[TC24] (S)Crapper

[Berthil]

I like Spaceships and I like Technic so it seems logical I give TC24 a go. The idea is to create a Space Robbers spaceship that can carry and drop useless Technic parts from stolen vehicles, hence the (double) name. Below in the video a prototype Anti Gravity Drive of which I plan to have four, one each corner. Next to that I want to implement winches on each corner and hang the spaceship up on (invisible) wires to simulate flight (or at least takeoff and landing). As it needs to drop parts it will get a loading bay. To summarize planned functions;

• Anti Gravity Drive, four in total
• Winches on the front and back to simulate flight hanging on wires. Would prefer all 4 corners but then I have to drop other functions or use two hubs.
• Loading bay with cargo door
• Landing gear
• Lights or
• Docking bay if time and room permits

For all of this I plan to use PoweredUp with the Mindstorms hub with 6 ports. I have some ideas on how it should look but nothing written in stone yet. I primarily have black and grey Technic so probably will be that with some color accents. Since color scheme is free according to the information topic and I like Lime, it probably will be Lime.

The below anti-gravity drive I tried to build as 'clean' as possible, first without the lower support on the end but that didn't work. In the final model I want to gear it up to a higher rotational speed to create a self-leveling gyroscope effect. I'm already looking forward to the sound that all four together will make. I want to link the rotation speed to the winches so when going up revs should also be higher, going lower should be lower etc.

 

Wish me luck :)

[Berthil]

Some digital progress, waiting for parts. Underbody with drive for the anti-gravity pods and motorized retractable gear, only 4 studs high. The 'dump' feature I plan at the back with a mechanism to open de cargo bay door and push the crap out.

[Berthil]

After adding all functions this is where the digital design has led to, all cramped in about 40 x 40 studs. As you can see it is more function over form as a cargo spaceship or even space dump truck. It has 5 motors, 2 for back and front winches, 1 for the anti gravity rotors, one for the retractable landing gear and one for the opening of the container by sliding the floor away under it. A LED fills the sixth port of the Mindstorms hub, one to light the underside and one status light. The hub I plan to program with Pybricks including use of the LED matrix on top of the hub. All of this under the assumption it will work as designed. When building I might add a few more hoses, also planning on creating a few stickers. Waiting for parts to start building after which I will report progress here. 

Edited January 19, 2023 by Berthil
typos

[Scoar Sonander]

Looking really nice, the olive green and the gold complement each other very well. 

[Jim]

Very cool. I like the inclusion of the Mindstorms Hub.

[Berthil]

Thanks both! I've build the anti gravity pod drive, back and front winches and retractable gear, all working well. I wanted to use Pybricks but cannot flash the Pybricks firmware to the hub, it cannot find the Mindstorms hub via the required USB connection, also not after updating the hub to the latest TLG firmware. I tried different computers and cables, nothing worked so I will be using the Mindstorms App. Below test spins the drive for all four anti gravity pods as well as front and back winches to let the Scrapper go up and down when it would be hung up on strings. Next is building the hub holder, retractable floor of the dumper and program everything. 

 

[Berthil]

Used the weekend to get to know the Mindstorms App as it was new to me. Managed to add a virtual remote control and program most functions including landing gear. 

Next is finishing the model by adding the Technic Scrap Parts Dumper to burry the Space Police with unused Technic parts :) 

[Berthil]

All parts are in and I could finish up to a level where I could test all 5 functions successfully. I had to replace the WeDo motor that powers the Anti Gravity Drive, it was to weak. I should have known that from my Big Boy project but nevertheless didn't expect it as the drive runs light. I had to completely rebuild the front to fit a bigger motor but the result is worth it. In the process I was able to also add more structural rigidity. I also redesigned the cargo 'bucket', it now resembles the hub holder more. The hub fits very well in the holder by the way, really like it, especially because no Teal color  is visible. Here's a video of opening and closing the cargo door and all 4 Anti Gravity Drives running.

Next I want to add more 'greeble' and design some decals as the original Space Police had quite some decals, especially the Space Robbers. I still need to make a rig to let the Scrapper hang on 4 wires, may be I will make a loading bay to load the scrap too.

Edited January 25, 2023 by Berthil
typos

[Berthil]

Ready with adding some greeble including ray guns and a few decals.This finishes up the model pretty much. At the moment I'm building a rig to hang the model up on 4 wires to let it 'fly'. For the entry topic I will create some more pictures and a video.

[Mechbuilds]

the color scheme has a tiny nostalgic rock riders vibe to it. love it. 

[GerritvdG]

Wow, nice progress!!! Really looks complete with all those details. I've just ordered some parts to proceed my entry!

[HydroWorld Outlook]

Nice part usage of those small curved banana gear racks. I didn't know they worked so well with those new Technic ring pieces introduced in the Friends line.

[Berthil]

Thank you all! Meanwhile I have the rig ready to hang up the (S)Crapper, all made from LEGO. This is the first test, works very well, only need to make all 4 strings equal length. Also a 'green screen' test, only need to find a suitable background image and figure out how to do that.

 

[Berthil]

Video ready. Green screen didn't work well but I'm happy with it. The video shows what I mean with 'Unused Technic parts as Scrap' :)

 

[Toastie]

This is so unbelievable cool ... man. I love it.

There is maybe one >tiny little thing< I'd like to suggest: The PoweredUp hubs have this "SetAcceleration"/"SetDeceleration" profile type thing. I am using that frequently for all sorts of starting/stopping tasks. With a 10s acceleration time (I believe this is close to max, according to the LPF3.0 protocol), the fans would smoothly start up, and slow down as well (deceleration).

No idea whether the Mindstorms hubs have this feature as well, but my guess is, they have.

Thank you very much for sharing!!!

All the best,
Thorsten

[Berthil]

Thanks! I did the whole thing with the Mindstorms app with block coding, not the text code. I wasn't aware of this feature, I will give it a try. Thanks.