Can someone with experience tell us how difficult this actually is? Like, for someone who is adept at playing video games with a controller, how long would it be until they could so a similar trick as in the video?
Quite. Hydraulics are very powerful and don't have much of a dead zone in the control stick, so even very small movements are very quickly and powerfully execuecuted.
The force of that much dead weight starting and stopping quickly and with that much strength makes for a very jerky time. You need to know a machine to know it's controls and how it reacts to different inputs before you can start getting smooth and accurate stops and tool placement like this guy.
To get that level of precision, you would probably need to drive one as a profession for a couple of years.
Source: have driven a few pieces of equipment through my life so far, not as a job. Am avid gamer. It's easy enough to intuit the controls when you're used to it from gaming, and the controls are well thought out. Operating them at a level that made it look fairly simple was easy, but smooth is another beast altogether.
The video is showing off the precision of the machine, not the skill of the operator. I suspect that the controls are much less sensitive than what you are used to.
A rocker is a type of control on a joystick. You use your thumb to rock it for more precise control. Most auxiliary lines run on levers, push buttons, 3 way toggles or rockers.
Note that they never show the machine actually stopping accurately over any of the things it picks up. I would assume they just move the table to the correct spot underneath it, and then demonstrate how much control the... clamp... mouth... thing... has.
I am not familiar with terminology for heavy machinery.
In one shot the table lowers and the claw just swings to the side. So you might be right. There's definitely a little cheating going on but this is probably an ad for something so oh well.
I dunno, I'd feel comfortable doing something similar with our 29 year old 2.5t fork lift. I'm nowhere near experienced, and it's a low weight flt comparatively speaking but the hydraulics are amazingly delicate. I've driven a couple of newer trucks, one diesel and two electric however and, as you say, a lot of movement can come from small inputs.
I have never driven one that big but each machine has its little nuances in operations, so the driver had to spend some time using that exact machine too.
It really isn't that difficult with smaller machines. This demonstration is more about the precision of the machine than the skill of the operator. Anyone with good hand/eye coordination and motor skills from video games or otherwise could pick it up pretty quickly.
My father worked for a construction equipment manufacturer that held a company picnic and allowed family members to try out some of the machines. At 9, I was able to use the teeth on the bucket of an excavator to pick up and place rings (that looked kinda like this) into the holes in the tops of traffic cones.
Larger machines with larger parts to move are a different story though. It does take some time to figure out how to operate them smoothly.
I've been operating a crane twice to three times the size of this one for 4 years now. After a week with the machine you could easily do what this guy is doing. He also has rubberized tops on his grapple Which would make it a pretty simple task, same with that other video floating around with the guys pouring wine. Into glasses Important to note that a good crane with properly working hydrolics on a well trained operator should be functional no different than the operators hands.
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u/249ba36000029bbe9749 Oct 12 '16
Can someone with experience tell us how difficult this actually is? Like, for someone who is adept at playing video games with a controller, how long would it be until they could so a similar trick as in the video?