Rolling ball sculptures

Also see Rolling Ball Sim

I now have Kace working/started. It would be a good point to start going between physical and digital models. I could make some good prototypes with cardboard, and possibly the popsicle sticks from a craft store. I should be able to get some models built marble size, later I can scale them down to BB size.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYi9sJkS19Q

Architecture

Need

• Jump: how to move forward and backward in the code a set number of positions
• Power: Make sure a lack of power won't cause it to enter a bad state.

Power

At an abstract level, I think the easiest solution to power is to store up power until there is guaranteed to be enough. This could be storing mechanically in a spring or weight or a pure rolling ball solution where the next clock only starts when there are enough marbles in the reservoir.

One approach for a marble system would be to have a special clock marble. This could be a heavy, large ball bearing where the weight could be used to make things easier. When one clock cycle is done, it must be lifted back up to the top, but the mechanism that lifts it also lifts the other marbles in parallel. This would guarantee to lift some number of marbles before the next cycle.

Incrementer

The incrementer needs

• Set from jump instruction
• Increment or Decrement with carry
• Output when done

• flip flop: this would have to go very slow, maybe I could to something without gravity
• toggle: need a way to set, but that shouldn't be too hard.

I think there's a good way to do it with gears and a geneva mechanism progression. I was getting stuck on a complex locking operation, but I don't think that's entirely necessary. Each gear is going to be in one of two positions. So they can be completely free spinning when the set operation is performed and they only need to be locked before it's released.