Technic 2024 Set Discussion

[Divitis]

23 hours ago, allanp said:

Might be, but could also just be the battery. I guess the lipo would replace both the battery caddy and the lid. Even the "most powerful EVAR!" rumour wouldn't necessarily need a whole new hub, but they would need to upgrade the internal components to handle more amps.

It looks to me as if Lego has been slowly paving the way for more powerful motors in the past years.

New differential, wheel hubs, joints... these components are designed to handle more power than what can be delivered by the current PU motors.

So from a mechanical perspective, the time is ripe for something new. Maybe an updated buggy style motor. 

[Aerolight]

If Lego produce significantly mor powerful RC they would most lightly shift to self-contained gearboxes and differentials, while Lego can be made somewhat dangerous now significantly more powerful motors would make exposed gears untenable both for safety and longevity (from Legos perspective at least).

My guess (if it has good power) would be a combined motor and bevel box (and hubs) with proprietary outputs so they cannot; without non Lego parts, be connected to current technic drivelines.

Probably just 0.x increase in voltage though.

[gyenesvi]

19 hours ago, SNIPE said:

all lego motors should be tube shaped , but have the pinholes extruded so that they are flush with beams,etc that go against the pinholes

This allows for the teeth from gears to be closer to the motor, where as if the motor were square, the teeth would catch more likely.

Indeed, that was a big advantage of PF motors

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They should also have the port on the motor as well as on the hub so we can choose different cable lengths instead of “taking some slack/excess out" by doing complex routing around the model.

On one hand that would be an advantage, but on the other hand, it would not allow you to integrate the motor so tightly, because the plug would be in the way (a plug is about an extra stud more bulky than just the cable baked in).

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They should also have an output axle hole on both sides (not that hard to do) so that we dont have to route external axles with gears to the back of the motor.

That's impossible, due to the planetary gear-set inside the motors. If you'd want two outputs, you'd have to put a planetary gearset on both sides, which would just make them longer and cause more friction.

3 hours ago, Divitis said:

It looks to me as if Lego has been slowly paving the way for more powerful motors in the past years.

New differential, wheel hubs, joints... these components are designed to handle more power than what can be delivered by the current PU motors.

Sounds logical to some degree.. The system could probably handle a little more power without big problems.

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Maybe an updated buggy style motor. 

Please NO! That one has a really bad form factor, pretty hard to integrate in medium sized models. Plus we already have the Buwizz motor filling in that space.. Actually, the same motor that's inside the buggy motor can fit into an L motor casing.. Now THAT would be awesome!

However, I think the most probable would be just a redesigned XL motor, since that's the kind of useless one now in the lineup. Similar size, proper power, maybe somewhat different shaping. And not even sure it actually needs a position encoder; could reduce its length by one stud.

Edited February 12 by gyenesvi

[Ondra]

I think 4x4 licensed behicle will be G-class from mercedes especially variant 4x4² .

It makes most sense for me.

[shroomzofdoom]

9 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

Please NO! That one has a really bad form factor, pretty hard to integrate in medium sized models. Plus we already have the Buwizz motor filling in that space.. Actually, the same motor that's inside the buggy motor can fit into an L motor casing.

1 MILLION PERCENT!!!

With current technology, the form factor of a PU XL motor could include a custom asic and a battery for a completely wireless design aesthetic.

It wouldn't work in every application but think about how a newer model like the Audio quattro could work if the motors were a tiny bit bigger and it had no hub or wires.

I know it's a bit of a leap but the guy that thought of squeezing a USB into a 9v battery probably thought so too.

[Gzynek2323]

2 hours ago, Ondra said:

I think 4x4 licensed behicle will be G-class from mercedes especially variant 4x4² .

It makes most sense for me.

I would like to see 6x6 version. In technic or speed champion this year. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

I've been blathering on about the EC230, so here's the rundown on the Volvo FMX construction truck! This 🐕 is pretty damn impressive; can't wait to see what the Technic version looks like!

