Lego Pascaline, mechanical calculator

[ThiagoT5]

Bonjour, mes amis

after more than a year in which I announced, at my presentation in this forum, that I intended to build a lego version of the mechanical calculator Pascaline, here it is, fully functional!

it cost me a lot of time and effort, the centerpiece of the mechanism, the sautoir had more than 50 versions





I'll now continue to work on this model to add new capabilities, like subtraction without the method of 9's complement


special thanks to Nico71, for doing the first version of this mechanism


links that help me:


wikipedia's article on the pascaline helped me a lot, it has virtually all the information needed, but it has only a few pictures and no videos

this video details the mechanism and operations:



a 3D simulation
http://christophe.bascoul.free.fr/spip.php?article9

photos and info
http://calmeca.free.fr/calculmecanique_php/rubriques/Fichiers_Blaise_Pascal/Fichiers_historique/Pascaline_histoire.php?lang=fra


http://yves.serra.pagesperso-orange.fr/

[Anio]

Woo, you dedicated one year to it ! It indeed seems it was hard to design.

I'm sure Nico71 will like it a lot !
Well, I like it too.

I am very surprised that you have no play (no loose, if you will) between all the levers. It works very well.

You actually get 10 units on each cylinder with a 20t where a cheesy slope go accross 2 teeth with each move, right ?

[ThiagoT5]

You actually get 10 units on each cylinder with a 20t where a cheesy slope go accross 2 teeth with each move, right ?

exactly, to work with base 10, 1 teeth in each move and you get a base 20 calculator, in fact some Pascalines combined base 10, base 12 and base 20

[Nico71]

Only one word : just amazing !

The idea to combine cheese slope and 20-tooth gear is brilliant, this is the center of the accuracy of the device which is I think the most difficult point to come up with solution to overcome problems with dead-point of lego. The machine works fine and seems to be reliable. How many is the limit of number of floating carry ? You have 6, like the original pascaline but it is possible to have more digit for instance the 8-digit pascaline.

In any case, the building is astonishing of simplicity, accuracy and reliability, the best point for working lego machine.

[phi]

First of all, congratulations, it's amazing.

Nico71: I guess that there is no limit to the number of digits with this design.

There is a accumulation of energy when the wheel turn which is released when triggered. This avoid the problem of propagation of carry.

[ThiagoT5]

there is no limit for digit positions (original and this lego replica): it can have a hundred positions and it would work just fine, it's like a falling row of dominoes.

this the geniality of the Pascaline, a more simple design, like those found in odometers or eletric/water meters are restricted to few digits

[ThiagoT5]

the cheese slope is currently the final version, I was inspired by seeing it used in lego clock escapements of youtube user KEvronista

I tried 3 solutions before, for both the 2 pawl seen on video:

8 teeth gear



this was one of my first sautoir design, note the 40 teeth gear, that would require a '4 teeth walk' per number and the spring, replaced by the much smaller 'double flexible axle connector'(!)


14 teeth gear

I don't have any photo, imagine a 14 teeth gaer ortogonal to the 20 teeh


worm screws, I had about 30 types of sautoir using these, you can see how it works it my video of the pinwheel clock

[PierroLego16]

It's just incredible ! Your work is fantastic !

The functioning of your creation is very clean, the system is compact... nothing to add, it's very impressive. Congratulations !

[philestar]

Hello,

What a wonderfull work! It is amazing....

Will you publish something about this creation? I would like to study and understand it and be able to reproduce it?

See you!

[ThiagoT5]

yes, I will, in fact I've been doing some modifications to accommodate new capabilities and the mechanism shrunk!

[ThiagoT5]

Hi there,

here it is my new model of the Pascaline calculator:

[ExiTeD]

Hi ThiagoT5,

You're Pascaline is very optimized !
The system are very reliable, it's a key point.

Can you made pic of the assembly ? I try to replicate the mecanism but it's hard :S

[ThiagoT5]

Hi there mes amis,

here is my third generation Pascaline, now key-driven:



This is an intermediate step towards a calculator similar to an arithmometer.

[ExiTeD]

Hi ThiagoT5 !

Very good work ! This is the final version ?

I think you can make a "box", but maybe the machine too big...
I enjoy the precision of the system, i had also try to make a pascaline with key-drivers on my Lego Pinball Machine (here : http://www.techlug.fr/Forum/post152028.html?hilit=flipper#p152028) but the sytem is less reliable.

Congratulations

[ThiagoT5]

Thanks ExiTeD!

not yet the final version, I'm working in the fourth model and a new way to enter the numbers.

The model is indeed bigger than the previous one because of keys and tilted visor, so I opted no to make the lego basic box.

I've just watched your counter! We've come to the same solutions regarding:

- the receptor part (the 2 orange parts) as in my 1st model
- the actuators (the 2 blue pins) as in my 1st model
- cheese slope as pawls in all 3 models
- counter-weight (the one with spheres) as in my 2nd and 3rd models as a way to ensure the carry

Good work too! How long did it take for you to come to these solutions?

Although the Pascaline mechanism is full of idiosyncrasies (some behaviors defy explanation) I guess it is the easiest way into the goal of making a true calculator with lego.