30 replies to this topic

[Sebeus I]

Appearently I can't embed video's from Flickr in this forum so I'll have to ask you to check it out via this link

video

Cool huh, I can simply deploy my ships' cannons with a remote, I can't afford making a complete ship with this feature now though, I got too many other things going on at the moment.
There's still one big problem: the battery box.
It's so big there's hardly any room on a ship to hide it I could buy a new rechargeable batterybox (they are smaller and more System-adapted) but still it would be very difficult to find a good spot to place it.



The mechanics are pretty simple here, I needed a simple construction because of the limited space in the prefab hulls.
Right now the cannons are at the same height and offset but it is pretty possible to differ in height and offset, making this construction alos useful for more complicated shapes of ships.



My first thought when testing this was to gear it down, thing is, there's not exactly a lot of space for reduction gears  

I could consider installing this feature on a costum hull but then again I'll have a hard time making the hull sturdy enough to hold it.

Anyway, what do you think ?

[anglezoo]

It's a very interesting idea. I think you'd need to slow down the whole process though so you could control it more easily, because right now it looks a bit rude.

[Frank Brick Wright]

Fantastic! I love it

If I had any small detail that I would add it would be placing two mechanisms for each side of the ship, I mean, firing each one separately, because that would be what would happen for real.

But this is an amazing build I never thought something like this could become real

[halfpenguinhalflego]

I've always wanted to do something like this, you've done some great work here!

[brickmack]

Very nice, reminds me of an idea I had a few weeks ago (Remote controlled, floating LEGO ships that would fire cannons at each other for battle games). Not really sure what to do about your battery box problem, though the rechargeable one would be easier to fit in. If you made a custom hull you could make it wider, put in an extra motor to control each side independently, then just put the battery box and IR receiver in between, but as you said, it might be harder to do.

[Bart]

Nice job,
it would be great if it somehow retained the nob on the back and would release it when fully extended so it shoots :D

Bart

[Admiral Croissant]

Very interesting concept. I've often wondered if this would be possible but I don't have any technic LEGO skills.
The most awesome would be a one sided broadside with all the cannons firing after each other, but I guess that'll be very difficult.
I do think it's possible to build a sturdy custom hull and put the battery in it.
Or perhaps you could place it in the captain's cabin.

Anyway, I'd like to put this on our frontpage

[halfpenguinhalflego]

Does it need to be electrified though? You could just attach the axles to a knob at the back which you turn yourself manually, then you won't have to worry about any battery box problems. Although I suppose the point of this is that it's remote controlled.

[Sebeus I]

anglezoo, on 25 February 2012 - 02:41 PM, said:

It's a very interesting idea. I think you'd need to slow down the whole process though so you could control it more easily, because right now it looks a bit rude.

Yes it does, the only way to slow it down would be to add reduction gears but right now there's not enough room to add them.

Frank Brick Wright, on 25 February 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:

Fantastic! I love it

If I had any small detail that I would add it would be placing two mechanisms for each side of the ship, I mean, firing each one separately, because that would be what would happen for real.

But this is an amazing build I never thought something like this could become real

I'd need two motors for that, there's only room for one in the prefab hulls, unless I use the smaller M-motor but that one rotates a lot faster which is less interesting for this idea...

Bart, on 25 February 2012 - 07:56 PM, said:

Nice job,
it would be great if it somehow retained the nob on the back and would release it when fully extended so it shoots :D

Admiral Croissant, on 26 February 2012 - 01:09 PM, said:

The most awesome would be a one sided broadside with all the cannons firing after each other, but I guess that'll be very difficult.

I think I can make all the cannons fire when fully extended, they would all be firing at the same time though, making them fire at different times would require either very complicated mechanics or the use of multiple motors and perhaps a NEXT computer to automate the machine  

halfpenguinhalflego, on 26 February 2012 - 01:22 PM, said:

Does it need to be electrified though? You could just attach the axles to a knob at the back which you turn yourself manually, then you won't have to worry about any battery box problems. Although I suppose the point of this is that it's remote controlled.

Sure, I could easely take out the motor and make it work manually, even seperate the two broadsides but using a remote controller is just so muc cooler  



I have a NEXT but I haven't been able to use it effectively so far, the NEXT motors have such inconvenient shape and in total it takes even more place, I would have to make a gigantic ship.
Maybe one day I'll start making a fully programmed ship   but it's definitely not for soon, in the mean time I'll work further on this experiment.
next step: slowing down the proces
if that works I'll take a look for a new hull,
maybe I can use thisone:

[Hass Kabal]

Good work nice idea and i like it well done :)

[De Sandman]

Wow, this is fantastic, i had been thinking about something similar but manually and also at the sametime opening the hatches (that would be very cool) but i thought it was to difficult for a small ship, it had to be a very very big ship would it look nice (with the hatches opening simoultanyously), but this looks very promissing.

[Commander Red Hat]

This is a very good start to make this cool feature!
The next challenge would be to make port flaps that move with the cannons.