[gyenesvi]

3 hours ago, Ondra said:

I think 4x4 licensed behicle will be G-class from mercedes especially variant 4x4² .

It makes most sense for me.

Why do you think so? The real one is not a new model, right?

1 hour ago, shroomzofdoom said:

With current technology, the form factor of a PU XL motor could include a custom asic and a battery for a completely wireless design aesthetic.

But what would be the advantage of that? It would be hard to recharge the model.. I'd be more happy with just smaller motors that are a bit more powerful.

1 hour ago, shroomzofdoom said:

I know it's a bit of a leap but the guy that thought of squeezing a USB into a 9v battery probably thought so too.

That battery looks too good to be true, constant 9V and 1300mAh at that size. Most similar rechargeable 9V batteries are just a few hundred mAh. Have you tried one of these?

Though these batteries kind of show how much smaller hub Lego could actually have..

[2GodBDGlory]

20 minutes ago, gyenesvi said:

That battery looks too good to be true, constant 9V and 1300mAh at that size. Most similar rechargeable 9V batteries are just a few hundred mAh. Have you tried one of these?

Though these batteries kind of show how much smaller hub Lego could actually have..

I've got quite a few like that, and they're pretty awesome batteries! They've worked well as a sole power supply for PF models, though their capacity is limited. It's the same idea as the ones I was using in this thread:

I did find that it didn't work as reliably as I wanted with the PyBricks program I was running, though I'm not sure why.

I would guess the reason it's so much higher capacity than typical rechargeable 9Vs is that it's using a lithium chemistry, rather than a NiMh one

[Ondra]

8 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

Why do you think so? The real one is not a new model, right?

But what would be the advantage of that? It would be hard to recharge the model.. I'd be more happy with just smaller motors that are a bit more powerful.

That battery looks too good to be true, constant 9V and 1300mAh at that size. Most similar rechargeable 9V batteries are just a few hundred mAh. Have you tried one of these?

Though these batteries kind of show how much smaller hub Lego could actually have..

Last 4x4² variant from brand new G-Class is exactly two years old.

[gyenesvi]

17 minutes ago, Ondra said:

Last 4x4² variant from brand new G-Class is exactly two years old.

But Lego often comes out with cars that are just recently unveiled, like the new Defender and the new Ford Raptor was back then. Not impossible, but taking that into account, the new Land Cruiser seems more probable to me.

Edited February 13 by gyenesvi

[SNIPE]

22 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

On one hand that would be an advantage, but on the other hand, it would not allow you to integrate the motor so tightly, because the plug would be in the way (a plug is about an extra stud more bulky than just the cable baked in).

That's impossible, due to the planetary gear-set inside the motors. If you'd want two outputs, you'd have to put a planetary gearset on both sides, which would just make them longer and cause more friction.

The current connector is quite small and the port could be either countersunk into the motor, or flush with the motor.

No internal gearing, just raise the voltage more that comes from the technic hub.

Also, you could I suppose, make the rotor and gear one piece, you would put the windings on the gear/rotor hybrid part, but its still fiddly to get the planetary hubs built in. These gears are tiny anhow so it wouldnt matter that much to increase the torque, only the speed.

Edited February 13 by SNIPE

[LvdH]

15 hours ago, Ondra said:

I think 4x4 licensed behicle will be G-class from mercedes especially variant 4x4² .

It makes most sense for me.

Definitely could be. I read that one of the Speed Champions cars will be a G63. And since there are already small and big versions of another Mercedes coming, I don’t see why it can’t happen a second time.

[gyenesvi]

3 hours ago, SNIPE said:

The current connector is quite small and the port could be either countersunk into the motor, or flush with the motor.

It does not matter if the connector sunk inside the motor or not, it still needs the same amount of space :) (which is bigger than a stud in at least one direction). So they'd have to make the motor housing bigger in that case, and loose the same amount of space or even some connection pinholes on the housing.

3 hours ago, SNIPE said:

No internal gearing, just raise the voltage more that comes from the technic hub.

