MP LEGO Technic creations

It might seem that the field of agriculture is not much affected by the boom of modern technologies, but it is precisely in agriculture that a rapid development of automation and robotization is expected not only in the processing of crops, but also in their cultivation. For this reason I have decided to build something different this time - namely an official autonomous concept of a John Deere tractor called SESAM 2. This one differs from other visions in particular by the possibility of attaching the driver's cabin and the ability to work both in a purely autonomous mode or be remotely/directly controlled from its cabin. In the field, the cab can be detached at the headland, allowing the operator to monitor and possibly control the tractor. The efficiency is further increased by the ability to work in a swarm, so it is possible to monitor or control several machines working in the same field from one cabin. Since the real tractor has a power of 500kW, I decided not to use just one motor to drive it, but two. In terms of shape, the so-called large angular motor is suitable for the model of this particular tractor, because it enables better use of space - i.e. the possibility of placing it vertically on both sides of the chassis between the axles, thereby freeing up space in the center of the model, which can subsequently be used for other functions. A central differential is usually used to compensate for the difference in wheel speeds of the front and rear axles due to their different diameters, however the disadvantage of this variant is that if one of the wheels of the front axle is not in contact with the ground, all the power of the drive system will go to this wheel and the model will stop. By inserting suitable gears, the speed difference will be equalized, so it is possible to replace the central differential with a fixed connection of the drive shafts of both axles. Thanks to the drive motors located on the sides of the central frame, it is possible to add a mechanical locking rear differential working on the basis of a centrifugal regulator in conjunction with another differential used to compare the revolutions of individual wheels (note: each of the output shafts of the drive differential is connected to the output shafts of the "control differential", but one of them utilizes higher number of gear wheels, so when both shafts of the drive differential are at the same speed, the "control differential" does not move) of the rear axle - if the difference in the speed of the two wheels is too high, this differential connected to the centrifugal regulator also turns, with a higher centrifugal force with the arms of this regulator will begin to lift until they are far enough away from each other that the surrounding parts prevent them from further moving away, thereby blocking the entire regulator. This will stop the "control rear differential" from rotating and close the drive differential. CREDIT goes to @JoKo, I just loved his brilliant idea so much that I decided to build a model around it My original design of steering included a gear rack, but it turned out to be inaccurate in practice, and the range of the wheels was greatly limited. Therefore, it was necessary to come up with a new concept - control of the steering connecting rod using a small LA. This solution is features in particular a higher force for controlling the wheels with a reduced engine load, greater steering angle, improved accuracy and protection of the motor in extreme positions thanks to the internal safety element of the used LA. In addition, the entire axle is pendular to achieve better offroad ability. The only pneumatic circuit uses a classic pump+switch combo: A Medium angular motor is used for the rear PTO. Since a variety of implements can be attached to the tractor and there is no space left to build in any speed gearbox I have decided to use not one, but two coupled PTO outputs, which differ from each other in their speeds. The front hydraulics is driven by another Medium angular motor, and sufficient load capacity is ensured by a worm gear. Similar to the front three-point hitch, the rear hydraulics use a worm gear, with the Angular motor replaced by a more powerful Control+ L motor, as heavier equipment is attached to the rear. When talking about lighting - John Deere is based in the US, where red turn signals are common, so it is possible to use the same LEDs for both tail lights and turn signals. Blinking is solved by software changing the intensity, where the direction lights flash in short time intervals with 100% intensity, while the rear lights only shine at half power. A small addition are two glow-in-the-dark stripes on both sides of the machine, which do not require any electric