Subject: Remote FCG Version 2
Content: Remote Flying Crank Ghost Version 2 In a never ending quest for FCG perfection, I've made several revisions to my Remote FCG to address some of the problems I've encountered with the first version. These problems include: The operator lines would break every week or so The movement of the ghost was a little jerky The mounts for the poles would block the driveway and kill the grass The support line wasn't tall enough, making the ghost hang too low A higher, more secure support line would allow more things to hang from it The FCG rig was visible I wanted more options for movement of the ghost The first problem was caused by demanding too much from the operator lines. The pulleys did a fantastic job, however, they are too small, making the poor lines take too tight a turn at a critical stress point. The solution is to use larger pulleys, but hanging a bunch of jumbo pulleys just above the ghost would ruin the effect, and would restrict the movement of the ghost to 'normal' motions. You should know by now I am anything but 'normal'. Fixing this required moving all the pulleys back toward the rig, finding another way to make the ghost move, and giving the operator lines as gentle a path as possible. In effect, an entire new system was required. The design of the rig depended entirely on how the operator lines were to move the ghost, so it was saved until last. The most efficient method I could come up with of moving the ghost was to use a tension based system. There would be a certain amount of slack in the lines, and as the rig tightened them, the ghost would move. This would also make the had and arms move forward and back somewhat, which added to the spooky effect. Here's a diagram of the lines as seen from the front: [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/FCGR1.jpg[/IMG] The orange line is the support line, the yellow are operator lines, and the short red lines hang the ghost from the operator lines. Since this was the first time I used this setup, I wanted easier access to the ghost and operator lines. This is why I used the red lines. Next year the ghost will be connected directly to the operator lines. Oh, and the yellow lines are approximations only, since even I can't see enough of them to be entirely accurate. They do show enough to get the idea, though. Notice how the lines go through the tree. I highly recommend against this, and won't be doing it in the future. Unfortunately, by the time I figured this out, it was too late, so I had to make do. In the end, it worked, but took much too long to set up. Live and learn. This design requires the operator lines to be set up very carefully. If there's not enough slack, the lines will pull too tight, causing the gear motor to seize up and probably burning it out. Gear motors are far too expensive to do that! On the other hand, if the lines are too loose, you'll lose tension on the pulleys, causing the lines to slip off. More on that later. Also, since tension is used to drive the ghost, I needed to keep the support line tight. I also wanted to solve other problems, such as the blocked driveway, dead grass, and maybe shave a little time off future setups. I decided the best way to do this would be with poles set in concrete, however, I didn't want them out there all year long, so I had to work something out. What I settled on was fence posts. A large (2 8/7") post would be set in the ground permanently, a small (2 5/8") post would slide in, another large post over the small, and so on. Since I could only find these things in 8' lengths, I stacked two large posts and used another small post inside to hold them together. This gave me a 16' post, held securely, that I could remove at the end of the haunting season. This is what it looks like now: [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/IMG_0368.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/IMG_0367.jpg[/IMG] The picture on the left is the left post hole, set in the lawn. I used 5 bags (250lbs) of cheap 'fence post' concrete. It's solid as, uh, a post set in 250lbs of concrete. It's not going anywhere. The picture on the right is the right post hole, set in a small line of dirt between the driveway and a short cinderblock wall. This side took a lot of work and time. There's a bunch of concrete holding the wall up, some concrete under the dirt from the driveway, and a 2" pipe running along the driveway for drainage. This required me to dig a notch until I got under the surrounding concrete and pipe, then dig out to form a pocket big enough to secure the fence post. If there isn't enough concrete to secure the post and keep the whole chunk of post and concrete from shifting, the whole assembled pole could fall on people, their cars, or worse, my car! First, I used a better quality concrete, which came in 60lbs bags . This concrete is made for structures, sidewalks, driveways, and heavy duty use. I also dug the pocket out quite a ways under the wall and driveway. In the end I was only able to get two bags (120lbs) of high quality concrete in there, but I was quite confident it would hold. Fortunately, this was one of the few times I was right about something! The FCG rig had to be redesigned for this new setup, and frankly, needed to be rebuilt anyway, as it was on it's last legs. Here's a picture of the old and new rig: [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/PICT00172.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/IMG_0232-1.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/FCGR3.