Motorised stingray

[vmln8r]

I recently got the chance to see some rays up close. The wing movement is just fascinating; I just had to build one.

Unlike the real thing (which has an undulating-type wing), this is merely a two-part compound wing. I had planned to use something similar to mahjqa's da Vinci flyer, which achieves a nice fluid movement with two out of phase cranks per wing. What I eventually settled on was something like a scissor-lift, except there's no connection between the overlapping parts of the 'X':



This type of wing design requires one crank per wing, which means more space can be allocated to the flaps, which do the job of powering the thing. Then it just took some tinkering with different mounting placements to achieve the ideal range of motion:


Just to be clear, all the propulsion is provided by the stingray, no hidden props or such. Power and flotation devices are up top:



All in all, it was a very satisfying build; sometimes getting everything right is frustrating, but this time, it all came together cleanly and relatively quickly. Edited February 23, 2013 by VMLN8R

[DLuders]

Now THAT is unusual! I don't think I've seen Lego Technic "swim" before!

[Paul202]

That's amazing, definitely the most creative technic moc I've seen in a long time.

[drofnas]

That's pretty awesome. I love how fluid those wings move.

Thanks for sharing.

[Edwin Korstanje]

Very great Stingray and your video looks like we are on a dive trip in the caribian

[Jeroen Ottens]

Great, great MOC! You just proved that indeed you can make anything from Lego (In the Netherlands Lego used the advertisment slogan "van Lego kun je alles maken").

:thumbup:

[Edwin Korstanje]

Great, great MOC! You just proved that indeed you can make anything from Lego (In the Netherlands Lego used the advertisment slogan "van Lego kun je alles maken").

:thumbup:

I english is that( with Lego you can build anything)

Edited February 23, 2013 by VFracingteam

[Carsten Svendsen]

Now that's pretty cool. Nice fluid motion

[Maxim I]

Wow, this is indeed surprising!!!! Great job!

[allanp]

Awesome movement, I love it!

[Lost_In_Noise]

Very nice! It's always nice to see someone think outside the box. Any chance or more pictures of the inner workings?

[jorgeopesi]

Is nice and it has own propulsion, great job with this MOC.

[vmln8r]

Thanks for your comments everyone, they're much appreciated. Lost_In_Noise, I'm working on an LXF file, but in the meantime, more pictures can be found here.

You just proved that indeed you can make anything from Lego (In the Netherlands Lego used the advertisment slogan "van Lego kun je alles maken").

Very true. Speaking of which, did you have any involvement in this set?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QM13kj0bX0

[S.I]

I like it alot.

[Someonenamedjon]

Dat....fluid....movement...

[vmln8r]

It's around 400 parts; 180 or so for the ray itself. LXF file: http://www.brickshel...8r/Misc/ray.lxf

[DLuders]

@ VMLN8R: Thanks for making the LDD .lxf file! Now there can be many motorized Lego Manta Rays swimming in the seas:

[skylinedan]

That is pretty freaking sweet !!!

Dan

[efferman]

that is pure genius engineering