connection. All "autonomous" features are in fact a mere Mindstorms distance sensor. Schematic layout of mechanical functions: Schematic layout of the mechanical functions, including the respective motors (both HUBs are located above the front axle, due to which it is heavily loaded and, together with the powerful drive system, ensure exceptional traction capabilities): Complete tractor chassis: At first glance, it might seem that the shape of the selected tractor is simpler than that of classic tractors, but upon closer observation it becomes clear that even apparently flat surfaces are curved, slanted or otherwise modified. Designing the model is also greatly hampered by the lack of visual material. All searchable photos are just a snapshot of a certain part of a not-so-long video. This video, along with the minimal amount of information published, is the only source from which the LEGO model was designed. The chassis of the production 6R series tractor gave a slight idea of the dimensions, but the body design was purely based on my own experience. Since the cabin will often stand on the ground, I came up with the idea of equipping it with rubber pads, which not only dampen the impact when it is placed, but also provide it with better stability even on uneven surfaces due to higher friction. The interior is equipped with small details, such as an adjustable steering wheel collumn and armrest or a lockable storage space under the folding passenger seat. Various devices can of course be attached to this tractor - here is, for example, Rolland Rollspeed 7136 trailer: To the controlling app - on a mobile device (tablet) the Mindstorms application will be directly connected to one of two HUBs in the model, which will directly control the motors connected to this HUB, while on the other HUB a stored program will be run waiting for the start signals that will be forwarded to it from tablet through the first HUB and their mutual (HUB-to-HUB) communication. And for more convenient control, I also used the Sony Dualshock 4 game controller. Program streamed to HUB 1: 1) Control of rear and direction lights 2) Front axle steering 3) Sending a signal for HUB 2 - turning on the front lights with the brightness value "light brightness" (14) 4) Setting the value of the "sensor" variable needed for its activation/deactivation 5) Forward/backward control along with obstacle detection and emergency stop (15) 6) Sending a signal for HUB 2 – starting the PTO in one way 7) Sending a signal for HUB 2 – starting the PTO in the other way 8) Sending a signal for HUB 2 – starting the pump in one way 9) Sending a signal for HUB 2 – starting the pump in the other way 10) Sending a signal for HUB 2 - lowering the front three-point hitch 11) Sending a signal for HUB 2 – raising the front three-point hitch 12) Sending a signal for HUB 2 - lowering the rear three-point hitch 13) Sending a signal for HUB 2 – raising the rear three-point hitch 14) Setting the value of the "brightness of the lights" variable needed to turn them on/off 15) Setting the value of the "stop" variable for turning on/off the emergency brake Program stored in HUB 2: 1) Signal reception from HUB 1 – turning on/off the front lights 2) Signal reception from HUB 1 – lowering/raising the front three-point hitch 3) Signal reception from HUB 1 – lowering/raising the rear three-point hitch 4) Receiving a signal from HUB 1 – starting the PTO in one or the other direction 5) Receiving a signal from HUB 1 – starting the pump in one direction or the other Some dimensions: Length (without cab/with cab): 360mm/445mm Width (without cabin/with cabin): 180 mm/225 mm Height (without antennas/with antennas): 184 mm/218 mm Wheelbase: 160 mm Wheel track (front/rear axle): 136 mm/136 mm Weight: 2660 g (Without cabin); 3035 g (With cabin) Proportional axle load: Front - 55%; rear - 45% Load capacity of three-point hitches: Front - 626 g; Rear - 565 g (well, that's definitely interesting ) The model consists of a total of 2950 original parts, while I managed to build in the following features: • all-wheel drive (2x Large Angular motor) • automatic rear differential lock • front axle steering (1x C+ L motor) • swinging front axle • front three-point hitch (1x Medium Angular motor) • rear three-point hitch (1x C+ L motor) • auxiliary drive of implements (1x Medium Angular motor) • pneumatic drive of external devices (1x C+ L motor) • front and rear lighting (4 pairs of LED lights) • obstacle detection and automatic braking systém (Distance sensor) • remotely detachable cab with movable interior details • robust bodywork with easy access to control units Link to WIP topic: I hope this post has not somehow exceeded the maximum allowed length or anything like that Thanks for visiting & comments are welcome!

