Love the Turing Tumble, but as a typical Engineer … I always want more!
One thing I would love is the ability to create a loop. To do this would be ‘simple’, using a classic archimedes screw to lift balls up from the bottom ball catches.
Here is one proposed design, which might not involve too much modification to the board design:
- Create a ball-sized gap in the outermost edge of a ball collector which would allow balls to escape out of the side of the board.
- Attach an Archimedes Screw to that side which raises the ball.
- Modify input bin to allow balls to dump from Archimedes Screw into the input bins at top.
Optional approach: Same as above, but use a ball-sized hole in back of the ball collector to do the same mechanism, but from behind, rather than beside the board.
Note: It doesn’t have to be an Archimedes Screw, they’re just a nice, simple option. It would be clever to make the lifting mechanism hand-crank by default, but also allow it to be driven by a motor mechanism (usb powered?) which would allow continuous operation.