For the purpose of this thread the term SMOT will be used. To date no one has looped a SMOT, largely because when a ball leaves the SMOT ramp it ends up at a height equal to or lower than the point at which it started. To over come that problem it is necessary to have the ball leave the SMOT ramp at a height that enables feeding the ball back to the start point.
Most previous designs utilize the ramp design in US4215330 A  which consists of an incline with two rows of magnets, one fixed either side of the incline with a track positioned in between the two. The ball is drawn up the ramp by the magnets and leaves the top of the ramp and under gravity falls off the end. Always ending up at a point lower than or equal to the start point which then leaves the problem of getting the ball back to the start point.

My design (Patent Pending) approaches the problem in a different and unique way, which I hope some of you replicate independently. 
I will start by saying I will not be showing my finished design for a while and if that is what you want to see please come back to this thread in the future when I will post a video of my unit.

What I will do however is tell you how to go about building a self looping “SMOT” of your own using the principles employed in my design. 
I will include rough drawings (sorry its not one of my strong points) I shall also include experiments for you try out which I used myself to create my own design. The experiments are worth doing, especially for the naysayers as they will show the working principle and give you chance to make adjustments before you go into a full fledged build.
Most of you who have played at trying to loop a SMOT and those who work with magnets will probably have all the parts to hand. For those who do not have the parts, there are very few and my prototype cost less than £15 (approx $23)
I will list the parts I used myself, but other parts may be used.

19 mm steel ball
40 x 1” x 1.5” x  .25” C8  magnets ( I have also used neo blocks but they were harder to set correctly)
3 meters of  2.5 mm  rod/wire for track, my prototype used aluminum but copper should be fine, you may even get away with the wire from a few wire coat hangers. Copper is probably best as you can easily solder the track, and it is reasonably flexible whilst being able to maintain its shape.


Next the working principle.

Experiment 1:  Getting the ramp to function correctly.

Your set up should be like that represented in the drawing below, raise one end of the track to form a ramp and then play with the position of the magnets until the ball is drawn up the ramp but loses momentum and starts to reverse. When you get the magnets in the correct position The ball will readily be drawn toward the top of the ramp but never quite makes the top, as it loses its forward momentum gravity will make it roll most of the way back down. the drawing shows ariel and side view


 
I will set up my experiments again and post videos in the next few days if anyone is having a problem getting the effect.

And when completed should represent the schematic below.

Elecar,  by patent pending,  are you saying you have a working design?   How long does your work?  Or are you just trying to get  others to work on your idea?
Bill
 

Hi Elecar,

On your working device: I am curious whether the 19mm steel ball (or maybe more balls?) just keep on rolling on the track for hours and hours? Do you mean that when you say you have a working device?

If yes, how do you think to extract some energy from the setup? 

If yes, does the ball or (balls) get magnetized in time and influence operation?

Thanks,  Gyula

Hi Gyula,
            Yes I really do have a working prototype. It runs for as long as I am able to stand the noise. I tried running more than 1 ball but sometimes they catch up to each other and cause a complete stop.

I had to be careful when making the application and I knew not to use the term perpetual or overunity and I still do not claim either.

Up to now I have had no problem running a single ball, however as you have mentioned I suspect that the ball may get magnetised over time which may bring it to a halt or at the very least mess up the operation. But then I have not claimed perpetual motion nor over unity.

As far as extracting any usable  energy goes I can only imagine something simple like peizo, the biggest problem is the incline is so shallow that the speed is pretty much unusable, perhaps as I mentioned elsewhere in the forums the high road low road effect may be a way of getting some speed and possibly some work from the ball.

 

Hi Bill,
          I have to be honest I have never timed the runs, I can tell you that I did leave one test running whilst we went shopping and returned over 3 hours later and it was still running. I knew I would run into trouble when I claimed I would not be showing my design for a while, of course it appears like a dodge and I accept that. But the simple truth is I am talking with a toy manufacture who is interested in the design, and for that reason I am holding off disclosing my prototype. I am however not keeping the working details away from anyone. And a self build should be reasonably easy for anyone with some simple DIY skills and a bit of spare time on their hands.
If you just want to see my model running you should visit the thread in the future when I will post a video, I promised on another thread I would do that and I will post that video in the near future.

Where the energy comes from:

In the attached drawing I have indicated how the steel ball consumes energy.

By a "run" I mean: ball runs down the linear start incline, goes around the loop and remounts the linear start incline.

For the 1. run the ball is released at the top (the start of the linear incline, see arrow "1. run"). When the ball comes back from the loop it mounts a little less (as indicated by the arrow "2. run").

After the second run it mounts even less (as indicated by the arrow "3. run").

In practice the ball might only loose 0.5 mm or 0.1 mm at every run, but eventually it will have lost all the energy induced by having it start at the highest point of the linear incline.

The run time will be fairly long in case the steel ball runs very slowly.


And now a question: is there some electronics or mechanical contraption (e.g. descending weight) at the highest point of the linear incline which pulls the steel ball up a little bit when it comes back from a run?

Praise: It is a good idea to break the loop in a SMOT.

Greetings, Conrad