works can simulate physics so it might work out some of those problems you were having with slack, stretch etc, they probably can roll the ball too to figure out how high your walls need to be for the trough corners. You're an engineer so you probably know this. All it needs is a shelf next to it for a cat to sit on to watch the ball action. 😻

[@JesusIsForeverAlive]

i feel like this guy will design a perpetual motion machine eventually

[@Engineezy]

🤓

[@ImTheReal]

Pretty awesome as always You can increase the run time of the mechanism by making the falling ball push back the height when it fall.

[@Engineezy]

Interesting idea!

[@hollt693]

Could you elaborate? I want to understand your idea, but I just don't at the moment.

[@dexterm2003]

I think that he means harvest the energy of the ball when it hits the lift in order to regenerate the power to some degree. It would definitely be possible and cool. Not sure how much you could get back and would take a TON of tuning to make sure that you harvest most but not all of the energy since you don't want the ball to stop before the lift.

[@hollt693]

@@dexterm2003 I kinda figured as much, but I couldn't figure out how it would work. I still can't picture it working at the lift, but I can imagine the ball hitting a sort of turnstile just before the last 180 degree bend to recapture some of the kinetic energy that made it want to jump off the track.

[@bunny_jr]

Smashing mate, super enjoyable!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! 👊👊

[@senorjp21]

awesome. you really pump out mechanisms

[@Engineezy]

Thanks! My adhd can prove beneficial sometimes 😂

[@MoltenImaginings]

Perpetual motion. So cool. No motors only gears

[@dereknalley]

I've always had the idea it would be great to make a modular Rube Goldberg machine that allowed other people to submit a portion. It would have to work on a framework of set dimensions with a required input and output location/speed for each module. Since you're working on this, your subscribers could submit pieces to make a massive contraption of all sorts of styles. You just plot a route in 3D space among all the framework, then users could decide they want the grid X,Y,Z box and away they go. Crowdsourced fun!

[@Engineezy]

I love that concept! Gonna think about how that would be implemented

[@johnfrancke1943]

Such an incredibly great video!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you 👊👊👊

[@LordPhobos6502]

Oh... btw, thank you for sharing that page motiongen... I've been struggling with some contraptions, and after playing with that site, I had a working 2D prototype in a few hours :D That site is a lifesaver!

[@Engineezy]

Its pretty fun to play around with too isnt it!?

[@emiliomartinez4894]

Watched your interview with Morley. Good luck and best wishes for your channel bro.

[@Engineezy]

I appreciate it!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

This is awesome. somehow I've never thought about escapement mechanisms for non-clocks (or at least non-periodic motion). Really makes me wonder what cool stuff could work this way - I haven't seen this channel before but now I need to go watch a bunch! I'm a big fan of the art/science combo. This re-load mechanism for a ball kinda reminds me of a project in high school shop class where we needed to make a plinko-board kinda thing and we were scored based on how long it took (moment the ball was released at the top to when it finally stopped). The person I was working with had come up with a mechanism with a wooden dowel stuck through a barely oversized hole in a 2x4, attached with a rubber band. I think the original idea was to put a "pinball launcher" kind of thing at the start so we could "fire" the ball manually... Until we discovered that if you pulled the dowel all the way out, you could wedge it sideways into the hole and the slightest nudge would cause it to snap into orientation and fire the dowel through the 2x4. I remember trying for multiple classes to get a ping-pong ball to trigger it so it could re-launch itself and our entire plinko board could run twice by itself, but we never got it working. if only we'd seen this video!

[@Engineezy]

The never ending plinko board! That would be fun :) so much possibilities in the realm of fully mechanical things, just less necessity for it- this is why I’m making art haha

[@PauloRicardoBlank]

So cool Project! Congrats!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!

[@enricodesign619]

i love the designer logo over the not used holes, its a true "its not a bug, its a feature" :) love it

[@Engineezy]

Haha best way to put it!

