robothut Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Z-Man still seems to be the first electrically programable toy. Also one of the first toys to use a Printed circuit board. And it also uses two rotating shaft spring clutch's for the drive wheels as one wheels has to spin freely when the other is running. A design I may have to use in a project just because it works so well and is so simple. The only thing I have always found odd about the toy was that they did not provide a way to program the car to move straight forward. Bot the patent and the ad text make it clear that only 1 drive motor runs at a time. It would not have been hard to make the electro mechanical sequencer select both motors. I do not think this was done for battery power limits. as the lights they added to the back to show what way the robot car was turning draw as much power as battery motor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 More images from the internet. The programing card is interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 The only mint in box Z-Man I have seen in person was the Sears version sold in the plain brown box. But when sold by other a color box was used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Gil Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 That's great stuff, John - thanks for sharing! That would have been a fun toy to play with. The spings over the bulbs make it look like a sparking action in the vid - though that might just be an effect of this lighting and reflection from the floor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 The springs were there to protect the bulbs, no sparkling action in real life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 Brian here is a you tube animation of how the 1 way spring clutch works. Seems it could be used not just for driving wheels but gears or cams So simple to give dual function from 1 motor drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian.. Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Such a simple idea, John. I've tried it but I just can't get the spring to tighten. I've tried a variety of tight fit springs and even wound my own but I can't get it to catch. Is there anything special about the shaft that helps it to bind? Ridges or a ratchet shape? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian.. Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Just had a bit of success. I wound a fine wire spring that was slightly narrower than the shaft. This works, but there's a fair bit of friction in the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted March 1, 2021 Author Share Posted March 1, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian.. Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Dang, didn't think of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 Robodude sent me some parts for a second Z-Man the Brain robot. This one has the yellow color details. With the parts came a second front motor drive unit. So here are some pictures of the motor drive unit where you can see the spring clutch and also that the motors were made in Japan. I guess it was to expensive to custom build a small electric motor. If you look at the motor used in say a Marx Electric robot from back then it was very large. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 This second Z-Man also has the base plates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 So I made a new wire battery holder as close the original as I could. Replaced the rear lights, glued the battery box parts back in place, fixed some wiring and the big problem was that the large gear that controls the sequencer timing was missing. But it is the same gear as is used in the front wheel motor drive units. So I took one of those large metal gears and from the wheel drive unit and placed in the sequencer drive system. Next I wanted to see the missiles work, so I had to 3d print some missiles. I did not have a lot of springs to pic from, the ones I have are a bit stiff but the length and diameter were close enough. I will put up a video tomorrow of all the functions working. Might be the only time you will ever see a 1956 Z-Man fully functioning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROBODUDE Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Wow John !!!-That turned out great-I knew you could get that running again !! Looking forward to the video Especially looking forward to seeing those missiles in action! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoboDerby Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Too cool John. I look forward to the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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