After seeing the new and improved Skyhook some of the following issues came to mind regarding the bits connecting the left and right sides of the Sky-Lines.
laforzadimente said: If it needs to rotate counter-clockwise to get off and clockwise to get the hook back on the rail, I don't see why there are multiple hooks to begin with. And on an uphill rail, it would be impossible to reconnect no matter how fast the mechanism is without an additional upward force from somewhere.
Because I don't think the hooks spin both ways in the game, a mechanically functional redesign has been cooking in the back of my brain. Kudos to the IG art developer, your Skyhook looks WAY more awesome than mine, especially how it folds up. Which mine does not. Another bit of cool in the original that is not in mine is the ability to hop from one side of the rail to the other. In order to do that with this design, you'd have to figure out how to do a 180 during or before the jump (only good for the left side of the rail right now).
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Here is a view of the top of mine. My hope was to have a merry-go-round type of motion in which the holding hook releases a moment before impact with the Sky-Rail connector. This impact causes the entire setup above the handle (current view) to rotate allowing the user to reconnect before falling. Of course, some falling will occur and sometimes the user will be going uphill so the reconnection point may be higher than the release height. The upward angle of the hook allows it to scoop the rail into position regardless of height as long as there is a reasonable amount of contact.
A more involved look at the release mechanism reveals two spring loaded tabs on each hook. The longer tab strikes the connector first, opening the hook for release. A moment later, the second tab is struck triggering the powerless rotation mechanism which is controlled with a series of metal wires and levers similar to how the brake on your bicycle works.
A manual release is included with the handle (see below). Because the wires cannot cross through the continually rotating upper section without breaking, the levers (internally) have a one way catch so they discontinue without feeding all the way down to the handle. The depressed tab releases the catch allowing the spin under the tangential force of impact but recovers as soon as it finds the next catch located at the next 120 deg. The manual release does the same from the opposite direction but as such must open all hooks at once.
A last look at the hook shows my poor attempt to save space / allow it to fold up. I later gave up on this as joints take 3 times as long to model and this was a bit of a mental exercise rather than a gauntlet. But since I already did this part I guess it's worth a mention. In storage mode, the hooks lay flat on the rotation dial under a cover. A binary bearing mechanism (through which the impact wires run) are pulled up by a sliding spring loaded mechanism that works in a manner similar to the mechanism on a screen door but pulls the hook into the upright position instead of just acting as a damper.
You can also see the hook has a one way clasp allowing the next portion of the rail to slide in, pushing the right portion of the hook into the base and allowing it to come back after the rail is in place. You can also see some smaller gears coordinating with the larger one on the dial meant for rotation. It's not shown in these views but the larger gear's teeth have holes in them allowing them to properly interface even with different size teeth. I didn't do the gear ratio calculations but it's almost right.
Last but not least is the entire view including the bit for your arm.
Anyway, that's about it and I just wanted to share. Thanks to the IG team for thinking this stuff up & thanks for reading!
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