[WIP] ROPA Tiger 6s beet harvester

[Milan]

Beautiful, very detailed and realistic.

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

2 hours ago, Milan said:

Beautiful, very detailed and realistic.

Thank you, I'm really glad you like it!

My intention is indeed to make the best-I-can replica of the real machine.

This long-term project has also its advantages, as TLG already released some parts in the exact colour needed, that weren't available when I started it (for example 36841 in DBG or 4285b in yellow).

I usually try to use parts that haven't already been discontinued, finding all those long yellow rigid hoses for a reasonable price was tough though 

And here comes the functionality aspect. The plan was to make the machine actually pick up 1x1 round bricks as beets, which still is my priority. However, this causes also some troubles that weren't expected at the very beginning. Some of them were already solved, some haven't been yet and some are still to come. I hope I'll manage to improve a few things before the next week's update, I've also started working on the 'harvesting header', which will be unfortunately undetachable.

I've clearly stated the deadline for this project, which won't last longer than the end of 2023. I hope the missing parts will be released at time...

Anyway, this harvester won't be alone, I've made a significant progress with a trailer (in dark turquoise) and a Mindstorms-powered autonomous (or at least containing some sensors) tractor is also on its way. I'll probably have to start with programming  In this case, @Milan, should I start another topic for the tractor and the trailer?

Edited November 10, 2022 by MP LEGO Technic creations

[BondemandClausen]

Great work! And very brickish 😅. Been a long time since I checked in here, so I see that I have been missing out some important stuff. 😅 I see a lot of ideas I came up with my self 9 years ago when the Ropa EuroTiger 4 V8 XL came to life.😉 https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/81575-moc-ropa-eurotiger-8v-4-xl-sugarbeet-harvester/&tab=comments#comment-1568966😉 Will be exciting to see it finished, and I hope you will make it untill your deadline. Further more I'm curious to se it in function, especially driving, with the less powerfull new XL motors, than the old PF XL motors. I know what it takes to make it move. 

Keep it up!

Edited November 11, 2022 by BondemandClausen

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

@BondemandClausen, thank you! I'm honored that you, the author of the model that inspired me to build it the most, like it!

I indeed researched your model a lot because there aren't that many brick built beet harvesters. It's truly a masterpiece, undoubtedly worth the Hall of fame and even more mindblowing when you realize that it was created like 10 years ago... I'd definitely build some things in a different way but only using parts that didn't exist back then.

I decided to build it using a lot of system parts because I felt it'd be possible to include more details, smoother surfaces and hole-free bunker which was necessary to make it really working.

The drive is provided by 2 C+ XL motors for each of rear axles and 1 C+ L motor for the front. However, as it's in 1:17 scale (I believe that yours is 1:15?), there's even less space for everything, so it wouldn't be possible to make it move without those planetary wheel hubs. And now it drives fine, even fully loaded with about 5.500 1x1 bricks as beets and weight of about 10 kgs...

The problem was to find place for 4 C+ smart hubs, yes, they offer proportional control of all motors and many other things but also downsides like one motor per port (in the end, there are 3 motors for drive and 4 motors for steering, which makes only 9 other ports free - of which 2 are used for lights, connected through a reduction C+toPF with more pairs of lights).

I hope some day we'll see these two machines (and of course the Maus) together! 

Edited November 12, 2022 by MP LEGO Technic creations

[Arie]

On 11/10/2022 at 6:21 PM, MP LEGO Technic creations said:

The plan was to make the machine actually pick up 1x1 round bricks as beets, which still is my priority.

Really curious about the mechanism you will use to pick up the 1x1 round bricks, I've been pondering on how to build a functioning pickup header for a combine for some time, the only examples I could find were picking up paper or other lightweight / flexible things. I have some ideas but haven't started something yet...

Awesome model so far, looking forward to the further progress, and also curious about the tractor and trailer!

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

@Arie, the picking mechanism itself isn't a problem, I've already made a perfectly-working one. However, the issues happen after it. The beets are supposed to be moved by worm screws to be cleaned, which is absolutely impossible to do, as the brick beets are round . My current solution uses small links but that's not very reliable.

I'm happy you like it anyway!

P.S. The trailer's going to be the Rolland Rollspeed 7136

Edited November 13, 2022 by MP LEGO Technic creations

[Arie]

22 minutes ago, MP LEGO Technic creations said:

I've already made a perfectly-working one

Wow, now I'm really curious!  

Tried to build a quick mockup today and its definitely not working perfectly yet . The first version was an absolute mess, then I sped up the reel and slowed down the conveyer, that was already much better, then I changed the conveyor from only treads (bricks just rolled back down) to 1 link 1 tread (worked much better) to 2 links 1 tread (current situation). But this is nowhere near reliable enough, both in pickups (as you can see they shoot all over the place) and sometimes one brick gets stuck and rips the chain links...

Next I will try 3 or 4 links 1 tread  but I don't have enough links so I ordered some, or maybe I will order some of these and try those: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=92713#T=C&C=11

 

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

@Arie, that looks great! It's indeed a good idea when you're building a classic harvester, however beet harvesters work a bit differently.