Also, you could I suppose, make the rotor and gear one piece, you would put the windings on the gear/rotor hybrid part, but its still fiddly to get the planetary hubs built in. These gears are tiny anhow so it wouldnt matter that much to increase the torque, only the speed.

Sorry, no idea what you are talking about here about raising voltage, but one thing is quite probable; Lego is not manufacturing the actual electric motors themselves, just buying readily available ones, so can only work with form factors that are available out there.. But sure, more compact stuff could be manufactured for a specific usage. Just not worth it for Lego.

[Teofrast024]

What to choose from the new products?  I need more gears and panels.

[Ksen48]

20 minutes ago, Teofrast024 said:

What to choose from the new products?  I need more gears and panels.

I think you should wait for the summer wave, and you also need to understand what exactly you need, color, size, number of parts

[Stereo]

42168 is an obvious choice if you want gears, first set to have more than 2 of the 28 tooth gear (it has 6), and it has 14 other usable gears.  The 42179 orrery on March 1 is probably gonna be decent too, hopefully in a week or two there'll be some reviews of it that include an inventory.

[shroomzofdoom]

On 2/12/2024 at 5:49 PM, gyenesvi said:

But what would be the advantage of that? It would be hard to recharge the model.. .

Advantages:

• No routing of wires back to the hub, no distance limitations
• ability to place motors, batteries, and weight distributed throughout large models without wires
• not having to ship replacements to all of the kids that accidentally break the wires.

Disadvantages:

• Single point of failure
• Costly 
• Larger form factor

It's not that far fetched of an idea...think Move Hub.

Heck, maybe you make the motor and the battery/hub like two separate 'bricks' but essentially hub logic gets embedded with the battery.

Design execution would require designers to make the USB accessible but Lego designers are the best in the world.

 

I think this would would make the form factor a bit larger to include battery + ASIC + compact motor. Think of a square 'bricks' with pinholes 4M x 4M x 9 M or even 5M x 5M x 11M. 

Connect up USB to charge...disconnect...and play! 

 

 

[gyenesvi]

21 hours ago, shroomzofdoom said:

Connect up USB to charge...disconnect...and play! 

I don't get it. What if you have 3-4 motors in a model how do you charge it? Sure you won't take out all of them.. Most probably you won't have access to their charging ports either..

21 hours ago, shroomzofdoom said:

I think this would would make the form factor a bit larger to include battery + ASIC + compact motor. Think of a square 'bricks' with pinholes 4M x 4M x 9 M or even 5M x 5M x 11M. 

That's just too big for a motor.. Even the current ones are already too big.

[AVCampos]

1 minute ago, gyenesvi said:

Even the current ones are already too big.

The motor that comes in SPIKE Essential is quite small, but given that that set is expensive and uncommon, its prices on BL are outrageous. Hopefully future Technic sets adopt it (like they did with the L and XL angular motors), to bring availability up and prices down.

[gyenesvi]

1 minute ago, AVCampos said:

The motor that comes in SPIKE Essential is quite small, but given that that set is expensive and uncommon, its prices on BL are outrageous. Hopefully future Technic sets adopt it (like they did with the L and XL angular motors), to bring availability up and prices down.

Sure, that does exist, but not in the same speed/power category as L or XL motor. It's a very weak one only useful for switching mechanism and maybe very small models. Even the PU L motor is weak for steering bigger models (depending on the steering mechanism). So I meant the above for a regular drive/steer motor.

[legoturtle]

 

Thank you! A REVIEW finally :)

[Maaboo the Witch]

Cool, but it might have been better to post in the dedicated set thread.

 

[legoturtle]

It seems that Technic fans HATE this year :/ ... hate space??? (no one is interested new technic space sets AND I DO NOT have a clue why is that).

[Lyichir]

Just now, legoturtle said:

It seems that Technic fans HATE this year :/ ... hate space??? (no one is interested new technic space sets AND I DO NOT have a clue why is that).

The sets aren't even out until next month. Chill out a little. There'll be plenty of time for people to share their impressions once more people have actually gotten a chance to experience the sets for themselves.