aeh5040

It looks like only pre-order to me.

Looks like a new 28t gear too! :-D

Very interesting builds, especially the padlock. One nice challenge would be to make a safe that *cannot be taken apart* without the key (or combination). I've seen a very large one like that somewhere, but would be interesting to see whether it can be done on a small scale.

From what I can infer, you are both exceptionally talented and kind-hearted individuals! Wonderful that our hobby allows such things to happen...

I don't usually get excited by supercars, but this is a fantastic job! It looks very solid and well designed, and the styling with the connectors is amazing. It also reminds me of 8448, but taken to a whole different level...

The diameter of the turntable like thing in the center does seem too large compared to the quarter-circle racks for it to be just a turntable. On the other hand its diameter seems to change as it turns, so perhaps it's a turntable with some liftarms stacked around it somehow.

Ugh - To be honest I think I'm going off this a bit. All these fiddly non-functional details just turn me off. I prefer it when technic is focused mainly on the functions with just subtle suggestions of realism. As I said, the fake pneumatics particularly annoy me for some reason. I do realise that this is all a matter of taste, and designing sets like this may well be a sound market strategy. It's just a personal preference. And I still expect I'll buy it!

Very interesting! (To say the least!) A few initial observations and guesses: The 7 motor functions are presumably: 2 tracks; superstructure rotation; 3 articulations of the arm (paired large LAs); opening and closing of bucket (mini LAs) I'm guessing for most of these the motor is quite close to the function, so perhaps the inside is fairly empty. Maybe one hub in the base and one in the superstructure (so no functions passing through the main turntable)? The pneumatic hoses on the arm appear to be purely for show (to emulate the real excavator) - you can see that some of them are connected to a pneumatic connector that's not connected to anything else. That offends me a bit! I also can't quite see exactly what the array of black tubes on the top of the arm is. Perhaps they are also fake pneumatics, or perhaps they are wires. What is the power source for the new hubs? AAs? Rechargeable? Surely not the AAA boxes we've seen so far - the batteries would run down very quickly powering a beast like this! The two-way communication aspect is interesting. I'd like to see a model-mounted camera with a remote view on the smart phone as part of this system... The price is certainly shocking, but it does paint a mostly very encouraging picture about where TLG and Technic are heading. My guess is: the Bugatti is selling extremely well, and this and their market research indicates that there is a big market for extremely sophisticated sets aimed at adults, so they've made the decision to pursue this direction in a big way. That's a much much better scenario for us than if (for example) they decided to let technic wither and die while they focus on Lego Movie and other things. (That could in principle easily happen).

(Sorry for the poor video, it's from 10 years ago!)

That's a wonderful joystick mechanism! Never seem one quite like that before.

I have a special affinity for that set, as it was my out-of-the-dark-age experience. But I think it's amazing even by objective standards. I really like the way form and function come together, and every piece is important...

Definitely still relevant to some of us! I'll just mention the stunning 8480:

Awesome work!

Nice idea!

Interesting discussion! Building official sets its not really something I find challenging, it is certainly something I enjoy. I find it quite relaxing, and I am sometimes quite amazed by the ingenious constructions that the designers come up with. But yes, if you want real challenge and fulfillment, design you own models, ideally of something that has never been done before!

As others have said, the obvious solution is simply to ask the model creator before making such material public. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to do that - it's just good manners. It's highly likely that the creator would agree, and then everyone is happy!

Just Wow. I am simply astonished that this is possible. Congratulations!! I would be interested to see what the parts looks like afterwards. Is there much gear wear or axle twisting?

Great idea - it would be very interesting to see how well this can work. I say go with whatever design flies best, and fine tune it! Could a powered launcher be possible...?

Here is perhaps my most ambitious creation. It's an entirely mechanical (and pneumatic) robot that solves the Tower of Hanoi puzzle (in the minimum moves). There is no computer or electronics, just one motor (plus two more for the compressor). I believe it's the first time such a thing has been done, in LEGO or otherwise. The Tower of Hanoi puzzle, invented by mathematician Edouard Lucas in 1883, is to move a pile of discs from one peg to another, using a third peg, one disc at a time, never putting a larger disc on top of a smaller disc. 5 discs (as here) takes 2x2x2x2x2-1 = 31 moves. 64 discs (in the original formulation of the puzzle) take 2^64-1 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 moves. Most robots or programs to solve the puzzle use recursion, but here it is done by repeating a simple sequence of steps: grab, rotate, drop, advance the pegs. The key is that it always grabs the smaller of the two discs in front of it and transfers it to the other peg. It senses which that is by height - the grabber can only drop as far as the higher disc, which is the smaller one because of how the pegs are stepped. The pegs are rotated by a chain drive, while all other actions are controlled by mechanically actuated pneumatic switches. Sorry the video is a bit dark - I'll add some photos of the mechanisms soon.

That's a very impressive and clean build! And very interesting discoveries on the turntable...

That's a great idea! I like how you even used a 28t turntable (pity there's no 32t gear, or you could go two more). About the issue with staying in gear, could it work to put a towball or something similar in the other 4 holes of the pulley, to lock the wheels in place?

I've put some pictures on bricksafe: http://bricksafe.com/pages/aeh/hanoi

It is indeed pneumatic - the cylinder is attached to a gear rack which turns a gear, similar to Akiyuky's pneumatic GBC module. There are end stops on the rotating part, to achieve the precise angle. It's pretty much all my own invention, although of course there is always inspiration from elsewhere. As I mentioned above, the rotation of the grabber was partly suggested by an Akiyuky module. Also the idea of the intermittent chain-to-knob-wheel drive (which rotates the pegs) has been used before. The concept of a mechanical Hanoi solver (as opposed to computer controlled) is completely new so far as I know. Pneumatic sequencer! Yes indeed, I initially tried to do it that way (I even designed a mechanism to advance the pegs 120 degrees pneumatically), so that it would all be powered by an air supply. Sadly I just could not get anything work reliably enough that way (I'm not quite sure why). Maybe I'll give it another go at some point. I'd also like to have a purely mechanical version (without pneumatics) - I'm working on that, we'll see whether it works. But for now I'm just happy to have any working solution! :D That's exactly right! Of course I'm not the first to observe that this algorithm works (see the wikipedia page). I find it somewhat miraculous that it does, and in the minimum moves! Yes, well spotted. The chain drive is definitely a bit of a weak point. It did survive a weekend running on-and-off at BrickCon, however. Just the end stops. The curve at the end of the liftarms helps too. If it is lowered not quite in the right place it can self-correct a little bit. It does occasionally drop one (once or twice per hour). I think inaccuracy in the chain drive is more often to blame. Good question. No, it will not solve from an arbitrary state. In general it will get into a different loop. For a simple example, if you start with the smallest green disc in the wrong place, it will just shuffle that one round endlessly! It is quite noisy - no reason why one could not do this. You could also move the switches away, but it still needs drive to operate the rotation of the three pegs (which much be synchronized with the switches).

Moreover, the RTC works much better than the BWE. I think they are both amazing models, but BWE is just on the edge of what's possible, while RTC is robust and playable.