Wow, I really am honored! Just a stupid question of mine - should't the first two photos be rearranged so a picture of an actual build would be shown on the front page?

You're right, there are 2 large turntables to allow the axle pendular movement. The photos in my WIP topic don't show the current progress though. How lazy I am when creating progress updates, these usually take me a few months to share Haha, same here. After three years of work and just before finishing it, I managed to get to a field and present my model next to the original Keep going and don't give up!

@Mr Jos Although having pendular axles on such machines in LEGO form might seem like a good idea at first, I believe you'll after some time realize the same thing as I did when building my ROPA Tiger 6s beet harvester with both rear axles equipped with pendular suspension using shock absorbers as well. The thing is that you would desperately need to have the machine perfectly balanced (which is doable), however, when extending the unloading elevator, this balance will be inevitably upset. In this case, I went with one of the axles fixed and the another was left pendular, though you may come up with another solution. The model of mine was narrower (23 studs total / 21 studs wide bodywork), so the width could make difference as well. Are you planning it to be able to transport bricks pretending to be potatoes, as I did with sugarbeet? I'll be definitely watching this model growing carefully

To me those indeed look like 11 studs in diameter. However, I'd rather call the colour bright light orange as you can clearly see a yellow half bush underneath.

@anyUser Thanks mate! That's really great news, thus I don't have to redesign anything and this combination allows me to switch from studless to studded/odd to even easily

Hi everyone, I've been trying to find some info about these 2 older turntable designs: (2855) and (48452) Can I ask, whether someone knows if it's possible to connect these two parts together (in a working way, to create a half-studless turntable)?

My advice would be the same - the default palette level is preset to "beginner", thus many blocks (such as the math ones) are missing.

Yup, the Blue Power version is indeed coloured dark blue & silver whereas ordinary models are blue & white. I have to agree it looks absolutely great! (though it would be even better with rear tractor tyres in the right size...) It would be nice to see more tractors (and other agricultural equipment) in such scale. Haven't you thought of some kind of attachment?

You mean like in the initial idea? Then you would unfortunately get the same effect, only inverted (e.g. instead of two circle steering modes two crab modes).

Well, are you sure that both aren't the same ones? To me it seems like that, though I could've overlooked something. The original setup looks like this - steering liftarms aren't mirrored.

That was also my initial thought, however, that doesn't really help. After building it, I've realized that the issue with rear axle's steering remains the same - instead of being locked in wanted position and being always parallel to the vehicle's frame, it slides on the axle and causes total chaos. I've tried a different approach - instead of sliding the whole assembly from one side to another, place three of them next to each other and select steering mode by just inserting the axle to one of them. This had worked well for me.

I'm not really sure that 1L liftarm exists in yellow, though I could've missed some recent release. It's a shame because any other parts (like yellow bushes) will spoil the looks with additional gaps... Otherwise the truck looks great!

Hello everyone! Almost one year passed since I've posted my very first alternate model, so I decided to make another one. With the new John Deere Skidder (42157), I bought its smaller brother as well - and the idea was born... It definitely wasn't a hauler from the beginning, my intention was to build something completely different, which just didn't go well. Building time was around 5 hours, therefore one well-spent afternoon, though I improved the coloring the next day This time I also decided to get rid of traditional white background and change my presentation a bit, hope you like it. The model features: Articulated steering with HOG behind the cabin Tilting the cargo bed About 91% of parts provided by the set were used (none of them were spares), render with leftover parts is shown below: And a 360° view (could be better, however I don't really have 17 500 hours of time to waste ): And last but not least - a short demonstration video: If anyone is interested, instructions can be found on Rebrickable. Thank you for visiting & any comments are welcome as always :)

There's definitely no front diff - the front wheels are mounted on 3L axles with stop, because they're reddish brown

Seems like there's a 5x7 frame in red around the rear differential:

@gyenesvi Yup, I've built it IRL and spotted no problems at all. Right now it's already mounted on the tractor and it drives just fine. However, I'm really curious whether the axle's design could be improved so here you can download its Stud.io file (please ignore submodels, those are from the previous version but I was lazy enough to not to release them): https://bricksafe.com/files/MP_LEGO_Technic_Creations/JD-frontAxle.io I'd really like to know your opinion about this! Kind regards

