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I overengineered a spinning top [video](youtube.com)
130 points by bane 6 days ago | 39 comments
  • barbegal11 hours ago

    For a real spinning top over engineered https://youtu.be/QLTsxXNekVE?si=S31kpZQHiYlUSedx

    • observationist10 hours ago |parent

      It's fascinating that you can get to the level of atomic material properties as a spinning top hacker. Diamond seems like it'd be the obvious winner, if you could somehow get a perfectly polished and smooth surface.

      I'd love to see a small Prince Rupert's drop for a tip and a ruby/sapphire spinning surface - you'd need to make a ton of drops, probably, but having a round, nearly spherical contact geometry and super smooth surface seems like a winning combo.

      • jacquesman hour ago |parent

        Until it wears just a smidgen and explodes violently!

    • anfractuosity5 hours ago |parent

      Thanks! I came across http://www.pocketwatchrepair.com/how-to/jewels.php recently, hadn't realised the jewels weren't for aesthetics.

    • chankstein3810 hours ago |parent

      Thank you! This is what I really wanted!

  • mariocesar10 hours ago

    There is a Japanese show that made a Scientist vs Engineers version to build the best Spinning Top: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q-hcidtjiM

    Awesome!

    • johndough7 hours ago |parent

      The entire "Supreme Skills!" series is amazing. Highly recommend!

    • a2dam9 hours ago |parent

      This rules

  • chankstein3811 hours ago

    I saw this and, while interesting and impressive, this isn't really a spinning top. It's a gyroscope. I was hoping for a real like "I cast metal into the perfect shape that I physically derived somehow to last as long as possible" or something similar not just "I put a motor in a case and it spins"

    • pelf9 hours ago |parent

      https://youtu.be/QLTsxXNekVE?si=S31kpZQHiYlUSedx

  • dylan6048 hours ago

    Freaked me out for a second and had to double check that my tablet comes with a stop watch without having to download an app WITH ADS!!!!! Does he earn money for displaying these ads in his video too? I find it hard to believe that a content creator with sponsors is forced to use an ad supported app. Something about it being a stopwatch really just adds the cherry on top

    • VladVladikoff5 hours ago |parent

      I wonder if he wanted it to be bigger? The stopwatch on iOS doesn’t quite fill the screen as the one he used does.

      • dylan6044 hours ago |parent

        Then use $1.99 from the sponsors to remove the ads????

        • fishgoesblub3 hours ago |parent

          Not everyone wants to spend 2$ on a stopwatch app they can use for free and will only use it once.

          • dylan6042 hours ago |parent

            That's part of being a content creator. Producing content has expenses. When you cheap out on it, it looks obvious and people will comment. Hi

        • bombcar3 hours ago |parent

          Later in the video you see a clearer picture of apparently the same tablet and timer app, and no ad.

          • dylan6042 hours ago |parent

            I saw what I thought was no ad, but you could still see the little widget in the upper right hand corner that still revealed where the ad would appear like when you manually click close ad on a website.

    • iberator3 hours ago |parent

      That's why smart people use Android.

      • dylan6042 hours ago |parent

        Ugh, let me get my eyes returned from rolling so far to the back of my head. As if Android doesn't have adware apps.

  • isaacn9 hours ago

    Reminds me of this little top, which actually works quite well: https://limbo.top/

    • inanutshellus8 hours ago |parent

      man i get advertised to for these things NONSTOP. IMO it's cheating to call it a "top" but stick a motor in it to make it work.

  • dmoy3 hours ago

    Guinness book of world records lists a 7+ hour unassisted spin of a wooden top, and a mechanical-assist (like this one) of 41+ hours

    How long would a better battery go here?

    I'm curious what the jump from 2-> 40+ hours requires

    • rationalist2 hours ago |parent

      Vacuum chamber?

  • bambax6 hours ago

    Excellent!

    At around the end of the fidget spinner craze I thought "but what would it take to make it spin by its own?" And it turned out, not much. Just put one magnet at each of the three ends, and have some pulsating magnet near it (next to it, or under it hidden in some kind of base), and there! you have a basic electric motor that seems entirely magical.

    It was a really fun experiment; I even toyed with doing a small production run but by the time I was almost ready the craze had passed.

    • nomel6 hours ago |parent

      Related, here's a globe that uses the earths magnetic field (an a little solar panel within) to spin "forever"!

      [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-NII1RdlcQ

  • jcims10 hours ago

    Saw this last week, really enjoyed the tenacity in problem-solving!!

    Did make me wonder if you could build a solid state one using well-timed pulses through an electromagnet that provide torque through the field interaction with the earth's magnetic field.

    Not much torque available there obviously, but on a per-revolution basis you don't need much.

  • augusteo8 hours ago

    I love projects like this. Taking something trivially simple and asking "but what if we really optimized it?"

    The material science discussion in these comments is fascinating. Never thought about how the contact point geometry matters so much. Diamond tip makes intuitive sense for hardness, but then you need something it can spin on without scratching...

  • gigaflop10 hours ago

    My mind immediately went towards Battlebots when I saw electronics getting involved. I wonder what else would need to be done to make this steerable over RC? There may be a lower weight class where some nicely CNC'ed 'Phantasm Orbs' can score reasonable points.

    • everyday773210 hours ago |parent

      This already exists- there's a class of robot called "meltybrains" which spin the whole robot using one or more wheel, detect the speed of spinning with a gyro and modulate the speed of the wheels at different points in its' rotation in order to create translational movement. Since they effectively put all the weight allowance into the "weapon" they can be very effective. The additional complexity means that they are hard to get working reliably in chaotic combat conditions. A team called "Project liftoff" had some serious success though.

      • gigaflop9 hours ago |parent

        I saw Project Liftoff in person, that little death-frisbee? Looked like they have two points of contact with the floor, which is probably just better design.

        And now that I think a bit further, I might just be imagining a more complicated version of one of those crabwalk spinny metal ones..

      • hamdingers5 hours ago |parent

        Meltybrains are still wheeled robots even if they use the wheels in a novel way.

        If you could develop a self-starting top capable of remote controlled translational movement you would get non-wheeled weight bonuses up to 2x in most competitions.

  • tartoran6 days ago

    This is fun, well done. Quite a performance to reach 2 hours on that little battery. Perhaps Euler disks are next?

    • slfreference10 hours ago |parent

      Never perfect a game something to its theoretical limits, It stops being exciting.

      https://youtu.be/0Yubn6P5DUw

    • Terretta3 days ago |parent

      > Quite a performance to reach 2 hours on that little battery.

  • 1shooner10 hours ago

    These would make great pomodoro timers.

  • Espressosaurus9 hours ago

    Entertaining, but holy cow that music distracts from the content.

  • ReptileMan8 hours ago

    I like it, but part of me thinks that spinning tops should be without IC and batteries. I don't mind some steampunk clockwork mechanisms though.

  • zzzeek6 hours ago

    this guy is super great but wow do the juvenile sexist comments he makes (over and over again, tripling down on them) detract from the overall value of the video. Would female engineering students really appreciate all that? I think not

    • bdamm6 hours ago |parent

      As a male this turned me off too. I didn't like it, and it really distracted from the overall very cool thing.