Introduction & Background- JH

For my end of the year project, I chose to construct the 5-bar slotted slider mechanism. This mechanism functions to serve as a quick return for a slider between two parallel grounded components. This mechanism also converts an angular input into a linear output, which is useful when using a rotating motor or servo as the input to generate linear motion. 

The reason that I chose this mechanism is because I enjoy playing roulette, and in this game, the dealer launches a marble around a spinning circle of numbers. While the inconsistency of the dealer affects the outcome in this game, I thought that creating a mechanism that could be used to launch the marble at the same velocity each time would be interesting and possibly reduce some of the variation caused by human input. Ideally, the marble would be placed at the end where the quick return action occurs, giving it the most velocity. 

The five-bar slider mechanism is shown below: 

My goal was to create a variation of this mechanism that would allow a smooth input and convert it to a quick linear output on the return portion of the input. I initially wanted to incorporate  a motor into my design, however, the motors I had at my disposal at home weren't strong enough to power the mechanism. Instead, I created a handle that the user can turn between toggle positions to create a smooth output with the slider.