How to damp this linkage?

[seangh]

We made this unit of a linkage without really thinking through how we're going to damp it. We want it's motion to look like the following:

https://youtu.be/5n0_E6LzWWY

where it starts off fast and then have a damper engage for the bottom part of the rotation. We're not really sure how to achieve this damping... we tried using a string and pulley system that drags weights off the ground to achieve damping, this didn't work out so well, we tried using a rotary damper but can't figure out how to engage the gear and ended up breaking our only one, we want to try using a linear damper (like a gas spring that damps the hood of a car) but I can't really think of how to engage a linear damper, other than that I don't have any other ideas.

Does anyone have ideas about how to implement a damper for this linkage or point me in the direction of a mechanism that solves a similar problem?

 

[drawoh]

seangh,

Have you taken vibrations yet? Damping is the force that resists velocity. A string, pulley and weights reduces the force on your mechanism. It is not damping.

Search for dampers. McMaster[ ]Carr has a nice selection of them. It is too bad they don't ship to Canada. A search of their website will show you what is out there.

--
JHG