The objective of this project was to determine the feasibility of the 4 bar crank-rocker mechanism used in the finale of

the Breaking Bad television series. The size and design of our mechanism was to be estimated from the finale and had to
meet the following requirements:
1.
2.
3.
4.

The input linkage must be a circular disk. The motor will be attached to the disks center.
The rocker linkage must be a large enough platform to accommodate the weapon (M60).
The whole mechanism must fit and operate within a car trunk.
The positioning and sweep of the rocker must be designed such that its projectiles cover the entire length
of the room.

The final design is shown in figure 1 and 2 below.

Figure 1: Autocad planar view (units in inches)

Figure 2: Solidworks model

Using SolidWorks and Matlab, the motion of the design was further analyzed, to test the feasibility of Mr. Whites four
bar mechanism.
The design was a product of careful analysis of footage obtained from Felina: the final episode of Breaking Bad, the
assumptions made and the results recorded from analysis are shown on the following pages.

Assumptions
Through video analysis and additional research, general conclusions were drawn about the positioning,
orientation, and velocities of the breaking bad crank-rocker assembly. The assumptions are listed below, followed by
the evidence supporting it.
The motor was determined to be a Chamberlain LW-2000 garage door opener.
The input link angular velocity (link 2) was assumed to be 180 degrees/second.
The link connected to the gun (link 4) was determined to be pinned along the center with an office chair base.
The linkages were determined to be 5 (link 2), 12 (link 3), and 21 (link 4).
The distance between the motor shaft and office chair base center was assumed to be 16.5 + 4.72 inches.
The trunk dimensions were calculated to be 57 x 29.7 x 19.4 inches.
The room length of the final scene was determined to be 15.
An estimation of the mechanisms components were based on figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Mr. Whites material spread

LW2000, and all components (attached)

M60, void of bipod
Office chair base
Wrenches of varying sizes

The motor was determined to be a Chamberlain LW-2000 garage door opener. Based on the LW-2000 user
manual, an estimation can be made from the size of the linkage connections from the motor. The rail used to support
the weapon was found to be 42 with the gun mounted at the center (21). It is concluded link 2 to be about half the
length of link 3 as shown in figure 4 on the following page.

Figure 4: Link 2 and 3 comparison frame

The gun used by Mr. White was an M60 fully automatic machine gun which he mounted to the base of an office
chair which served as the second pinned location. The length of the M60 was found to be 42 inches like the model
shown in
figure 5
below.

Figure 5: M60 Freedom Dispenser

Based on the limit positions of the M60 (link 4) shown in figures 6 and 7 below, the locations of the
grounds/origins of our pins were determined by rearranging our solid works assembly to model the figures shown
below.

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8 below depicts an overhead view of the adjusted Solidworks model with the distance between the motor
shaft and office chair base center as 16.5 + 4.72

Figure 8: Solidworks used for ground link position

The car was determined to be a 1977 Cadillac de Ville with the following dimensions:

Based on the luggage capacity of 19.5 ft3 the trunk dimensions were calculated to be 57 x 29.7 x 19.4 inches. The
full range of our mechanism was tested to fit within the bounds of the trunk capacity.
The total sweep of link 4 is shown in the figures 9 and 10 below. The building was assumed to be 15 based on
the geometry of the scene.

Figure 9: Angle overlay on the scene

Figure 10 below shows the cars orientation relative to the building. The cars location was determined to be 4
car widths away from the building (about 25) at an angle of about 5 degrees from parallel.

Figure 10: Reference to building dimensions

The model in figure 11 below shows the overhead view of the scene. The limit positions of the mechanism in the trunk
are depicted by blue and purple. The 34 degree sweep covers the entire 15 of the building at the estimated distance of
4 car widths away from the mechanism.

Figure 11: Autocad representation of scene

Analysis
The assembly was analyzed using SolidWorks to generate graphs of the components in motion. Member 3 has
angular velocity and angular acceleration as shown below in figure 13. The velocity is shown in blue where it peaks at 84
degrees/sec and troughs at -126 degrees/sec. The angular acceleration reaches a peak at 261 degrees/sec2 and falls to 620 degrees/sec2.

Figure 13: Time based graphs for the Link 3

Member 4 has angular velocity and angular acceleration as shown in figure 14. The velocity is shown in blue where it
peaks at 44 degrees/sec and troughs at -82 degrees/sec. The angular acceleration reaches a peak at 308 degrees/sec2
and falls to -269 degrees/sec2.

Figure 14: Graphs of member 4

The figures below show the center of mass position graph for members 2, 3, and 4. The blue shows the position in the x
axis while the blue line shows the position in the z direction. Member 2, the circular disk, has minimal change due to it
center of mass being so close to the axis of rotation.

Figure 15: Center of mass position graphs for member 2

Figure 16: Center of mass position graphs for member 3

Figure 17: Center of mass position graphs for member 4

Verification Using Matlab

Matlab was used as the Solidworks model verification. A graphical output was created using the end points of
all links, with an input angle rotating at 180 degrees/second. The angular velocities and accelerations were plotted using
Solidworks with respect to time, so a time base was added to the Matlab model. The graphical output showing point
traces is shown in figure18 below. The Matlab code was included with the report, and a .m file is available for Matlab
2014a in the included electronic files.

Figure 18: Matlab verification position graph

Comparative outputs obtained in Matlab of the angular velocities and accelerations of link 3 and 4 verify
the Solidworks motion analysis. It is important to note that the Matlab graph and Solidworks motion analysis are offset
approximately 1.3 seconds due to Solidworks arbitrary time scale. In addition to an angular velocity and acceleration
verification, an angular displacement plot over time was created using a fixed time scale in Matlab. A graph comparing
the input angle to the time scale results in a linear relationship with a slope equivalent to the input angular velocity, thus
verifying the model further. The Matlab comparative outputs are shown on the following page, and are available
electronically.
The total angular displacement of link 4 was found using Matlab analysis to be 33.9824 degrees which further
verified the Solidworks model which had a result of 34 degrees.

Using Matlab to plot the entire range of movement of the mechanism, the range was determined to be within
the bounds of -5 and 38 along the x axis, and -8 and 17 on the y axis. This is used as a verification that the
mechanism fits inside the trunk of the vehicle. The plot is shown below in figure 19.

Figure 19: Matlab output plot to find absolute boundaries of the mechanism.