23 Jun 2010, 18:04
I thought I would share this timed release device that I have been using lately.
It is an a-frame with a swinging arm on top. On one end of the arm hangs a 2 gallon bucket. On the other end there is a post going upwards where weight-lifting style weights may be put. The weighted side also has a metal rod that hangs from it. When the weighted side is down the rod fits into a hole in the base plate of the device. I use a locking ring that the rod goes through before the hole in the baseplate.
Then attached to the lock ring can either be a line to a hanging key, or part of the bindings, etc. The only caveat is that too much tension applied to the lock ring may prevent the rod from moving upwards at the right time. This is no problem for light objects like keys, but if there is a tensioned line going to the bindings then at some point the tension would need to be lessened to allow the rod to move.
Now the timing mechanism itself, a source of water (or other liquid) that will enter the bucket. Once enough weight of water is in the bucket to offset the weights added to the other end of the arm, then the rod will be pulled out of the hole and the lock ring will be released, dropping a key or removing the anchor point of a binding.
My general method of using this is to hang a water filled bucket above the device and put a small hole into it to allow the water to drip out into the lock bucket. The time can be controlled to a great degree on when the lock will be released, either by the amount of weight, the size of the incoming water stream, or the amount of water that starts in the lock bucket. Times as low as a minute or as much as many many hours could be setup using this lock.
Since the original session that I created it for I have used it quite reliably in a number of other sessions.
It is an a-frame with a swinging arm on top. On one end of the arm hangs a 2 gallon bucket. On the other end there is a post going upwards where weight-lifting style weights may be put. The weighted side also has a metal rod that hangs from it. When the weighted side is down the rod fits into a hole in the base plate of the device. I use a locking ring that the rod goes through before the hole in the baseplate.
Then attached to the lock ring can either be a line to a hanging key, or part of the bindings, etc. The only caveat is that too much tension applied to the lock ring may prevent the rod from moving upwards at the right time. This is no problem for light objects like keys, but if there is a tensioned line going to the bindings then at some point the tension would need to be lessened to allow the rod to move.
Now the timing mechanism itself, a source of water (or other liquid) that will enter the bucket. Once enough weight of water is in the bucket to offset the weights added to the other end of the arm, then the rod will be pulled out of the hole and the lock ring will be released, dropping a key or removing the anchor point of a binding.
My general method of using this is to hang a water filled bucket above the device and put a small hole into it to allow the water to drip out into the lock bucket. The time can be controlled to a great degree on when the lock will be released, either by the amount of weight, the size of the incoming water stream, or the amount of water that starts in the lock bucket. Times as low as a minute or as much as many many hours could be setup using this lock.
Since the original session that I created it for I have used it quite reliably in a number of other sessions.