quilkin

Hi, I've only just seen this; I've been away from Lego for a few months. I think it's a perfect candidate for Ideas. and so well presented. Pity you couldn't get the original colours you planned, I prefer it as it was. I did make a (somewhat bigger) traction engine about eight years ago (wow, was it really that long ago?!) and it's still up here if you're interested. Your design is so much more practical than mine! Well done.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with most of the suggested improvements, but was limited by my decision to make it more of a challenge by only using the bricks in the original set.

I'm sure this has been done many times before, and would be interested to see how others have approached it. Rather than just build a modular according to the instructions, I decided to split one in half (the Parisian Restaurant in this case) and make two 'façade-only' buildings using the same set of parts. It was quite a challenge to use only the parts in the original set*, although I haven't changed the design very much. Here's the finished model ; the right-hand side is pretty much built as per instructions. and this is the 'inside' view (I find it better to see the insides of buildings like this, rather than having to remove layers): and here's the parts left over from the original set: *I have to make an exception to the 'original parts only' , of course: I used two 32x16 baseplates rather than one 32x32. And I used extra technic bricks to make the extra 'joiners'.

Very good - I like this; I have built similar constructions but not so round! I can't quite count how many parts needed - is that 60 of each (curved slope / hinge / clip etc)? It's not really 'Technic' though so maybe better in the 'special' forum (sculpture & art)

Well I thought they were. I set one of them at 90 degrees, then used the clone function. But some of the cloned studs (on the half-pins) came out at random angles, seemingly dependent on an irrelevant part sitting behind the beam, not connected to the pin directly. You live and learn. Thanks again. I now have to find out why my mouse right-click-shift pan action has stopped working (well, it pans at one hundredth of the speed it used to!) . But that's another story.

Brilliant, thank you. I would never had noticed that on my own. So in LDD the half-pins don't have rotational symmetry, unlike in real life. Is this a bug, or is the only mechanism that will allow parts to snap to pins if the pins are placed in angled beams? But I'm still not quite understanding this. I re-oriented the pins in the beams in one corner of the structure (the one nearest to the viewer as downloaded) and that worked fine. But the same method didn't work for the beams opposite.

Sorry about the link, corrected now. I don't understand what you mean about the half pins, do they have some sort of non-symmetry in the circular section?

I've managed to construct an double 'A' frame (download here) but am unable to find a way of attaching certain pieces to others which aren't at right angles to the base. For example I'm trying to add 1x8 tiles to the side of the technic bricks forming the main frame sides, using some Technic Pins 1/2. Managed to get one of them to 'stick' (on the reinforcement support) but not the others. Is there a special technique required to get this these things to click into place?

Cheers, thanks. All done, can get on now.

Thanks for the help (so far) .... using a temporary hinge I lifted your A-frame vertically but then it wouldn't sit down on the baseplate. That in itself may not be a problem but if I clone the whole frame and reverse it (to make the other side) it won't join with cross-beams because the spacing isn't whole numbers of studs. New attempt here

Hello, I am trying to construct a simple 'A' frame in LDD. It's based on Pythagoras 5:12:13 triangles. I'm pretty sure I've done the counting correctly (i.e. counting spaces between holes rather than holes themselves) and I've used the hinge tool to get the angles as close as possible to 22.62 degrees which I think is correct (arctan of 5/12). But the holes just won't line up exactly enough to get pins through. The base cross-beam is 54 spaces wide; the top is (or should be) 4 spaces. If you imagine the frame to be composed of two right-angles triangles, I should be able to put in cross-beams of 14, 24, 34.... spaces, which correspond to gaps of 12 spaces vertical height (13 spaces along the diagonal)- i.e. adding a pair of 5:12:13 triangles each time. It doesn't seem to help that when I set an angle, and then swivel the drawing around (to look from the other side) it's changed slightly - e.g. 22.62 becomes 157.42 when it should be 157.38. Can anyone help? The LXF file is here. This is the beginning of what will be a fairly complex construction so it's got to be correct!

Ok, perhaps I should be more specific. Does it remember the actions after a power-down (i.e. if mains power is removed?). In this respect one of the Mindstorms bricks would suffice but AFAIK they all run from batteries rather than mains converters. I imagine it has the older-style connecting cables, so I'd need to solder up a converter cable. Good point. I'll need to change that then, but it means more gears to get a low enough speed, and space is at a bit of a premium (the motor and gearing is housed under the floor of the building). The next challenge!

That sounds interesting. Clutch gears may be a bit tricky; the lifts themselves were driven via steel ropes (will be Lego cord or similar in the model) from the winding drum outside the engine house. One lift wold be going up while the other goes down (cords wound opposite ways round the drums) . I'd have to use the clutches to spin when the cord tension was too high (i.e. the list reaches the top of its travel). But actually, now I think about it more, a clutch would also prevent problems due to potential snagging elsewhere. Anyone know if there's a specification for the Control Center anywhere I can download, before I decide to buy one?

Thanks. I think I'm Ok with the electrics / control side of things, assuming I can use a standard 9V motor. I'll probably build a control system using an Arduino, with just a simple push-button to set the thing going forward for 30 seconds, slow down then reverse for 30 seconds, then stop automatically (I'll need microswitches on the lift mechanism to prevent over-runs). My post was more about the mechanical side of things. I queried LvdH's post earlier about the train controller because it said it didn't use batteries, but didn't say what it did use! The battery box and train controller don't really help because they offer a manual way of controlling the direction & speed: this would be courting disaster in a public exhibition! A microswitch would prevent an overrun, but then how would it start again (without some additional control logic anyway)?

Thanks for all the responses. It'll be easy enough to add silicone grease to the moving parts. Nobody seems to think the motor isn't up to the task, so that's good - I'll leave it as it is and have a replacement ready if required. That's a great comparison. I won't need to worry too much then. Puzzled by this, does that controller run straight off a 12V supply then? The engine needs to run at a constant speed to be realistic, although it does reverse now and again: The real one was used to power a lift for carrying ore to the surface. I've yet to build the left mechanism; simulating an underground mineshaft with a Lego model could be interesting.....