Introduction
As part of my research into wooden clock making I learned about cycloidal gears and was surprised that I couldn’t find a free or open source tool for generating templates for this kind of gear. Free options do exist for the more common convolute gears (e.g., http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html). I did however find Hugh Sparks’ excellent write-up on cycloidal gears and the associated JavaScript based calculator. The calculations reflect the British Standard 978, Part 2.
New Open Source Gear Builder Utility
UPDATE: The information below is still valid but in the meantime I created an Online Cycloidal Gear Builder which is easier to use and does not have any install requirements. You will probably want to use it instead of the older desktop app. More info here.
Back to the original blog post …
To remedy the lack of free and open source tools for cycloidal gears I created a .Net 3.5 WinForm application that generates SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) output for meshing gears. Under the hood the application uses the formulas as described by Hugh Sparks. Here is a screenshot of the application:
The middle left part is the input section. Based on the inputs a number of output values are calculated and displayed in the left section. For an explanation of the term module and the various output values please see Hugh Sparks’ web page. In order to generate an SVG graphic for the specific gears click on the ‘Generate & save SVG‘ button. By default the output is saved as a file called CycloidalGear.svg in the folder that the program is executed from. Another output file can be specified by clicking on the ‘…’ button. Note that an existing file with the same name will be overwritten! This is on purpose since it makes it fairly simple to use a browser to display the graphical output. The typical usage pattern is as follows:
- Specify the input parameters
- Click on the Generate & save SVG button
- Open the generated svg file in a modern browser that has SVG support (Firefox or Chrome work very well). You should get something like this:
- Now you can repeatedly change parameters and regenerate the svg output. Each time after clicking theGenerate & save SVG button, switch to the browser and refresh its output by clicking F5.
The generated output can be further enhanced by using a vector graphics editor that supports SVG. One attractive option is Inkscape, an open source, multi-platform vector graphics editor that directly operates on the SVG file format.
The British Standard 978, Part 2 results in quite a bit of room between the trough of one gear and the apex of the other. It is possible to override the default behavior by checking the box ‘Custom Slop‘ and specifying the desired slop in mm:
The figure below shows meshing teeth with default slop (left) and custom 0.3 mm slop (right). Notice that on the right the dedendum circle of one gear almost touches the addendum of the other. The distance is the specified 0.3 mm.
Install
The application is implemented in C# and requires Windows with .Net 3.5 installed. Most Windows PCs have this version of the .Net framework already installed. If it is missing it can be downloaded from here. To install Gear Builder please follow these steps:
- Download the latest version of the GearBuilder zip archive from http://code.google.com/p/drh-horology/downloads/list
- Extract the zip file to your local disk
- Browse to the extracted files
- Double click on the file GearBuilder.UI.exe to start the application
The application is self contained and does not depend on the registry, etc. As a result it can be simply uninstalled by deleting the extracted files.
Source Code
The application is coded in C# using Visual Studio 2010. The source code can be accessed from the associated Google code project site, specifically http://code.google.com/p/drh-horology/source/checkout. For the generation of the svg output I use a slightly enhanced version of Ben Peterson’s SVG framework library.
License
The application itself, as well as the associated source code, are covered by the permissive MIT license. The application leverages Hugh Sparkes’ formulas as well as Ben Peterson’ SVG library. Both do not come with specific licenses.
The .exe brings up the message that windows cannot open this file.
??
Do you have .Net 3.5 installed? What OS version do you use?
Hey Doc!!
I am a salesman/ eng/Purdue looking for some info. I have a customer using Nabtesco cyclodail boxes. 1 arc/min blash. back n the day I reped Dojen now Dojen/Onvio Mass. I think Sumotoma
maybe Siemans makes these things ?? I work on commision only and love the freedom. I bring these
these apps to potential manufactures. I have been looking for other MFGs ?? Can u give me some leads as 2 who else makes them. Thx
great work.. i was wondering if i might be able to get some help am using emg30 with the MD25 through Arduino but i seem to be getting a communication board error..
have you come cross this?
thanks
Nice one glad to see it ……..
Actually I want to know more about this cycloidal gear , and its profile and also about its manufacturing how it is made.
And some more knowledge about gears.
So sir I am requesting you to please help me in this.
Kindly.
Very Nice. Thiank you for making this available.
George
FANTASTIC! I’ve been waiting for some genius to make an open source cycloidal gear generator! And such a great interface, simple, Perfect!
Thank you for sharing your brilliance. Now all we need is escapement wheels…!
All the best, John
Thank you so much. I’ve been hunting for one of these.
