First of all.. i`m new and this is my first post. I´v been following bit-tech for quite some time and it´s been of inspiration to start modding. For my new project i´m building a tower with equal sides and i want the top to lift up and show the cdrom and dsk. For this i was planning on using compressed air, like the one used in paintball guns. The idea is to have a CO2 tube inside the case (small one) and when opening a valve, CO2 will fill 2 tubes attached to the side of the case, that will lift up the cover holding the cdrom and stuff. (cdrom and stuff is hanging from the top). Is this a good idea? did anyone try something like this before or is there a better way of doing it? does anyone knows a lot about compressed air and want to share something with me? Thanks in advance, Ezzemo
I have no idea on how to do this or if it would work (though i don't see why it wouldn't) but isnt the C02 going to run out therefore the canister containing it will need to be changed. Does this not make it a waste of time? Though it will look cool. Also i have a door on my tower but i leave it open all the time as im to lazy to open and close it, would you not just end up leaving this open all the time?
to open the side you would need rams that would be powered by the CO2, instead of CO2 you could have an airline from a small compressor, either way you will need some gear such as the rams, valves etc. to make them open and close
A guy did this a while ago, it may have been hydralic though. It's around the forums somewhere. It would be cool to see done again though.
hidraulics...l thought about it but trully i don´t know where i can find small ones to use. In what areas are they used? The CO2 will eventually run out but, doing some calculations i figured that it would last for about 6 months if u open and close it 5 times a day ... and the tubes are not that expensive (5 bucks). But still, i don`t know if my calculations are right.. maybe it will last for only 3 lift ups.. i´ll try to find the guy who did it with hidraulics before. About leaving it open: it is very probable but hey, most of the stuff we do in mods don´t have a purpose, or am i wrong?
i remember back in promary school messing about with lego which had hydrolcis in it but you had tp pump up a tank to get some preasure in it but i suppose if you rigged up a co2 supply insead it'd work. for the co2 i'd probably try and find an airsoft co2 adapter for gas blow back guns as they let you vary the preasure. i'll have a look around for a website selling the adapters EDIT: http://www.bbguns.co.uk/849_1_22004.html found the adapter, you can probably get it cheaper but this is the first website i found it on
Why don't just buy the LEGO set, and make some of the plastic parts out of metal for durability? And as I was in some garden shops with my parents today I found a compost which had really small hydraulics to help rise the lid up. I just can't remember the manufacturer. This post has in fact no meaning, so please don't sue me for making you mad trying to understand it.
It would be really cool if it made a kind of hissing noise when opened! Hmm, how about using those things used in car boots to open?
Hydraulics are kinda expensive, and most reasonably priced hydraulic rams are too big for what you want (small things are expensive). I think you want pneumatics (the legos used pneumatics btw, not hydraulics). Besides, you're not lifiting 2 tons, hydraulics is for heavy duty stuff, like lifting cars. You're lifting all of 5 lbs of hardware, something pneumatics will take care of easily. There's a company called Bimba that makes good pneumatic rams, McMaster and MSC might carry them. Pneumatics are also a hell of a lot cheaper than hydraulics (also, with hydraulics, you will need a pump, a filter, fluid, etc, which all add up to alot of $$$. Not saying you won't need some kind of a pump for pneumatics, but they're cheaper, just some compressor with a compressed air reservoir). But, you still have to have a pump and compressed air tank somewhere, and it'll make noise. I think what you want is something like how some car trunks work. Some cars have a pair of pneumatic springs (pretty much just pneumatic rods with the caps sealed shut). You release the latch, and the springs push the door up and open, and you push the door closed which compresses the springs and stores energy for the next time you want to open the door. Won't have the same "push button with a kphwshhhh" effect, but it'll be quiet and with some damping, it'll have some sexy looking operation (think, push a button that releases a latch and the door opens slowly to it's final state). -L6
sounds good, go to a scrappy and get some of them car boot things!just push the top of the door and it opens, push it back down to latch close.
the pneumatics thing was the first thing that came to my head. I´m in doubt about it for the simple reason that i don´t know how much preasure i have to put on the top to close it so that it stores the energy to lift it up again. I also confused pneumatics with hidraulics i guess.. I´m going to try finding those pneumatics springs wich the cars use since i have a car garage near and see if they work.. The ideea was just as described: a lifting it up slowly to the final state. the hissing noise would be cool ... I am worried about the effort to push it down cause this thing will be on top of a 25 * 25 base and about 70 cm high tower and don´t want to push it in place, just close it. I´ll also try to find the adapter rick posted for bb guns since it will be the key to using co2 if i do. thanks thanks a lot
im sorry i didnt read all the posts i dont have time, but if it hasent been mentioned you would be best using electronic actuators(sp?) they would be better as you would not need to keep changing co2 cansitors and it would be able to be controlled through the comptuer, which would be kool, i dont know much about them personally but im sure they would be alot better. also someone has put pnumatic rams in his computer instead of the feet so it lifts up off the ground, that is pretty kool but he had tubes running all through his comptuer and had alot of stuff out side just to controll it, still kool tho, hope this helps some
I haven't read the whole thread, so I don't know what's been said already, but this has been an interest to people for quite some time. I would recommend either a small pnuematic system, with some sort of latching system, or some small servos. Check your local junkyard for junked cars with power windows, the servo's from them are almost perfect for this kind of job Dunno how hard they would be to rig up, however
Remember, if you want them to open slowly, you need damping. So make sure you get pneumatics with built in damping, or controllable damping. Otherwise, they'll just act like any normal coil spring and spring open. -L6
Lol, I noticed too, but I think that's the trend nowadays. Ah well... The thing I hate the most is when people who've never seen the british way of spelling certain words tell me I spelt something wrong (colour, fibre, kerb, etc). -L6
thats the same with canada, we spell colour, fibre, centre, honour, and many other things differently than the US. we also have the metric system, like the rest of the world.
