In case you are absolutely dedicated, virtually something could be constructed with LEGO bricks. Take YouTuber Banana Gear Studios’ seven-segment show, as an example, which was made with nothing greater than LEGO bricks, gears, and a motor. However as spectacular as that LEGO creation is, Banana Gear Studios lately determined to take it even additional.
Manner additional. A set of 4 linked seven-segment shows had been became a stopwatch. Not simply any stopwatch — however one which measures all the way down to hundredths of a second, is correct to +/- 0.01 seconds, and rivals the precision of a cellphone. And amazingly, it’s made completely of LEGOs — though it does get some assist from Mindstorms components.
A take a look at the show mechanism (đź“·: Banana Gear Studios)
The seven-segment show was not initially constructed for top velocity use, so to maintain these modules from flying aside, Banana Gear Studios had some upgrading to do. He began by altering the gear design, which in the end made it doable to flip the show 50 instances per second.
That was solely half as quick because the final digit wants to alter, however Banana Gear Studios couldn’t eke out any extra velocity. Quite than resort to any “cheats” like gluing components collectively, he simply went with it. The ultimate digit was modified to solely present even numbers so it may run at half velocity. This does influence accuracy a bit, however because it’s shifting quicker than the attention can detect anyway, it doesn’t make a lot distinction, actually.
With that labored out, the show itself was good to go. However there was nonetheless the not-so-small matter of flipping the digits on the actual proper instances. A motor alone couldn’t be tuned exactly sufficient to maintain correct time, so a Mindstorms programmable brick and motor had been launched for extra precision. This was not completely simple both, however with some trial and error, Banana Gear Studios ultimately bought the suitable formulation labored out.
Testing the LEGO stopwatch by operating it alongside a cellphone stopwatch and stopping them on the identical time (or as shut as doable with handbook button presses) confirmed that the system labored exceptionally properly. The consequence was typically right proper all the way down to the hundredth of a second — at the very least if the final digit was even, anyway.
Make sure to take a look at the video above to see how LEGO bricks could be reworked right into a working stopwatch.
