Simple Marble Sorting Machine

This project was mechanically very simple to build but re learning the coding skills took us some time.

Simple marble sorting machine.

Engineer a simple machine to do it for you. It can be adapted to be an automatic coin sorter with the addition of a small motor to create a vibration to keep the coins moving. In this project your goal is to build a gravity powered marble sorting machine that can sort large and small plastic spheres representing rocks and gems respectively like the ones shown in figures 1 and 2. This video shows how paper can be rolled to create beams that can.

Please consider supporting my videos on. What is littlebits. Sorting machines are used in many different applications but they all have something in common. Many times these mechanical sorters are powered by motors but simple systems are powered only by gravity.

It s possible to design a marble sorting machine made entirely of paper. Our machine used a one at a time marble reading and while this worked for two types of marbles an issue with the motor changing the sorting bins caused the sorting of the third marble. With the marble sorting machine the same problem. All electronic parts are made with littlebits.

Here is a video of a simple coin sorting machine made from cardboard. The machine sorts four different colors and it also counts the number of marbles per color. Building a simple sorting machine from ordinary craft materials is a great way for kids to explore engineering principles and to experiment with iterative design.