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Hello everybody,

during this holidays I purchased the 42081 and decided to build it a little different.

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First, I made some minor changes in design, to look a little more similar to the "real" Zeux.

I changed some color here and there; the yellow panels in the middle are different; the placement of the "02" adhesives is on the lower DBG panels instead of the upper ones.

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But the biggest MOD was to add the pneumatic system, with motorized pump, instead of manual LAs.

The valves are located on the sides of the loader, 2 on the left and 2 on the right.

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There are 2 big cilinders (to rise the arm and the rear axle) and 2 medium (old) cilinders, to operate the bucket and the counterweight.

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Here you can see the last cilinder, the pump and the motor, located below the battery box:

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And here is a short video:

 

Edited by mpj
video added

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This mod is not only really cool but also makes lots of sense. It would have been much more logical to make this set the pneumatic one as opposed to 42080.

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What strikes me most is how well you hid all the tubing! There's a lot going on, but at first sight all the pneumatics are almost invisible.

Also I agree with @BrickbyBrickTechnic. The model being yellow and black and not having a cabin, the pneumatics are a perfect fit for this set, also because their size and range are similar to those of LAs. And that counterweight thing is the ideal spot for a battery box. Thinking of it, it kinda baffles me why this set wasn't pneumatic in the first place. It feels so natural.

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1 hour ago, Erik Leppen said:

What strikes me most is how well you hid all the tubing! There's a lot going on, but at first sight all the pneumatics are almost invisible.

Also I agree with @BrickbyBrickTechnic. The model being yellow and black and not having a cabin, the pneumatics are a perfect fit for this set, also because their size and range are similar to those of LAs. And that counterweight thing is the ideal spot for a battery box. Thinking of it, it kinda baffles me why this set wasn't pneumatic in the first place. It feels so natural.

While I do wonder that as well, Erik, do remember that fitting the new valves in here would be much harder than merely using the existing ones, and they're probably the most hyped non-Bugatti parts produced this year. It's likely that the designers thought 42080 was the best candidate to showcase them.

That said, does anyone else here think that the new valves might not catch on? Look at the hand pump in 42053 - we haven't seen it since then.

Oh, and @mpj - you rock! I particularly like the orange pin with bush used as a battery box handle - it's really in keeping with the orange parts' purpose. :thumbup:

Edited by Maaboo35

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14 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

Erik, do remember that fitting the new valves in here would be much harder than merely using the existing ones, and they're probably the most hyped non-Bugatti parts produced this year.

I disagree. There seems to be some space around the valves on both sides the way @mpj has them set up, so I'm not sure why they wouldn't fit. If anything, they might make things easier because their total height is 1 stud when laid out flat.

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35 minutes ago, BrickbyBrickTechnic said:

I disagree. There seems to be some space around the valves on both sides the way @mpj has them set up, so I'm not sure why they wouldn't fit. If anything, they might make things easier because their total height is 1 stud when laid out flat.

Yes there is some space around, but the new valves could not be placed where I placed the old ones. Maybe on the top, making the control even easier! 

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10 minutes ago, mpj said:

Yes there is some space around, but the new valves could not be placed where I placed the old ones. Maybe on the top, making the control even easier! 

Don't imagine that would look as good though.

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1 hour ago, letsbuild54 said:

This is great! Is there a way to launch the drone into the air using the air pressure, or is it too heavy? 

The idea is very original, I don't know if it could be possible :laugh:

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Impressive how you integrated pneumatics so well. I agree as well that this should have been the official release. It makes it much more fascinating. I would have bought it!

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The manifestation of my gut feeling when I first saw 42081... and how an excellent MOD! Just makes the set perfect. :thumbup: :thumbup:

I really believe, that not making the original set pneumatic, is a missed opportunity (see: mistake) by TLG.

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Very nice! Just finished assembling the Zeux with my kid(I was doing most of the heavy lifting) and we do find the manual control gears requires a little too much effort to operate.

As I personally like the look of the Zeux and intend to leave it assembled and played with(as opposed to my other technic sets), is there anyway/anywhere I can get more details so I can attempt this on my own?

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Hello! I don't have any instructions, but basically I just replaced linear actuators with pneumatics, adjusting pivot points where needed, to obtain a good movement range.

