Added 120519

This is the 4th incarnation of a Lego Card Sorting machine. Well, not sorting, exactly. The idea is that the machine looks at each card, figures out which card it is, and adds that information to a database. Right now, I just have some of the "look at each card" part done.

Maybe I should call this a Deck Viewer, or Deck Recorder.

Lego Deck Recorder Setup (5 MB AVI file)

These videos are seriously minimal. But it was quick to make them this way, so here they are. In the Setup, you can see the gears on the side. The gray gear to the left of the white gear runs the Lift Wheel. The top gear, with only 8 teeth, runs the flipper wheel at 3 times the speed of the lift wheel. This is intended to help separate cards that are almost sticking together. I'm trying to make something that works when everything is easy. After that works, then I might try making it more robust in dealing with sticky cards, or cards in sleeves, or ...

You'll also notice that the card cart slides into the Recorder. There are flat gears on the bottom of the cart, which is constructed with upside-down bricks. The flat gears roll on a series of round gears, allowing the cart to slide toward the front of the Recorder.

Lego Deck Recorder operation (5 MB AVI file)
As you can see, each card is lifted up out of the cart, over the lift wheel, then it drops down in front of the lift wheel, ending up back in the cart, in the same order as before, just on the other side of the lift wheel.

At some point in the lifting process, a camera would take a pic and recognize which card it is. I haven't begun that part yet.

Right now I have to push the cart forward so the Recorder gets enough grip on the next card to lift it. And of course, there is no motor running the thing yet. Also, you'll notice I pause when the card gets lifted up. This is where a camera would take a picture and figure out which card it is.