I know that I shouldn't start another build before finishing all those previous ones but you know, when you get an idea, you sometimes just can't resist... Well, this time it's an electric tractor - John Deere SESAM 2 (Sustainable Energy Supply for Agricultural Machinery) because I've realized that it would be useful to have something to pull a trailer full of harvested "beets" from my ROPA harvester. I've decided to build this specific one because I wanted something that no one has built before (presumably) and I find this concept quite interesting as well. The problem I've faced from the very beginning is lack of any documentation - I can only build according to the video below (and photos that are mostly from this video). All I know is that it is based on a 6R tractor and its cabin comes from some kind of a harvester. The idea si that it can work as an autonomous tractor as well as a classic tractor (well, you can attach a cabin ) I also wanted to try designing a model in digital form before ordering all those expensive green parts This is where I got: Powered by 2 Mindstorms RI Hubs 7 motors (already placed), a distance sensor at the front and 4 pairs of lights (front, rear and indicators) 4WD with central differential and automatic rear diff lock (@JoKo will know ) by 2 Large Angular motors Steering via 1 C+ L motor Rear PTO (1 Medium angular motor) Front hydraulics (1 Medium angular motor) Rear hydraulic (1 C+ L motor) Sariel's pneumatic pump with switch for power output Pendular front axle First prototype of the front grille: Cabin: The internals: I know, it's already quite crammed inside but as I've already built it IRL, I'm really satisfied with the result! Everything seems to work well, the drivetrain is efficient (thanks to batteries at the front it can easily pull heavy objects) The only thing that isn't that fantastic is the diff lock (as many of you definitely spotted even in the beginning) - it works well, however it's only useful when one of the rear wheels is lifted off the ground. I can only pray that the front pendular axle will always copy terrain and have enough traction at anytimes I hope I'll manage to make a few photos of the real thing this week. Thank you for reading & comments with any suggestions are welcome as always!

Although I'm still waiting for parts, I've made some improvements of the front axle. My intention was to solve an issue with Mindstorms App, where steering using motor's relative position (angle from a steering slider) didn't work very well. I suppose that could be my fault because in C+ sets L motor is able to steer quickly, whereas in my Mindstorms program it took a while and it even started to move to wanted position after the slider was released. In order to solve this problem, I've decided to get rid of return-to-center steering and mounted a small LA instead. As a bonus I got about two times bigger steering angle, protection of the motor by the LA's inner clutch and bigger force to turn the wheels as well. On the left side is the new axle, on the right the old one:

All the orders have arrived so I could continue with the digital build. The sides and the top of the bodywork are more or less finished, the rear three-point hitch was reinforced and pneumatic outputs moved to a more convenient location. Now I'm going to place a few more orders to finish the bodywork and then I'll look at all those wires inside. Total parts count is currently ~ 2750

@Berthil Here is the information that you probably haven't known about: https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/zahranicni-evropa-na-slovensku-se-zritilo-letadlo-z-ceska-40423707 The designer was one of those four people in that crashed plane, so I believe that's the reason why he's no longer selling anything. I hope this info helps to understand. I believe it is a huge loss for his friends and other builders either. May his soul rest in peace.

@SaperPL and @LEGO Train 12 Volts thank you! @gyenesvi, I've just placed all necessary Bricklink orders and I was quite surprised how expensive are tiles 1x6 or bricks 1x4 with studs in green. In order to minimize costs I've reduced the amount of such pieces as much as possible in the digital model before placing any order @Jundis Yup, some other liftarms have been already reintroduced, however the rarity of 1x11 long ones is just riddiculous. This is the reason why I used those here in DBG instead...

Some significant progress on the bodywork has been made, everything tried physically before creating digital model in Stud.io First I started at the front: Then I got an idea to move the distance sensor a bit up and connect it to the grille. After tests, I'm happy to see that there's nothing in the way and the tractor is able to stop autonomously before an obstacle, however everything at least a bit taller than the tractor itself is not detected due to angled placement of the sensor, so it's able to drive under those. And some more photos of the current state: Unfortunately, some shapes had to be simplified (which doesn't mean its structure was easy to design ) I hope I'll be able to make some further improvements. Now I'm going to order a lot of missing expensive green parts...

Here's a short climb test video:

I'd like to ask about this part. If you use both parts of the same colour, it works just fine and rotates smoothly. However if you change one of them to a different colour, there seems to be much more friction because it requires much more force to use it as a joint then. Does anyone know why this happens? Is it supposed not to use two-tone hinge plate?