At the moment, the model doesn't have the motorised pump anymore. I replaced it with a manual pump (more accurate pression).

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Hey, no problem. 

Wasn't really looking for instructions, just more details on the pneumatic parts and will try to figure the rest out myself(that's half the fun for me).

I'm not familiar enough with pneumatics to know what 2 large and 2 medium cylinders are exactly. My inventory tells me I have parts "1x5 cylinder with 2 stepped inlets" and "2x11 cylinder with 2 stepped inlets", "pump 1x6 stepped outlet" and "large pump 11L". Also have got some pneumatic switches(are these the valves you refer to?) All are from an unopened 42053 I got recently so if these are usable, I will break them out of the box!

 

 

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In my model I used:

2 "large cylinder" (boom and rise the back)

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=19467c01#T=C

2 "medium cylinder" (bucket and counteweight)

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2793c01#T=C

1 pump

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=19482c01#T=C&C=7

4 valves (switches)

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4694cc01#T=C

 

If you have the 42043, you have most of the required parts. Did you build the 42043? The system you find in this Zeux is more or less the same!

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Many thanks for the links, they are very helpful!

I've got the 42043 which is another Volvo set (not 42053). Its my first pneumatics set which I purchased last month and hence not built yet.

 

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Oh sorry! In this case, you don't have the small blue pump, but the big manual pump. Same system, but manual and not motorised.

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Finally broke open the 42053 set and there actually is a small blue pump as well as a manual pump!

I think I will experiment with the manual pump first before attempting to motorise it. Currently waiting for some additional hose pipes I ordered as I didn't want to touch the sealed pack of hoses from the 42053.

Just out of curiosity, is there any otherreason why you preferred the manual pump? Wouldn't it have required several pumping actions before it can perform a particular movement?

I was studying the model and it seems like the most stable portion of the model is where the hog steering is and was thinking to install it there but was worried it interferes with steering operation. Where did you have the manual pump?

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3 hours ago, fongalv said:

Finally broke open the 42053 set and there actually is a small blue pump as well as a manual pump!

Just out of curiosity, is there any otherreason why you preferred the manual pump? Wouldn't it have required several pumping actions before it can perform a particular movement?

Yes, the 42053 set includes both a large and a small pump.

If you don't have any other motorized functions in the model, adding a motorized pump will require a lot of extra space (motor, battery box) for what might be concidered a minor upgrade in some cases.

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I put everything in the counterweight, motor, pump and battery box. I removed the fake electric motor, there is enough space there.

Then I removed the motor and battery box, and replaced the small pump with the manual pump. It is always located in the counterweight, but there is a longer tube, so I can hold the pump at a distance.

Manual pressure is much more "under control" in my opinion. The motorised pump is slower!

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6 hours ago, zoo said:

Yes, the 42053 set includes both a large and a small pump.

If you don't have any other motorized functions in the model, adding a motorized pump will require a lot of extra space (motor, battery box) for what might be concidered a minor upgrade in some cases.

Personally, this is my first foray into pneumatics and that's why I'm willing to put in a little more effort as it will be a good chance to learn about them. As I already have battery packs and motors around, I just had to get a couple more pumps(ordered an additional manual and small pp), some tubing and an air tank. Kinda overkill I know but it's part of the fun(for me anyway). I also ordered some additional cylinders for upgrading the 42053 so I should end up with 2 souped up models at the end of the day :-).

 

5 hours ago, mpj said:

I put everything in the counterweight, motor, pump and battery box. I removed the fake electric motor, there is enough space there.

Then I removed the motor and battery box, and replaced the small pump with the manual pump. It is always located in the counterweight, but there is a longer tube, so I can hold the pump at a distance.

Manual pressure is much more "under control" in my opinion. The motorised pump is slower!

It did seem logical to put everything into the counterweight since there is space in there, but when extended I was a little concerned about pumping down away from the main frame. Could it be "slow"  because you were using one small motorised pump to operate the large cylinders?

For a start, I am planning to use 2 manual pumps, either daisy chained together for more/faster pressurisation, or independently for different functions. Most likely the latter for a start because I believe it will be a much simpler circuit for me to figure out all the pipings.

Can't wait to start modifying it!

Edited by fongalv

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Surely the small pump with a M motor is slow because the air pressure is low and the weight to move is quite "heavy".

Keep us updated with your progress!

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