Rainer,
An excellent utilty – thanks.
Is there any chance of a DXF output as well as the SVG as it would be nice to be able to see the output in AutoCad?
Phil.
Phil, I don’t have plans to add support for DXF but you might be able to get the desired output from within Inkscape after installing this add-in: Inkscape DXF Export Extension. I have not tried it myself, though.
Thanks Rainer. I have tried Inkscape but when I try to open the DXF in Autocad 2005 I get very strange results which make it unusable. Cheers. Phil.
I’m building the Clock from ScrollSaw woodworking magazine.Summer 2013 issue 51. On the article that covers ratchet mechanism, how is the weight cord attached and how are the weight attached to the ratchet assembly. Any info would help.
Thanks
Hi I’m working on a cutting system for wooden clock gears and came accross your open gear planner
I have windows 8 install and could not open the exe. files. your help would be appreciated
Hi Zeldar,
The gear builder depends on the .Net 3.5 framework which, by default, is not installed on Windows 8. You can find instructions for how to enable .Net 3.5 here: Installing the .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows 8 or 8.1
I am happy to announce a new online version of my Cycloidal Gear Builder. It runs in the browser, immediately shows the resulting gears, and supports DXF output. Check it out!
Awesome gear generator, thanks for sharing!
I am experimenting designing cycloidal gears with FreeCAD and did a video on YouTube and want to make sure it is OK to share a link to your gear generator
Best Regards
Thanks for checking. Absolutely, feel free to share a link to my gear generator, preferably the online version which does not have any install dependencies: http://www.hessmer.org/blog/2013/12/29/online-cycloidal-gear-builder/.
Once your video is up, I would appreciate if you could send me the link to the video.
Thank you!
Here is the link to the video on Youtube
https://youtu.be/GCvQ9-lPX-w
FreeCad allows all parameters to be fully customizable and the animation helps in seeing the meshing
I am not an engineer, but 40 years of experience as an AG technician help in having a feel for what should work
And indeed my latest clock with a Grasshopper escapement works nicely
I will be happy to share how to get the geometry, CAD program do make it easy
https://youtu.be/TrXwS0jcLvQ
Also links of interest about cycloid gears:
Owner allowed me to share the links, so here they are
Meshing of cycloidal gears
https://www.tec-science.com/mechanica…
Geometry of cycloidal gears:
https://www.tec-science.com/mechanica…
Thank you
Here is the link to the video on Youtube
https://youtu.be/GCvQ9-lPX-w
FreeCad allows all parameters to be fully customizable and the animation helps in seeing the meshing
I am not an engineer, but 40 years of experience as an AG technician helps in having a feel for what should work
And indeed my latest clock with a Grasshopper escapement works nicely
I will be happy to share how to get the geometry, CAD program do make it easy
https://youtu.be/TrXwS0jcLvQ
Also links of interest about cycloid gears:
Owner allowed me to share the links, so here they are
Meshing of cycloidal gears
https://www.tec-science.com/mechanica…
Geometry of cycloidal gears:
https://www.tec-science.com/mechanica…
For now here is a link about the design of a Graham escapement:https://youtu.be/dT1cfmsHOaU
Thanks for making this program available. Unfortunately I was unable to download the source via SVN, the server gives the error that it can’t find it.
Any advice on how I might proceed from your program and Hugh Sparks’ work to getting the tooth profiles in rectangular or polar co-ordinates?
Eddie.
Dear Dr.
I have a small cnc lathe that is controlled by sending X,Y coordinates. Is there any way I can use your program or an equation from it to calculate moves to make a gear cutter. It seems like the tops of clock teeth are derived from circles and the base is trapedoidal?
Tthis would be easier than printing the teeth and measuring the paper!
Thanks for your program and attached article…
Regards,
R. Wood
Fascinating information. Look forward to playing around with this and helping people understand the concept of cycloidal gears to customers, and lay people.
Dear Dr. Hessmer
It looks like you may not be monitoring this blog any more, but in case you happen to see this, the “cycloidal gear builder” is a really nice program, thank you.
Unfortunately the DXF output I have downloaded from is failing when imported into AutoCAD 2013.
I will try and edit the DXF file to make it work; the important parts obviously are the polyline entities.
Please see my post http://www.hessmer.org/blog/2015/07/13/online-involute-spur-gear-builder-part-2/ which describes how the dxf output can be loaded into the free Inkscape program and then exported in other formats. This will likely work for AutoCAD.
Wow, that was quick!
Thank you very much, I’ll try that.
Just wanted to thank you so much for this!! Superb work…
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