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/IMG_0236-1.jpg[/IMG] A few notes about the new rig: -It's big. The top is roughly 4' by 5', the operator arm is slightly over 2' long, and the bottom angles out. I did this for two reasons. First, I (wrongly) thought I would need a wider radius for the ghost to move effectively, and second, I wanted the pulleys for the arms to be wider, for ease of setup and to reduce the amount of pulleys used, which would reduce the amount of stress on the operator lines. -I used wood. I didn't want to use wood, but I needed a firm base and ran out of time and materials. -The whole thing is too damn heavy. I actually damaged a couple shingles getting it up on the roof, since I was too short on time and brains to move it in parts. Oh, and it was VERY dangerous to haul this thing up a ladder. -The pulleys are big and bare. Unlike the small, closed pulleys on the previous rig, these a put a lot less strain on the operator lines, however, they won't hold the lines if tension is lost, so it's critical that tension is always applied to the lines. -The operator line for the head is held in place by two pulleys. This keeps the line in one place for the next pulley. -The wheel on the pivot arm was made from a pulley, like the one on the bottom left picture, some steel scraps, nuts and bolts. I wanted something with bearings. I ended up drilling another hole in the operator arm, in the middle of the existing wheel and motor shaft. After repositioning the wheel, everything worked perfectly, however, a new rig will be designed and built for next year, and this rig will be put to another use, something more appropriate for it's size. There's also two parts. The second part brings the operator lines over the peak of the roof and gives them vertical play. [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/FCGR4.jpg[/IMG] The red circles are where the pulleys go. The original plan, like so many others, was to place this on the peak of the roof, with the board and pulleys to the rear and the metal arms to the front, with the lines holding it down. This is why it's painted on that side. However, this resulted in a mess. This part was not heavy or stable enough, even when held down by the operator lines. It ended up going on the roof backwards. This will be corrected next time. I'll probably mount these pulleys directly to the rig. Until then, this is what I've got. Now, on to the setup... [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/FCGR1.jpg[/IMG] Orange - Support Line Yellow - Operator Lines Red - Lines that hang the ghost from the Operator Lines First I set up the support line. I ran the support line from the house, to one pole, to the next pole, and back to the house. This served several purposes: I wasn't 100% sure the posts I installed would hold, so if the poles decided to fall, I wanted them to fall towards the house. I wasn't sure how much tension I'd need on the support line. This setup allowed me to make easy adjustments until I found the right balance. I could hang more goodies from the support line. This would allow more options for setting up the rig, since I wasn't entirely sure how it would work. In the future I'm going to secure the line directly to the poles. I'm also going to use pulleys instead of just stringing the line through the eyebolts. This will allow me to increase the tension without worrying about putting too much strain on the line. At this point in the setup breaking the support line would have cost me a lot of time. I put loops in the support line for the operator lines to hook up to. These were spaced approximately three feet apart. Moving the support line back and forth allowed me to position them. Next I hooked up the operator lines. I used those handy little hooks described before: [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/Connector-1.jpg[/IMG] I highly recommend you buy a bunch of these and use them wherever you can. They can save you a lot of work. I used them on the pivot arm of the FCG rig, on the ghost, and wherever one line met another. So now the operator lines are connected to the support lines. Next was running the operator lines to the roof, where the FCG rig goes. I used three spools on a rod, connected the operator lines to the support line, and brought the spools onto the roof. The theory was, this would save me trips to the roof. It was a great theory, but the tree made things more complicated, as each line had to go through the branches to the rig, and it took a few tries to get it through the right branches. The three-spools-on-a-rod plan is a wonderful idea, without the tree. Once I got the lines through the #^%*^ tree, I made loops where the ghost should go, connected 1lb fishing weights to the loops using the above hooks, strung them through the pulleys and, after a bunch of adjustments, hooked them up. [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/FCGR2.jpg[/IMG] Notice the operator lines are red in this picture. Also notice how I attached a cheap, aluminum pan to the rig. This protects the motor from the rain. This also shows how I repositioned the wheel on the pivot arm. I didn't trim the pivot arm, since the alignment was stable and it would not interfere with the lines. At the top of the picture you can see how the, um, thingy that holds the forward pulleys, is wedged in between the roof peak and the roof air vent turbine doohickey. It works, but it's hardly satisfactory. Again, this will be done a different way next time. After adjusting the lines, it was time to adjust the pulleys. This is where liberal use of wing nuts pays off. Once I got it to run without having a line jump a pulley, I ran it for 30 minutes or so until I was sure the line would stay put. After that, I removed the weights, attached the ghost, and let fly! [IMG]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/Cavity_Search/IMG_0255-1.jpg[/IMG] A couple issues I found with this design: -Wind is an enemy. Every year we have what we call Santa Ana Winds, a weather pattern where the wind blows strong enough to knock trucks off the freeway, damage roofs, and rearranges patio furniture, sometimes to the neighbor's back yard. Unlike the previous design, when the wind blows hard, the lines jump off the pulleys. If the rig is allowed to run without the lines properly seated on the pulleys, the lines will break, possibly creating a tangled mess around the gear motor. I had to keep an eye on the weather, shut off the rig when the winds were anticipated, and climb back on the roof to check and reseat the lines. I may have to try the smaller, enclosed pulleys, and use a more durable line near the rig. -The support line needs to be higher up, secured to the poles, and pulleys to hold it up. As you can see from the first picture, the support line is deflected somewhat by the tree, and is too slack to hold the ghost where I wanted it. I'll install another set of small fence posts to get more height, probably two to four feet. Due to a shortage of time, materials, money, and of course experience, I didn't get every issue addressed this time around. I didn't get anything else to hang from the support line. I was working on another FCG, but it wasn't going to be ready until Thanksgiving, so that was put on the back burner. I also didn't get the ghost to do much more than what FCG's normally do. This, too, will be addressed in the future.
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