[Walter]

Very cool! Reminds me of something you'd see at one of LegoLand's Miniland area. I can image a Pirate display with cannons coming out of the ship.  

Edited by Walt, 27 February 2012 - 07:46 PM.

[anglezoo]

I like halfpenguinhalflego's idea...You could attach it to the capstan...!

[BasOne]

Basicly, you're running out of room because of the size of the motor.

Why not try this;


With a little bit of enginuity you can punt in 2, one for each side.

If i recall correctly, been a while since i used one of these, they turn much slower then the one your using.
If it's still to fast try using a wormgear to slow it down further, with these micro motors you should have room enough.

[Sebeus I]

BasOne, on 27 February 2012 - 08:08 PM, said:

Basicly, you're running out of room because of the size of the motor.

Why not try this;


With a little bit of enginuity you can punt in 2, one for each side.

If i recall correctly, been a while since i used one of these, they turn much slower then the one your using.
If it's still to fast try using a wormgear to slow it down further, with these micro motors you should have room enough.

  
...
I have one of these micro motors, It never crossed my mind to use it here, I must try it as soon as I can,
it might not work though, it is a very weak motor.
Thank you very much for this suggestion  

[BasOne]

That'll be 8 pieces of silver and a keg of rum please  

Hope it works out, i'll keep watching.

[M-B-W]

It doesn't actually fire, does it (I mean fire the bricks)

[Sebeus I]

M-B-W, on 29 February 2012 - 02:28 AM, said:

It doesn't actually fire, does it (I mean fire the bricks)

Not yet but I'm working on it  

[SirSven7]

this is a very clever idea, if you can get it fireing I will be so impressed you have me thinking of a remote controlled LEGO ship, that would be the best thing ever.

[halfpenguinhalflego]

Sebeus Iniwum, on 29 February 2012 - 01:47 PM, said:

Not yet but I'm working on it  

You are actually considering making them fire!?! That would be absolutely fantastic! Just in interest, I've never seen that motor before, thanks BasOne for sharing this. I shall look into this motor and see if I could use it for any of my own MOCs  

[M-B-W]

Sebeus Iniwum, on 29 February 2012 - 01:47 PM, said:

Not yet but I'm working on it  

You would have to make the ship wider, unless you come up with something incredible (which you obviously will)  

[Sebeus I]

M-B-W, on 06 March 2012 - 01:43 AM, said:

You would have to make the ship wider, unless you come up with something incredible (which you obviously will)  

I'm thinking about reducing the system to only one side, like Admiral Croissant suggested, it would allow me to place my motors asymmetrically (like placing them on the other side of the ship).
It's still complex but I can see it happening, I designed a structure that can pull back and let go the firing mechanism of the cannon, it's a bit inaccurate, the cannon aims down when fired (because of the loose hinge point on the carriage).
I'll try posting some pictures when I can but for the moment it doesn't look like much  

Edited by Sebeus Iniwum, 06 March 2012 - 12:09 PM.

[Bart]

I had an idea about a technic you might be able to use;



The left pose is the standard 'neutral' position, the right pose is right before firing.
The knob on the barrel is fixated (black) to the base of the ship. The gun carriage is put on slides (yellow).
An axle rotating moves an arm to the left pushing the carriage outside (to the left) but the knob stays in the same location (difficult to show in ldd as it cannot move.)

As soon as the arm on the axle goes down it slips out of the reach of the block under the carriage and the gun recoils back.

This way you can also make the guns slide out and recoil in at different times by placing the arms on different angles on the axle.

I only don't know if this way the cannonball flies out of the barrel, you would have to experiment with that.

But this system appears easier to me then having two different movements; 1 sliding the cannon out and 2 pulling the knob back and releasing.

Bart

[Sebeus I]

Bart, on 06 March 2012 - 05:29 PM, said:

I had an idea about a technic you might be able to use;



The left pose is the standard 'neutral' position, the right pose is right before firing.
The knob on the barrel is fixated (black) to the base of the ship. The gun carriage is put on slides (yellow).
An axle rotating moves an arm to the left pushing the carriage outside (to the left) but the knob stays in the same location (difficult to show in ldd as it cannot move.)

As soon as the arm on the axle goes down it slips out of the reach of the block under the carriage and the gun recoils back.

This way you can also make the guns slide out and recoil in at different times by placing the arms on different angles on the axle.

I only don't know if this way the cannonball flies out of the barrel, you would have to experiment with that.

But this system appears easier to me then having two different movements; 1 sliding the cannon out and 2 pulling the knob back and releasing.

Bart

I have something similar but practically it gives a lot of problems, you need more power to slide out the cannon if you want to arm it at the same time,
In my design the firing mechanism is mounted onto the sliding part and will be controlled by a secondary motor.
That way I devide the big problem into two smaller problems, it will take more place but it will work easier.

So far this is the Idea,
there are two buttons on the remote, one to slide out/in the cannons and one to fire them, no cannan ports yet.