Rebrickable interview with Madoka!

[jantjeuh]

Which LEGO Technic fan by now has not heard of Madoca1977? Two years ago he burst onto the MOC scene with some of the best Technic MOCs the LEGO world had ever seen, and has been releasing excellent MOC after excellent MOC ever since.

Now, he has agreed to sit down with us folks at Rebrickable for an exclusive interview. Here's a snippet:

As a followup to the previous question: what is the biggest Technic challenge you have had to deal with so far, and how did you solve it?

My biggest challenge so far was the drivetrain of my Tatra 813 Trial Truck. The Tatra's weight is 2800g. It is heavy enough for two XL motors (zblj's Fox is heavier, but it has eight XL motors for propulsion). To make the best use of the power of the two XL motors, I used two techniques:

• Gearing down significantly. To increase the power, I put two combinations of gears (12t bevel and 36t bevel, 8t and 24t). Installing reliable heavy duty two speed gearbox. My first attempt of using driving ring and 16t gear with clutch was failed. Those parts got damaged and could not handle high torque. So I built my version of heavy duty gearbox. It was very solid structure and any gears in it did not slip.
  
• Minimize the friction as much as possible. Unlike most Tatra MOCs, I did not set the pivots of swing half axles on the central drive axle. Instead, I moved the pivots one stud outside the central axle. Thus the central axle is free from the friction of the swing half axles. The real Tatra 813 has planetary hub reductions. I once built a LEGO planetary hub (which was made by large turntable and 8t gears) and felt that it generated more friction than portal hub. So I adopted portal hub reductions.
  

The result was not the best (looked slower than I expected), but was acceptable to me. Because all my creations are RC models, reliability is always important. My Tatra crawled well on rough terrain and successfully climbed very steep slopes without damaging any gears.

Check out the rest of the interview over at Rebrickable.

Edited May 17, 2015 by jantjeuh

[Rishab N]

Nice interview from an inspiring builder

[jantjeuh]

Can an admin please change the title and tags? It's Madoka rather than Madoca, oops

[ifilin]

Thank You very much Madoka and Jantjeuh for the great interview!

[zux]

Found some mistake:

My favorite set was 8050 Universal set

points to 928-1 - Galaxy Explorer

[jantjeuh]

Found some mistake:

points to 928-1 - Galaxy Explorer

Fixed, thanks!

[Alasdair Ryan]

Can an admin please change the title and tags? It's Madoka rather than Madoca, oops

Its still to early to start drinking in the day.

[jantjeuh]

Its still too early to start drinking in the day.

More a case of me being an idiot, rather than alcohol being involved

You missed the tag, btw.

[Alasdair Ryan]

More a case of me being an idiot, rather than alcohol being involved

You missed the tag, btw.

I can't change the tags maybe Jim can?

Edited May 16, 2015 by Alasdair Ryan

[Osuharding1]

One of my overall top favorite MOC designers. I have built every model of his except the wing body truck.

[Blakbird]

Can an admin please change the title and tags? It's Madoka rather than Madoca, oops

Done. Thanks for the interview!

[Scapuc]

Beautifull interwiew, thanks to you and to Madoca1977!

[Edwin Korstanje]

Great interview, with a great builder

[miguev]

Not only title and tags, the link is also broken! Correct one is http://rebrickable.com/blog/2015/05/interview-with-madoca

[jantjeuh]

Not only title and tags, the link is also broken! Correct one is http://rebrickable.c...iew-with-madoca

Fixed, thanks :)

[Askan]

After spending so many hours of building his amazing creations, it feels very nice to get to know the person a little. Thanks for the interview!

Edited May 17, 2015 by Askan

[Madoca 1977]

Thank you jantjeuh! I'm sure that you've struggled reading my awful Japanese-English text.

Can an admin please change the title and tags? It's Madoka rather than Madoca, oops

Probably people know the fact that "Madoka" is my real name.

Abandoned project:

In December I was building an experimental MOC. At first I was planning to share it. But finished model was not like what I intended. I dismantled it without making instruction. There are two pictures left in my pc.

Driven by 4 L motors (one per each wheel)

Steered by 2 Servo (one per each axle)

Powered by 2x rechargeable BB

Three steering mode (front steer / four wheel steer / crab steer)

Edited May 17, 2015 by Madoca 1977

[Lucio Switch]

Great interview! It's always great to know a bit of who is behind the Moc's!!

Too bad for abandoning the project, it's really cool!