Rolling mechanism in escape room: technical description and information
- EscapeRooms_EcoDecor
- Oct 30
- 3 min read
We are finishing a project for one of the escape rooms, and I wanted to tell you about one rolling mechanism in escape room: a technical description and information on the entire structure.
Still, I want the information in this blog to be really useful to you.
Therefore, I am showing you this mechanism not from the front (front) side, but from the inside.
The purpose of this mechanism is to rotate an object (a fake basket with balls) at a certain angle on the gearbox shaft. At a certain point in time, the basket should flip over and pour all the contents onto the floor.
We did not connect the motor directly to the basket for the reason that we need a very slow rotation and the shaft must be very strong, as players can hang on the basket.
The shaft and body of the stepper motor are not strong enough, so we had to use a step-down gearbox with a very powerful and sturdy body.
From the point of view of mechanics, the following combination is obtained: a
powerful metal frame
Mounting plate (4mm thick steel)
The gearbox is attached to the plate
The stepper motor is attached to the gearbox
A special adapter coupling is attached to the axle of the gearbox to secure the basket.
Also, a special custom nozzle is attached to the gearbox axis (thanks to the 3D printer), which allowed us to connect the limit switch.
From the point of view of electronics, we have
220v AV - 24v DC power supply
LILYGO T-Internet-POE ESP32 Controller-WROOM LAN8720A
Stepper Motor Driver
Stepper motor
Limit switch
We use a limit switch to determine the 0 point for the stepper motor, or we can also call it the "start point". We do this at the moment of starting the entire mechanism: the gearbox axis rotates until the limit switch is activated, after which we begin to count the steps of the engine. The controller is connected to a shared server via a LAN cable. A specially made PCB with BLS sockets on one side and screw terminal blocks on the other is attached to the pins of the controller. We need this custom board in order not to be directly soldered to the pins of the controller. In case of a controller failure, it will take our client exactly 10 seconds to replace it. We consider dupont connectors to be unreliable.
It would seem that it is a simple task to slowly rotate the basket, but in the conditions of the quest room it turns into a completely non-trivial task, because we design and build only reliable puzzles that can be serviced by any handyman.
We also ask you not to find fault with the appearance of the product, the photo was taken before the final laying of cables and the placement of components, so there is no beautiful cable management!
Stepper motor
Reducer
The axis of rotation. It is to this axis that the baskets are attached on the back side.
Limit switch
Pusher foot mounted on the axis
of the Main controller
Special PCB Board
AC-DC power supply unit for 24v DC
Stepper Motor Driver
The metal frame is the base for the entire mechanism.
Metal plate for connecting the frame (item 10) and gearbox (item2)
I really hope this information was useful and interesting. As the projects are implemented, I will try to share technical information with you.
All the best,
Ilya
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