GearHeads Corner

Art:


I managed to crash the worm gear portion of the Ticker program. It did work for a while when I updated the previous version with the latest versions of Gearotics via the GearoticMotion.msi file. I had been trying to understand the parameters controlling worm gear creation when the program stopped reacting to selection of worm gears and crashed. What's troublesome is that my attempts to restore the program have been unsuccessful. Something is not being reset when I rerun the installation programs...either in the user space or in the windows registry (see my comments at the end).


Here is what I've observed:

The Ticker program starts OK. I can create bolts, spur gears, bevel gears. When I select worm gears or helical gears, the program does not display a parameter input panel and after several seconds the program crashes.

Here is what I've tried:

I reran GearoticMotions.msi and Coinstall.exe over writing the installation of Gearotics. But Ticker still crashed when selecting Worm or Helical gears.

I used IObit Uninstaller program that not only removes the installed program but also removes entries from the windows registry. I then ran GearoticMotions.msi and Coinstall.exe Ticker still crashed.

I've attached some Ticker log files.

TickerLogStart then Exit.txt – Simply start Ticker and then exit.

TickerLogSpurGears.txt – Start Ticker, create a default Spur Gear set and exit

TickerLogWormGear—Crashes.txt – Start Ticker, select worm gear but it crashes.

It appears that the Ticker program fails right after .cpp(1333) First Frame Completed.

Another oddity that might be related to the problem: After deleting Gearotics using IObit uninstaller and rerunning the GearoticMotions.msi installation file Gearotics no longer shows up as an installed program on the system.

Bill Michael

Running Windows 10 on an Inspiron 7506 2n1 notebook computer.

Art

I decided that the problem with at least worm calculations must lie in the Windows registry. You provided me some typical values for worm gears. I located where Ticker Modeler stores values in the windows registry:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Ticker Modeler\Ticker\Settings

I put in some of the values you gave me in a previous post:

LastWormArc 0.1
LastWormFace 13.7
LastWormHelix -0.05
LastWormMod 1
LastWormRad 10
LastWormRatio 28
LastWormTeeth 6

I ran Ticker and it worked! Both worm and Helical gears did not crash.

Perhaps a button could be provided to return all values to their default because apparently the .msi install file does not overwrite values.

Bill

Just as a by the by, if you didn't know.

Msi does have command line options as well..

All examples/parameters can be found here.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... ne-options

may be handy to know.

eg using u - Rewrites all required user-specific registry entries.

All you would need to do is add the command on reinstallation rewrite registry. No need for buttons.

Bill:

Thanks, I wasnt aware of that issue.

The defaults are rough at the moment as no true options screen is yet developed, most work is done by internal
assumption flags until I complete the physics tie ins. I will take note though and add a reset to defaults option in
the menu when written.
Current Ticker is vastly different than the one released so the options will be much larger. I will have to do a
video soon to explain how all this will affect usage. Most people will find a few surprises I suspect. If I ask your
average person "In a system with two gears, each with 10 teeth, how many times will gear #2 rotate as it goes
around the first gear?" most will answer "once". The real answer of course is twice. Its common misconceptions
like that that will make the new ticker a bit odd for some. ( The formula for a free moving gears rotation
is angle of rotation times the ratio plus the angle of rotation R' = R * ratio + R, much like an involute curve
as which is Inv(A) = tan(A) + A, with the addition term related to secondary body motion.)

To hurt the head further, how many times will the first gear rotate if the second gear has a motor and is free to
move around the first. The answer is "It depends on the masses of the first and second gear as well as the friction of
the first gear on its shaft." Of course, gears rarely hang in space with no gravity or linkages to surpress their
physical motion, but it will be important to consider such things when designing tickers and contraptions.
I'm taking a long time on Tickers upgrade, the math is torturous, my ignorance vast.

My main idea here is that kinetic art is artistic and pretty because it expresses the weirdness of 3d motion
between linkages by showing the non intuitive nature of the math of all its linkages. Im hoping to make it
possible to play with such linkages to find interesting kinetic contraptions what are pretty to look at.

Thanks for the feedback, I will keep it in mind when I get to options, I'm about 4 very confusing issues
away from releasing a new version as a test sandbox with nothing but gears before I add things like
escapement possibilities.. I'm at the stage where my contraptions explode after a few seconds.. too much
instability as yet in the physics modeling.


Art

Art

Thanks for your detailed reply about Ticker, I look forward to future updates to the program. If I have further questions about Ticker and its support of worm/ worm gears I'll post to the Gear Discussions topic area.

Stojan: Thanks for the tip about parameters that can be used on .msi files.

Bill Michael