Hoody

Yes I agree, it has such a happy sound. The technique is the same (nearly). The problem is the provider and the infrastructure. But I think this also the same as all over the world. The less customers are there the later they get connected to broadband (high speed) communications if ever. Really funny: when I am connection to www.ti.com I got immediate reply (less than 50ms ping time). But when trying to access some german sites (as like www.web.de) I end up with several seconds of reponse or connection timeout. Changing the provider is not a solution. In the end (backbone) they all use the same installation from the same infrastructure provider. Maybe I should visit more american sites. Near Ramstein the connectivity might get optimized this way, perhaps.

Might be in America and big cities all over the world. Here in Germany the rural regions are not linked by broadband. And if so, the backbone is not able to carry the traffic. It is really unfortunate but sometimes my old MODEM is faster. Now connection just works better. Even with lower performance on the WLAN than this morning. 'All the dolphins in hurricane' sounds nice even if I do not understand a single word.

My first time to see the video from 'Tight Fit'. Horrible. But I still like the song. I will check for 'The Tokens' version if I have the chance. Sunday morning is no good time to youtube around. I am waiting for 5 minutes on the russian song now but the connection stalls and stalls. www = World Wide Wait.

"The Fugitive" - that is very interesting. On German TV there I remember only the film starring Harrison Ford as Dr. Kimble. And the german naming would translate back to "being on the run" or "being on the lam" or something close to.

'The Tokens'?? 'Tight Fit' I remember somehow ... (unable to listen for region restrictions)

A marble being on the run is it on or off the tracks?

First I thought it to be some Vogon slang but then http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewGeneraldiscussion.php?idThread=1019854&idForum=18〈=de&lp=ende http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraprosdokian Unfortunaltey I still need to do some more meditation to understand Steph's example. Meanwhile I amuse with those: http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewGeneraldiscussion.php?idThread=577499&idForum=9&lp=ende〈=de#followup101

Then you need to get a trial with your idea of studs and holes. It needs precision anyway. Maybe a template for drilling could be an aid? Just an idea for the studs or replacement for wood dowels: pins with pinheads like this one here: You need just to drill the holes for the pinhead in one part and the other part takes the pins. Pressing the parts together will force the pins into the opposite part and unplugging then just lifts off the drilled part from the pinheads. The tolerances of the plastic pinheads might get a problem, of course. Or do you plan to glue Lego bricks to your modules just pugging them together this way?

My phantasy just strikes me. I literally 'hear' an imaginary radio broadcast live from the stadium: "... welcome to this years Mississippi Marble Games Super Recess Cup. This is Jack Tellmann and we are expecting the greatest final ever. The California Cateyes versus the Peltier Peerless. The crowd is already shouting while the teams just line up ..."

'California Cateyes' sounds nice also ...

Whatever happened, today I received a couple of notifications by eMail. So things seem to work again.

Oh how marbelous ! Especially this green distributor with its simple rotary action is a creative thing. What about Velcro tape (NL = klittenband)? Precision is less important there. Maybe the small wooden handles of iced-lollies (NL = Americium???) can give the proper height offset compensation when glued aside the Velcro, without milling. The smooth part of the tape to the topside and the rough part to the bottom side, for example. Maybe this is the simplest way to fix the parts without any machining. At least modules can be stacked this way. A variation could be to prepare the interfaces (the sides directly lying next together) between the modules with Velcro so you can just "plug" them together as you like. On each interface there should be the same arrangement of the two tape parts next to each other. For example the left side with the smooth part and the right side with the rough part. It is like with model railroad tracks and their end connections (just check your Lego contact rails). Define a setup and use it on every interface / side. I think this will provide the most flexible way to rearrange the modules. Maybe some milling needs to be done here to get the tape sunken so that there is no extended gap between the modules. Looking at your track modules I think that milling is not a problem for you, is it? Just try it out. I would be glad if you post some feedback here.

