quilkin

I have just started to use LDD (version 4.3) but can't find any of the hinge bricks in the brick selector (e.g. this one http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=1973&colorID=1 ). I have enabled 'extended mode'. The hinge plates are there, but not any of the hinge bricks, either with horizontal or vertical fingers. How do I get to see/use these?

Excellent. Must be the most useful lego 'car' I've seen. Easy improvement: replace the brick obstacles with car & bike models Difficult improvement: make the obstacles appear at random times!

"as used in the 80's"? I'm sure I've been on a bus like this very recently. Well done anyway!

Would a bicycle inner tube (a thin one, racing bike not mountain bike), cut into sections, help with this?

An unusual new use for Technic? http://www.theguardi...nipulator#img-3 - with downloadable building instructions!

Well, my first MOC bike is now my avatar. This didn't have a big enough parts count, though, so my second was bigger and was the subject of an earlier thread in EB; it can be seen here. More than three years later and I've nearly finished mark 3: As you can see it's not quite ready yet (need some more bricks for the 'tyre' on the front wheel) and there are one or two problems. I can't get the tooth spacing right on the chainwheel; if I made it a much larger diameter it would probably work but it's already too big at 72 teeth. At present it almost fits but the chain, when in tension and the pedals are turned, tends to ride up the teeth and slip off. Another problem is that that headset (between front fork and handlebars) isn't built strongly enough; it all fell apart when I tried to carry it around for the photos! I can probably deal with this but the chainwheel has got me stuck and I don't want to buy more parts (to equalize the colours) until the design is correct. There's more photos on brickshelf where you can see some details of the build, including many turntables employed as bearings. It's not quite full-size, would probably suit a chid of about 10 years old if there was one light enough not to break everything - would have to be made of paper though .

I didn't count the parts! And apart from the wheels it's taken apart now, too big to store . There were between 300-400 long blue pins in the frame and handlebars.

Well my full-sized bicycle didn't receive a lot of attention (not surprising really, it was pretty wobbly) so I decided to use the wheels elsewhere. This is the result .... sorry about the video quality, lack of titles, music, etc . etc..... The construction was finished a few weeks ago but had to be filmed outdoors to get enough space, and the weather has been so foul recently I had to wait.

Thanks, Moz, I knew there must be a name for it! Your Wikpedia link also links to this which looks like it could be a contender for a Lego version with Mindstorms control. Now I know what those Lego droid wheels are for, and, no, I've never seen Star Wars!

This is the web address for the UK: https://service.lego.com/en-gb/replacementparts#BasicInfo I ordered some parts yesterday and got an email asking me to ring to arrange payment. But the automated phone ssytem didn't accept the order number they had given me! I have sent an email to try to sort it out.

Brian, this is really good but I doubt TLG could make it cheap enough - even if they could supply the transmitter at the same price level as HobbyKing, there's $15 of extra components, and labour, so receivers would end up costing at least $30-40 by the time they were in the shops - depending on numbers produced of course. So a system would be $60 or more, which is a lot more than the existing IR system. Great for us AFOLs but probably not a big enough market at that price.

Interesting idea which I think may lead to a solution . Chain on its own might still slip but combined with direct drive like this: could help hold tings together. Anyway by observing this assembly under load I have seen where I can strengthen the superstructure to stop things moving as well. Thanks Nevyn.

Looking for help with driving a turntable with an 8-t gear. The photo may help; I have removed some strenghening parts to show more detail. The 8-t is directly mounted on the XL motor, on a 3L axle passing through one of these. It runs OK until the load increases, then the gears slip. Normally it's necessary to have both sides of a gear firmly mounted but this isn't possible when driving a turntable. The motor is mounted very rigidly and is not moving , all the play appears to be in the turnatble itself or the 3L axle. I would try using 2 (or even 4) 8-tooth gears spread around the circumference, driven in parallel, to share the load, but there's a fixed 'axle' (15-hole bricks joined with plates) going right through the 'hub' which gets in the way of sharing the load like this. Any ideas?

I agree with NevynPA - something other than vehicles! Maybe the recent 'Triple' competition winners (#1 and#2 non-vehicles) showed the demand?

Yes, I see it has only one at present. If you use two, it would replicate how a person walks (to turn left, just move your right leg and keep the left leg still) - same as steering a tracked vehicle (e.g. bulldozer)

I agree with Fizzley, I got the Unimog (mainly for parts) when it was on offer but have not made it yet after 9 months. But I'd like to make this jeep.

Separate motors for left & right legs? Controlled with PF remote units?

To actually finish a MOC .... seems that too often, I get 95% of the way there and get stuck on something. So I put it aside waiting for inspiration. Meanwhile I get an idea for something different and start something new. The original idea lies around getting dusty (and sometimes has parts removed 'cause I need them for the new idea.....). Is this a common scenario, or is it just me?

Am I correct in understanding that the XL motor in question runs OK if another motor is connected in parallel (i.e. thus making a higher power requirement?). If so I doubt it's to do with the higher power output of the V2 receiver. Sounds more like a poor connection on either the motor lead or the receiver (or both). Check for dirt or bent connections.

Fantastic design, so much hard work has gone into this. There is another thread today asking why Technic went studless - I think this model is good example of an answer. So realistic.

May I add my congratulations to the winners and also to Jim (and to all the entrants of course) for all the hard work. Interesting that the top two are non-vehicles, yet all TLG releases year-after-year are vehicles of some kind (helicopters and planes a bit different maybe, but still vehicles). Maybe TLG could learn something here!

Maybe someone here could help me make a decision. First a bit of background. I had Meccano when I was young, in the 1960's (up to age 15 or so when I sold it). About 15 years ago I was given a Lego Technic set, and somehow that grew to several sets..... I have many now, as well as orders from Bricklink. But also, about 3 years ago I purchased a large quantity of 'old' Meccano from eBay (pre-1970 stuff, it wasn't ever the same after that) and made some big models. (Just for info, I probably have about £2000 worth of each - Technic & Meccano - now). I enjoy building in both and tend now to go in 6-month cycles of moving from one to the other. The problem is, that because building techniques are so different, I don't feel as if I can improve enough on either of these - I am going to stay mediocre at best. Also I don't really have the storage space for both. I'm not really after any Lego v. Meccano arguments; I know full well the pros and cons of each. But how do I decide what to concentrate on, to improve m building skills? And if I sold either, I could buy a lot more of the other!

8: 1 9: 1 14: 4 23: 3 27: 1

TheLegoDr: I don't understand, you've got 3252 posts in this (Lego) forum in two-and-a-half years, that's about 2 or 3 posts every day? And yet you haven't time to build the (Lego) sets that you buy? Something wrong there....

It's not just about the friction; there will be a point between each pair of magnets on the rails where the repulsive force of the first would equal the repulsive force of the second. So the truck would get stuck there, once the momentum of your first push was lost by friction. I don't think the train truck would move any further than it would without the magnets, in fact it could be less. Nice design of track though