17-stage Great Ball Contraption Must Use All The LEGO Pieces

Looking at this 17-stage Great Ball Contraption makes us think that [Skiyuky] should be working in industrial automation. The build, which has been assembled from an untold volume of LEGO parts, moves a reservoir of round plastic balls around a circuit. Each module exhibits a different mechanical way of handling the parts. It’s certainly not the first GBC we’ve seen, but the previous offering combined stages from many different makers. [Skiyuky] built this one all himself over the last two years.

The video after the break starts off at the main depository of tiny soccer and basketballs. To help illustrate how long it takes to move around the entire circuit [Skiyuky] adds a red and blue ball which are both easy to spot. From there it’s a Willy Wonky type of ride through all manner of contraptions. We’re struck by accuracy and efficiency with which all of the stages operate.

[Thanks Fozzyvis]

31 thoughts on “17-stage Great Ball Contraption Must Use All The LEGO Pieces

    1. It would be over-the-top-awesome if they interpreted the different balls as 1’s or 0’s. Then you could implement it as a Turing machine with functional units that processes random instructions/data.

  1. Amazing! It really takes some work to make the movements accurate so balls are transferred without falling. It was challenging for me to make just one stage as a trial. The caterpillar tracks are very useful for moving balls up and down and they are thankfully easy to get without having to buy the bulldozer kit, etc.

    1. You just need a round pill cam that is inside a round hollow shell, with a gliding fluid in the space between cam and shell. The center of gravity of the cam inside at the bottom and it will stay parallel to the horizon. though the inertiam will be a problem at this scale.

  2. Kaj:
    It could be an interesting prospect if you could find a way to keep the camera steady or at least have a high enough frame rate and resolution to stabalize the image.
    Maybe the best bet would be to scan the whole thing with a few kinects over one whole cycle and then take enough high resolution photographs to build an almost perfect digital version. Put on a pair of vr goggles and enjoy the ride (:

Leave a Reply to NeilCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.