That's a good point. Might be the same as taste: everyone has its own preferences. Even imagine the nightmare of a marble collector: his ancient, most precious and rare collectives running through motorized lifters, high g-force loops and hard metal tracks thousands and thousands of turns. (But don't panic. I am just using the collectibles of next century - todays industrial mass production)

What about holes in all pieces underside and upperside? Plug in a wood dowel where necessary. I think this could be the easiest way with simplemost tooling requirements.

Well that is pretty fast when comparing it with my efforts. You are years ahead with your experience, that might play a role also.

Hi everyone, for some reason my settings on notifications do not take any effect. My setings currently are: Remaining checks are also all at "eMail". But there is no notification send to my eMail-account for the topics I follow. I carefully checked that related traffic is not treated as spam accidentally. Has somebody of you an idea what to set or where else I need to check something? A second idea of mine is to get one message if a topic is replied to and then nothing until I visited and read the topic (or at least got logged in to the forum). Which setting "offline" or one of the 2 digests do I need to select for the notification frequency to get this? Regargs and Thanks Hoody

52k$ for a single marble? When I saw the ebay I thought that the 10k$ are 'a little bit' on the expensive side. Are those prices really realistic?

Their german name has something to do with "leaf", indeed.

Wallace & Gromit are really fine. I know 3 of the old episodes and in one of them shaun and some of his mates occured the first time ever. Well, back to topic. Currently I have identified some trouble with the mill - okay, it is an older problem but now I am about to find a solution. The mill, driving the ping-pong-ball-lifter, has its entry on a too high level. Not way too high but some marbles have not enough energy to arrive here. In fact the tracks are rising a few millimeters causing the marbles to slow down. If the marbles are not fast enough from the start they stall and return on the tracks the wrong way. You might think: Now, let's have them start a little bit higher and we are done. Unfortunately there is no way to have them start a little bit higher. The lifting wheel has fixed diameter and can not be made some fractions of an inch (a centimeter oder so) higher. The issue is related to the fischertechnik parts available and how the hollow wheel is constructed. The mill itself can not be lowered since then their exit tracks are getting too low, loosing steepness and then there are jams that block the machine. So the only chance is to get the tracks to the mill a few millimeters down - which means a new arrangement of the arriving platform. The issue here: the marbles need to enter the mill-wheel without blocking which is also related to a well defined geometry. Normally the mill-wheel could also be lowered but there is also an issue: below the mill-wheel there is this tub collecting the marbles and guiding them to one of the two exits. Lowering the mill-wheel interferes with the headroom the marbles need and wheel and marbles block each other then. Stay tuned ...

Hello all, there are some wonderful marble runs around here. Watching the video clips or galleries just shows ease or elegance running those. From my own experience I know that it sometimes is not so easy to well construct a marble run and that there is plenty of time spent. The more complex the run the more time it might take to get things working is my feeling. "A Tribute To Imperfection" started out January 2014 and was presented once end of September 2014. From there it was a continous evolution to "Jubiläumsedition" shown end of July 2015. But the story is not over. Next plan is May 2016 to show the final version. There is not much add-on planned but this time I will spend every effort to get every station, every effect working as reliably as possible. There are so many details that need attendance to avoid marbles spin off the tracks. How long does it take you from the first idea until the complete marble run works first time? How long does it take you until your construction is ready for reliable work on shows or exhibitions?

Sounds plausible - and much more plausible as some scientifics.

@ Alan: what a perfect picture of a really nice marble

The same drawback as with HABA blocks. I bet you will find a very easy and flexible solution.

Very interesting idea. Resembles me to a crossover of Cuboro and Haba. How do you fix the modules against each other?

It is just a "Shaun" toy figure with flexible legs and arms that I put there. For some strange reason I think that 'he' must be somewhere in the installation to get success when its show time. Maybe its madness, who knows? kbobam eventually? Tell me, is "Shaun the Sheep" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_the_Sheep) something you already heard about it? If not then watch here a clip: http://shaunthesheep.com/watch/fossils there are more around.