bonox

Eurobricks Knights
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Posts posted by bonox

  2. Posted · Edited by bonox

    Yeah, flesh-colored bricks definitely exist-- see here (it's the bag labeled "Colour: 18 NOUGAT").

    they've had flesh coloured ones from the start - if you're black ;)

    The idea of flesh coloured for many people is highly specific, but in reality it's a really broad range depending on who you're appealing to.

  3. Posted

    I was just going to raise this - along with my dislike of getting full assembled models through the mail (worst one was a 9395 in a large box with no other packing - it came with all sorts of bent and broken parts), it's nevertheless interesting to see how the last guy put it together. I've got quite a few basic technic models with steering based on axle/pin connectors that were all installed backwards, so the steering axle was fixed - ie nothing worked as advertised. It's also interesting to see whether people follow the instructions as far as which way around the wheels go on, which colours go where and where the most heavily thumbed pages of the instructions are.

  4. Posted

    in my experience the old foam tyres often have a pretty funky smell to them. I've got nearly a hundred now and they're all in various states of smell, going hard and/or going greasy and many are warped and don't fit the wheels as nicely as they used to. My collection is second hand from all over the world, so I doubt it's anything one owner did if all of them display the same properties.That said, they are porous and will absorb stuff over time.

  5. Posted · Edited by bonox

    The philhome site gives figures regarding power, torque, etc. when on 12V. But how do you actually hook things up so that the motors run on 12V? The battery packs only go up to 9V right?

    he states on his page that he is using a bench supply without the AA battery box (so he's not limited to the ~1 Amp cutout on the battery box). I run my stuff using 9V, but from a bench supply as well. I like to see my crane work, but don't actually want to drive it further than the end of the bench ;)

  6. Posted

    A toystore not far from me has an 8110 on the shelf for $329 AUD is this a good price? should i get it? it seems to be cheaper than any ebay listing i can find.

    if you want to pick it up, it's about the best price you'll get. Given you were looking at ebay for delivery though, bricks to the world have it for $304.95 delivered. I bought one from them not so long ago.

    http://bttw.com.au/lego-themes/lego-technic

  8. Posted

    I must be in the wrong place. I opened the thread expecting cars and sliding tyres :blush:

    If you find you have trouble getting your ideas down, perhaps try drawings, cad tools or quick prototypes to give you something to come back to later when you have more enthusiasm.

  10. Posted · Edited by bonox

    High Discharge rate?Not sure what this means as stamped on the battery with no other info, however batteries have a property related to how much current they can deliver (or how much power they can deliver). Since electric supplies will only deliver as much current as is being asked for, a higher capacity to deliver isn't an issue. This is why you can run a 1amp device using a (regulated) 10amp supply.As a general rule, you can get high energy capacity cells that can give that energy back to you at some particular low to moderate rate. You can get lower capacity cells that can give their energy back to you at a high rate, but they don't have the same total to give. Older style Nickel Cadmium batteries used to be great at high current discharge (which is why the lunatic fringe high power remote control car/aircraft crowd liked them), but they wouldn't run as long as a NiMH cell of the same size. You can see this in practice as AA NiCd batteries really only being available in less than 1000mAh capacity, but lithium cells of same size being of 2000mAh or more. The flip side is that the NiCd might be able to deliver 5 amps for a short while, which the lithium one couldn't do more than 2 amps (made up examples only).

    Think about it like trying to stuff a sleeping bag into sack. A bigger sleeping bag takes more time to get into and out of the sack than a smaller sleeping bag. THe bigger sleeping bag is more energy (longer run time) but less power (energy per unit time). If you want high current (power) you have a smaller sleeping bag so it's easier to get it out of the sack fast.

    Summary - don't worry about it :)

  11. Posted · Edited by bonox

    That's up to you.

    The PF and older 9V gear is specified for 9V only. Having said that, some people (http://www.philohome...s/motorcomp.htm) have run them happily at 12V, however all long term motor survival bets are off if you do this. You'll also have to accept significantly higher speeds as well with some motors.

    You can use resistors as voltage droppers, however you need to be aware that they really only work well for constant current draw. As a general rule, DC motors will draw different current depending on how heavily they are loaded. Different current means different voltage drop following the DC Voltage=CurrentxResistance rule. You could happily find a midpoint if you wish as long as the motor is running under a constant load. Also keep in mind that a 2V drop at the peak current of an M motor for example (800mA) will require about a 2watt resistor, which are harder to find than typical electronic 1/4W units. Otherwise, you'd be better off looking for a cheap voltage regulator that will accept 10V+ input and output 9V.

    Here's a simple example of a Do-it-yourself

    http://www.learninga...or-in-a-circuit

    or you could use an off the shelf example like

    http://www.aliexpres.../509138006.html

    with suitable voltages for what you want.

    Pragmatically though, I would suggest trying it hooked up directly and seeing if you're happy with it before spending time and money to get it back to 9V.

  13. Posted

    Only two reasons to keep them in my opinion - either you want them, or the next person wants them.

    If you're not going to sell the set and you don't want the box - get rid of them. If either of the former (and no constraints like you don't have the space for example) then you keep them.

    If my dad's experience of matchbox toys is anything to go by, then over a long enough time period, the boxes will become far more valuable than what they contained!