Life-sized hot rod driven by 256 Lego pistons

[DrJB]

... you are missing the key point here ... They are promoting this as a "Car built entirely of Lego" and that just isn't the truth. It has nothing to do with being jealous, more so with being deceptive on their part ...

Thank You!

Edited December 20, 2013 by DrJB

[Lipko]

With that I'll take a back seat on EB - I think it's such a shame that there's so much rife jealousy here towards others' success. They're not conning anyone, because

Actually, this is pretty much the only model that generated any "jealousy" as I remember from the 1.5-2 years I have been in the Technic forums.

You are acting like this "jealousy" was a common thing here.

Actually, it's the opposite. The community is too nice and seems to be so afraid to give some criticism (pretty much this can be the reason why this model from OUTSIDE EB gets criticism).

Sheepo's Land Rover was pretty much the only model that got an objective REVIEW. I, for one would sooo love to see MOC reviews, just like set reviews.

I would be the most honoured happy person if my models would create 0.00001% of the discussions (be it positive or negative) that this half-steel half-Lego life-sized model gets.

So, to sum it up: you "give up" on EB, just because ONCE in 1-2 years a model gets negative criticism (a hyped model with obviously fishy advertisement)?

Edited December 20, 2013 by Lipko

[nicjasno]

I have some pics that Raul Oaida sent me during the past year:

[Lipko]

Now, that IS something. It seems that the driving axle was made of Lego. I'm very curious how effective this was, or was it changed later for steel bearings.

[nicjasno]

The engine is 100% lego. The driving tube would be covered in small chain links, so the gears could mesh with it.

[Rockbrick]

The engine is 100% lego. The driving tube would be covered in small chain links, so the gears could mesh with it.

Amazing to think how delicate those littlen chain links are and how together on this shaft they are good enough to power a car.....

Edited December 20, 2013 by Rockbrick

[nicjasno]

It's all in the numbers.

[DrJB]

Personally, I don't really care if the car is all Lego or not, I just want to know a lot about the engine and how he made it work. Hopefully more information will be posted.

What would happen if it were full lego is ... Everyone would be begging for your amazing renders ...

[Tamas Juhasz]

The driving axle is a very clewer solution. How do the chain links connect to the main driving axle in the engine? There is a "flat" surface of the axle. So all power is transmitted through 1s wide Lego chains?

Anyway, Nicjasn has right, if there is enough from something (even from a little thing), you can move tons. LPEs are pretty strong, and 8 bar pressure is serious.

Beside torque, rpm is also important. Power is torque*rpm (rad/s), so at maximal torque, how much rpm can produce this engine? Is there available an rpm-torque diagram (I'm an engineer ) ? That would be interesting, would tell "all" about the engine.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Mbmc

[DrJB]

I agree, would be interesting to see a torque-rpm curve though, in many designs of the sort, you'd want the shaft to be fast spinning. The reason is, for a given power, the higher the rpm, the lower the torque i.e., the less strong the shaft needs to be. I'm one with a lot of reservation about this but I reckon, the sheer size/concept of it is pure amazing ... whether it is 100% lego or not. Still, very curious about the interface from plastic lego to metal drive-shafts (driving the 2 tires) ... i.e., how does the lego motor connect (transmit power) to the actual drive-train.

[nicjasno]

Remember that pneumatic engines, just like steam engines, have a totally different powerband and torque characteristic than internal combustion engines. Here the torque is always present, even when starting from a dead stop.

[Tamas Juhasz]

Yes, it's true. But a curve will be interesting to see the maximum rpm with the constant torque. How much is that rpm limit? It depends on air flow and pressure (and the limit of Lego parts). Power has a maximum value, so rpm also has to be.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Mbmc

[JGW3000]

Nicjanso

thanks for posting the pictures of the WIP for this car. My thumbs are getting sore just looking at the pictures - makes the project much more approachable and impressive.

Is the long grey tube, with slots, in picture #2 built from Lego? Looks like a solid piece of PVC tubing to me.

[DrJB]

Remember that pneumatic engines, just like steam engines, have a totally different powerband and torque characteristic than internal combustion engines. Here the torque is always present, even when starting from a dead stop.

True, but I was referring to a 'real' curve as opposed to a theoretical one. For the real motor, the faster it spins, things like friction come into play ... and tend to increase with RPM

Nicjanso

thanks for posting the pictures of the WIP for this car. My thumbs are getting sore just looking at the pictures - makes the project much more approachable and impressive.

Is the long grey tube, with slots, in picture #2 built from Lego? Looks like a solid piece of PVC tubing to me.

That gray tube appears to be made of round bricks, 4x4 corner ... 48092 ... would need some smart building/stacking to give shaft torsional stiffness (not sure it needs much bending though). The read 'bearings' are made seem to be of 76768 at the top, and 30099 at the bottom.

Edited December 21, 2013 by DrJB

[aol000xw]

I don't have a problem with the wheels, the metal frame, the compressed air source, or how the engine drives the wheels, but the video was not that good and so I did not get too excited. I mean, yeah I understood what I was looking at but with no details, internals or comentary...well it barely got span attention beyond the last kitten youtube video.

I find way more interesting those pictures that ninjasno just show us than the video. And of course with so many questions and little info available the "I can tell is photoshopped by the pixels" comments ensued.

[Hrafn]

Thanks for sharing those photos!

Do you know if that was the final shaft design? I'm having trouble seeing how they avoid having the shaft fail in torsion where the bricks grip each other - stud/anti-stud connections can be reasonably strong, but I'm surprised they're strong enough for this application.

[JGW3000]

Do you know if that was the final shaft design? I'm having trouble seeing how they avoid having the shaft fail in torsion where the bricks grip each other - stud/anti-stud connections can be reasonably strong, but I'm surprised they're strong enough for this application.

Glue?

[nicjasno]

I have no idea. If it was me, i'd use liberal quantities of super glue probably :)

[Junpei]

*oh2*

Some connection with TLG perhaps? The average price on BL is $7.50, multiply that by five and you get $1920. And then add the price of shipping for all the different stores- there aren't any that have 256 cylinders. Not to mention all the other parts required to build the i4.

That picture is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.... :wub:

[nicjasno]

Apparently the whole car cost 75k GBP to build.

Edited December 20, 2013 by nicjasno

[Technyk32231]

I don't think they modified the cylinders...and they also use stock lego tubing... If they bored out the cylinder ports, and used industrial tubing, they probably could get more performance out o this.

[nicjasno]

They did modify everything to lpepower specs afaik. And you can clearly see that they use industrial tubing, just like i do.

Edited December 20, 2013 by nicjasno

[Technyk32231]

They did modify everything to lpepower specs afaik. And you can clearly see that they use industrial tubing, just like i do.

Oh. I was just looking a little closer, and then I saw the lettering on the hoses. Except for the lettering, though, the tubing could be easily mistaken for stock lego tubing.

[S.I]

*oh2*

Some connection with TLG perhaps? The average price on BL is $7.50, multiply that by five and you get $1920. And then add the price of shipping for all the different stores- there aren't any that have 256 cylinders. Not to mention all the other parts required to build the i4.

That picture is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.... :wub:

Now I know who has been buying up all the cheap 8455s on ebay here!

[DrJB]

So, any more 'news' about this project? ... or the criticism was too intense?

I'm still very curious to see more about the internals ... how the chain links attach to the drive shaft, and how the later to the wheels ... I bet there is no differential though

Personal Note: I would LOVE for those cylinders to be 'recycled' and go into Grab Bags ....