Hello!
Lately I've been experimenting with unconventional engines (i.e. no regular motors, spring engines, hingeConstant engines, spawn engines, etc) and I had a thought.
What if I create a wheel with a set of points -- let's say 6 attached around it. These points' weight will change depending on which side of the wheel they are currently on.
So, if the wheel is pointing up, the points on the left side will be heavier than the points on the right side, dragging the left side down via gravity-- and vice versa.
I built my first prototype using my gravity sensor as a reference point (since they would make the most power perpindicular to the gravity direction) -- but I noticed something interesting that I failed to consider.
As the engine spins up, the inertia from the points moving pushes the engine in the direction the wheel is facing. This turns it into a makeshift thruster. This is what gave me the idea from their name -- they look vaguely like starfish and they use inertia to drive themselves -- so Starfish Inertia Drives it is!
I removed the gravity sensors and made it so the engine block itself (the dark gray part) determines the angle so these engines can be rotated. The block is offset 90 degrees from the wheel, so now if it's pointing left the left side will become heavy and generate power / vice versa.
Now, if we apply an external power source to these engines, they act as thrusters!
They also have the peculiar side effect of powering themselves if they aren't parallel to the gravitational field (i.e. pointing 100% up or down) which is quite interesting to me.
This scene compiles a few experiments using these engines.
Feel free to use these in your own scenes -- just remember to give credit.
2017 - 2026 Little (Thyme Scene)
Happy (late) Mother's Day!
I plan to make a car using one of these in the near future.
HOTFIX: Camera wasn't following experiment 3