[@pappysproductions]

I didn't need to see much, before I knew I needed to subscribe!

[@Engineezy]

Appreciate it!!

[@russelljazzbeck]

Super satisfying mechanism.

[@Engineezy]

Agreed!

[@LordPhobos6502]

Seriously... every time I see one of your contraptions, I'm amazed. EVERY TIME. Hey... if your Rube Goldberg never gets finished... don't worry, you're gonna learn heaps and have a lot of fun not getting it finished :D Or... Make it out of hot-swappable modules, they way this clearly has a start, finish, and self-return track for standalone operation :)

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! That’s definitely the idea. I do hope it gets finished 🤣

[@vikramdevaru]

I can't wait for the Rube Goldberg machine so that I can also play that video in repeat and watch the ball as it rolls along over and over again! Also - you should make it so that it can run forever possibly by adding another weight to the other side that goes up as the one on the right goes down.

[@SeanHodgins]

That is a very satisfying mechanism. I need a miniature desktop version.

[@Engineezy]

Thanks brother! That would be fun!

[@Tomy_Yon]

He's so proud, very endearing. 😊

[@darreno9874]

Great job, it was good to see the problems as well. God bless

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed :)

[@beekdorrr]

I love to see the design process

[@Engineezy]

Glad you enjoy this!

[@gilb6982]

Me i know why i love this machine so much : because it is crazy ! Well done !

[@Engineezy]

Haha definitely!

[@jacobp.6610]

As a mechanical engineer, this has been a bunch if fun. Thank you for taking us on this ulmiatly no where journy that are rube goldberg machines.

[@Engineezy]

Haha it’s all about the journey anyways isn’t it!

[@ikarusstudios2682]

Very cool stuff man

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!!

[@TooTallToby]

Nice job Jay!

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Toby 👊👊👊

[@Dev1nci]

These linkage-driven pieces are just the all sorts of right 😄

[@Engineezy]

I have to agree!

[@2handsomeforlaw]

It's gorgeous!

[@Engineezy]

Thank youu!

[@KeithOlson]

"Productive play is practice for reality." Bravo!

[@Engineezy]

I like that!

[@KeithOlson]

@@Engineezy ,,,and so true! You are testing serious things out in a space without serious consequences where failure is just a chance to learn. Play on, good sir!

[@john7027]

The master does it again👍

[@Engineezy]

🫣🫣

[@margaretcattertv]

This was a delight!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!!

[@mattw7949]

Absolutely Brilliant!

[@Engineezy]

🙏🙏🙏

[@dave20874]

This is glorious. I'd appreciate some discussion of the Chebychev mechanism design.

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Dave! Maybe I can get into it in the final vid?

[@reidflemingworldstoughestm1394]

Fun Fact: every industrialized culture in the galaxy has a Rube Goldbergism.

[@henryseg]

Parts flexing is where it stops being math/geometry and starts being the whims of the mechanism gods. (Or maybe we're supposed to use finite element analysis, but printing the thing out has got to be easier at this scale.) Beautiful work!

[@Engineezy]

That’s my thoughts! FEA is probably the way to go but I learn so much more by doing!

[@dexterm2003]

There are matrix method for that analysis which allow you to describe the stiffness of the mechanism with angle of rotation. You can also input different compliance by implementing epsilon-delta method to account for slop and tolerances. Something like Matlab would honestly do a better job than CAD or FEA for that. You might be able to find open source libraries which could do that for you.

[@pascalbruyere7108]

I recently helped my daughter to a school project. I heard CAD and 3D printing helps reduce the number of prototypes iterations. We’ll, I was amazed and frustrated at how so many iterations were needed! Granted, it worked after just a couple, but then perfectionism kicks in and from there it’s a never ending battle…

[@Engineezy]

Haha yup, now imagine you had to do all those iterations without cad and 3d printing 🤣

[@pascalbruyere7108]

@@Engineezy how are your parts of such a nice color and so smooth? They also look somewhat solid. Is there an episode where you explain all that?

