The prototype for the superior planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the true sun) uses similar design principles to the inferior planets. It's hard to video it in operation as there are parts that won't stay in place until it is combined with the front plate and the inferior planets. You can see the pin for the Mars gear slipping out its slot. I'll use a longer one in the final version.
The video shows first the Saturn and Jupiter trains and then the Mars and true sun ones. In the assembled version they will be linked by the sp1 gear. The superior planet plate is truncated so it will fit on the print bed. For the final version, I'll need to either find a larger printer or split it into parts.
There is only one new design element here: the use of an axle to hold the pair of eccentric gears used for the epicyclic motion, for example like this in the Jupiter gear train with the axle highlighted:
The two circular hole are for screws to hold the axle to the superior plate, and the remaining hole is for a dowel pin on which the eccentric gear will run.
I used black non-silk PLA for some parts of the prototype. Getting the dowels pin in is much harder with this filament, probably due to slight differences in how much the filament expands or squishes when printing and because it is less slippery than silk PLA. I filed out the holes in some cases to make pins fit more easily.
Next, to the back gears, a larger and more complex part of the mechanism.
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