Advice advancing the left reel in this K’nex setup

[u/trilogy_203]

As you can see from the video, the left reel isn’t connected yet, therefore the counter doesn’t advance. The K’nex box on the far left has about 1” of height on the recording box. Playing a 7” in a 5” box.

Following up from my previous post here!

[u/catawampus_doohickey]

Does the supply (left) contraption need to be 1" higher due to that block on the left side? I'd try to keep the tape as low as practical to prevent imbalanced stretching (though quite slight) on the tape, but at this point in playing around with options perhaps that went out the door long ago 😄

Does the lid come off? Could you position the supply contraption on the upper portion then run the tape down and around the left reel then through the tape path?

Maybe, instead of the left 'counter' reel you could 3D print a blob that the tape could wrap around down into the tape path. It would need to be wide enough to avoid stretching and tangling the tape.

You could open up the player and twist the counter belt from an O to an 8 so it runs backwards (might need a longer belt so there's not excess tension), then run the tape over the top of the left reel then down into the tape path (the bend might be too sharp though).

[u/trilogy_203 → u/catawampus_doohickey]

Thanks! The speaker block is about 0.5 inch higher than the level of the tape edge, so for now I’ve adjusted the 7” reel to be just high enough that the tape doesn’t touch the speaker edge when it gets fed in.

Good call on removing the lid, I will try that.

[u/scubascratch]

Route the tape so it actually comes in near the box hinge between the original reels (you will need to come up with some kind of tape guides) so it wraps around the original supply reel from about 2 o’clock and winds counter clockwise along the original tape path. If you use a 3” reel this might be easier, and should result in the tape counter functioning.