[@AtomicShrimp]

Very nice. Loved the problem solving along the way. I wonder if there's any way to recapture a bit of the energy from the falling pusher after it has lifted the ball. Obviously not in a perpetual motion sense, but maybe the falling mechanism could just ratchet the weight back up one notch

[@Engineezy]

That’s definitely an interesting consideration. At the very least it doesn’t need to use the weight to return!

[@GS-wx5pr]

Well done sir!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!

[@geoffdavids7647]

Really cool! My one suggestion would be to find some way of decoupling the lift arm on the descent, as it can fall under its own weight and doesn't need to use another half turn of the weight-drive mechanism!

[@Engineezy]

Yeah that is definitely worth a bit of exploring isnt it

[@naveen7730]

Absolutely brilliant 👌

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!!

[@khuzairirajap8978]

It's looks great 😊

[@Engineezy]

Thank you!!

[@sundaynobody]

great work!

[@Engineezy]

Thanks brother 👊👊

[@henriquebaetaleite6146]

I love your videos! You´re a genius!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you for watching!

[@PlayNowWorkLater]

My jaw literally dropped in the first 5 seconds of this video. What a hook!!

[@Engineezy]

Haha thank you!

[@davidlhamilton3305]

One of your best.

[@Engineezy]

Thanks David!

[@matt7403]

Nice job!

[@Engineezy]

🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@karlnowakowski7866]

Awesome movement. Just a thought the weight travels a lot on the down stroke of the movement, this could be done by gravity instead of the weight which would increase the number of laps the ball could do before resetting the weight.

[@Engineezy]

That is very smart thinking, would be an interesting mechanical challenge!

[@MadsRosenlund-ym5kp]

your videos are so creative

[@Engineezy]

Glad you can appreciate them 😀

[@MadsRosenlund-ym5kp]

@@Engineezy Yes they are very inspiring and cool

[@mrsquid_]

if you implement something like this in the rube goldberg machine, you could try to have the ball charge the mechanism up with potential energy while in another part above so it's always ready when the ball reaches it without the need for manually recharging it

[@ErikKnear]

Good job!

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@mellocello]

Beautiful.

[@Engineezy]

👊👊

[@CodyHovland]

Great work! Im definitely checking out motiongen. What mouse are you using?

[@LucasPlay171]

Some Logitech I believe

[@Engineezy]

Thank you! Its a great app, lots of fun to mess around with too. Its a cheap ergo gaming mouse from amazon, got it because it has a joystick on it which I was able to maps to some key buttons for CAD!

[@LucasPlay171]

@@Engineezy oh I really did not catch that, pretty cool!

[@xXKisskerXx]

You may never finish your original concept, but, along they way you will have a wall of wonders in progress, that delight and inspire everyone who views them. I would call this, a huge success, and one day - in 40 years or so maybe - you'll finish your wall, and it will be your magnum opus. This would make me extremely proud if I could accomplish such a thing, I hope you share the same feelings. What your doing is working your brain. Something that appears lost in the modern times. It doesn't have to be a function to save the world, or end world hunger, simply making new things and seeing them work - helps yourself and others design better things in the future, and who knows, maybe some contraption you make will lead to some mechanical improvement to some machine out there that could really use it, or even just a new appearance with same function to make things a little more interesting.

[@Engineezy]

Appreciate the kind words! Hopefully 🤞

[@dave0sparky0matkin]

Awesome! Is this going to be on your website? I love the rolling ball escarpment this reminds me of that! I love all your stuff at JBV Creative!

[@Engineezy]

Maybe one day! Thank you!

[@mogyoros]

3:24 - solid The End of the World flash vid reference my dude (and v solid vid all around)

[@Engineezy]

A little throwback to the old internet 🙌 glad you caught it 🤣🤣