Recently I (Joe) decided to try to replicate the Merkur Elevator model.  All I had to go on were the two pictures on Page 2 of the Vintage Models Page.  Click on the thumbnails below to see the pictures.

  I thought it would be easy and I suppose it wasn't too hard.  The first thing I did was to enlarge the pictures in Adobe Photoshop Elements and blow them up.  I was close to full sized and the pictures printed out on six sheets of paper.  Seeing detail was hard, but I think i have reconstructed the way it worked.  It is still not done.
  My first discovery was that the cars are not independent.  One moves up while the other moves down.  This is good because they act as counterweights to each other.
  Discovery #2 was that the cars would not hang straight.  That explained the twin strings descending from each car.  They go over some pulleys underneath and then up to the bottom of the other car.  Cars are still very difficult to keep straight. 
   This is how it looks.
   I have posted more pictures on the Elevator Page.
   I have not finished it.  The balconies have yet to be added.  I am thinking of rebuilding it and following the design of an actual elevator more closely.  I could have it ride on vertical rails, which would keep it very straight.  I could also add Continuous Rotation Servos to move the cars up and down, and switches and a BotBrain Board to control the operation.  Big redesign.  Not sure if I should keep the dual shaft design or go for a single car.
   Any suggestions?

If you have visited a few times lately you may have noticed some changes. 

We are in the middle of a long overdue update.

Some recent changes or additions:

1. New shopping cart: it looks more professional and seems to work better.  Of course I haven't bought anything from our site lately, so perhaps it does not work...   Any feedback is most welcome.  Just add a comment below.
   
2. Merkur products are now available.  We have added a line of these classic metal construction sets.  These are the same parts  we include with our Robot Construction Sets
3. Changes in forms: the curriculum Request Form now requires certain areas to be filled out or you cannot submit it.  We were getting forms missing address information and could not contact people to correct it.
4. We have a new website just for Merkur: merkursets.botbrain.com.  This is because we have become the US distributor for Merkur and have bought the inventory of merkursets.com.  This site is new and not yet complete.

I appreciate your patience with the update process. I am doing it as fast as I can.

Joe Osborne

Ann.E, short for Animatronic, is our newest product.  It is a robot head that can speak and interact with people.

We finally shipped all our back orders of Ann.E last Tuesday.  We have been working long hours on it since November, 2007. The design began taking shape in the winter of 2007.

We created Ann.E for the National Science Teachers Association conference, March, 2007, in St. Louis. It began as an attention-getter at the show.  We mounted it on a lift and added a sensor to detect someone walking by.  It would then rise up to head height and introduce itself.  Lots of people stopped to talk.

This picture shows the current version which has a moving jaw and moving lips.  It comes with two demo programs. One tells a joke or recites a poem.  The other demonstrates a range of emotions from angry through sad, calm and happy.

It could be used for a science fair project: studying humans interacting with a robot.  It could greet people walking into a room, giving them information.  It could be a character for halloween or another holiday.  You could also use it for entertainment such as a robot-ventriloquist act.

Ann.E's appearance can be customized.  As it ships, its face and lips are blue to match our logo.  We include blank silhouettes for the head and two colors of eyelashes.

Order your Ann.E at our website: www.botbrain.com/products.

This is the first post to our new blog.  I am just getting used to the idea of writing for public consumption, and I may delete this post shortly.  But I want to see what it looks like.