Anyway, here's the promised update:

 

I've made many visual improvements, changed a few parts' colours to match the real machine's colourscheme. The interior with the driver's seat is also done.

 

 

 

Now let's take a look at some technical improvements.

The most "radical" one is of course the unloading system.

• The longitudal unloading belts (bunker's floor) were changed from small links to 12 rows of chains to prevent beets getting stuck in the gaps between links
• The unloading conveyor's been added, the belt is not divided into 2 sections (as it is on the real machine) to ensure that the beets won't get stuck between those anymore
• As the belts are now connected together, one C+ L motor was left unused so I implemented another function - partially foldable unloading conveyor via 2 small LA (I believe it uses a similar system as @BondemandClausen's Tiger V8-4), although the LAs would've had enough travel to fold it completely, that'd collide with other components whose folding I've ommited
• In order to unload as many "beets" as possible, many sections of the bunker were smoothened

 

 

 

 

 

The other changes made include:

• Partially rebuilt the front part, the front wheels are supported by two small ones with a tyre - compensation of the hollow space used for transporting beets between the front wheels towards the cleaning sections
• The front axle steering now uses a small LA, which provides more power (the small angular motor remains) than the previous solution.

• Reworked the rear pendular axles' "suspension" because the previous version was an absolute catastrophe 

• Some cleaning sections' small updates

 

Here's a view inside the rear part (if anyone's interested)

 

And a few words about the visuals...

I'm aware that the rear cover is angled much less and sits a bit higher but that's caused by the internal structure.

 

And of course an obligatory view from below:

There remain two things that I (visually) dont like:

• Too thick railing - I have no idea how to make it better (only using rigid hoses which looks a bit off as there are thin parts of hosing and thick parts of connectors
• Wires behind the cabin - especially visible from the right

Anyway, thanks for reading & any feedback is highly appreciated!

Edited November 27, 2022 by MP LEGO Technic creations

[Thirdwigg]

Great continued work on this @MP LEGO Technic creations. This is a MOC you can already be proud of, and as you continue to make improvements, I hope you get to a point that you feel great with it. The wires behind the cabin don't bother me. And I agree about the railings. I often leave railings off, as they never looks great to me. I wonder if you can design somethings using various bars and bar connectors, though yellow might be tricky. Something like the railings on this, but scaled way up?

I'm very impressed with the details you are adding to this to make sure the beets work through this machine well. All the filled gaps in the hopper from all sorts of different parts takes lot of work; building, testing, taking apart, rebuilding.....It brings me back to the days building my Spitfire. I applaud the determination.

This was going through my mind as I was scrolling through, and the little bionical teeth on the unloading conveyor caught my eye. This little part is perfect to keep the conveyor properly placed as it moves, and as the unloader folds and unfolds. It's the perfect part for the spot, and I wonder how many other solutions were tried prior to this part. I'm sure this is one of many little parts were the perfect solution for the mechanics took some time to perfect.

Keep up the good work.

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

@Thirdwigg Thank you!

I also hope I'll be satisfied with it one day but as I know myself, I probably won't  Most of us (I believe) know the feeling when you're quite happy with a MOC that you've just finished and the next day you already aren't... Or implementing new parts that weren't available back then but you suppose using those would've massively improved something that you didn't like that much before. And then it goes again 

About the wires, I might have not specified it well. I'm also fine with those behind the cabin but wires going from the cabin to the DBG box at the right of the cabin and then back to C+ HUB look awful to me. However that could be only my personal feeling.

And now the railings. Variety of yellow bars seems to be pretty limited (3L doesn't even exist). Maybe rigid hoses and these connectors are the right way to go?

I'm indeed happy with how filling the bunker's gaps turned out, though there still remain some blind spots (the real machine also doesn't work flawlessly so this makes up for unintended authenticity...) 

Yup, a lot of testing was done because when I solved a few issues of beets getting stuck, this caused new problems here and there. For example if a beet got stuck at one place, the others had to be unloaded around it and no more beets were stopped at the same place. However, when I improved the smoothness of this part, the beets went on another trajectory and got stuck elsewhere and much worse. The real pain was when the unloading belts broke and 5.500 beets fell everywhere inwardly the machine - then it was necessary to disassemble almost everything to find all beets again (no, I didn't count them afterwards )

I consider the bionicle teeth as a clever idea either. First of all I wanted to use classic 1L spacer but that didn't go as planned. Beets could stuck between it and the tracks' gap easily. Then I tried to use some slopes in front of it as a cover but that was too complicated and flimsy, it even got stuck directly with the tracks and beets were no more needed because of slopes' sharp edges  The next logical step was to look for a part that combines slope, 1L spacer and doesn't have any sharp edges in direction of conveyor's travel direction and there it is!

Similar process went with other parts as well. In fact, the leftover pieces could've easily fill the bunker completely...

Edited November 19, 2022 by MP LEGO Technic creations

[weavil]

This is a beautiful of a beastly build. So clean and full of features. I don't even want to know how much it cost for all those links...