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[MOD] #85007 Pantasy suspended Steam Punk train motorized with Tenka’s Circuit Cubes elements
Toastie posted a topic in Community
Dear All, one of my favorite themes (in many regards) is Steam Punk. Steam-propelled futuristic technology, in shiny brass, gold and silver, leaning towards Jules Verne's "fiction". Not the dirty dark, maybe original punk. I am not sure whether the shiny stuff is Steam Punk at all; this genre has taken on so many forms and interpretations … Whatever, it may well be that my affection for Steam Punk comes from my admiration for Thermodynamics – in chemistry of course So guess what happened, when in late 2023 I became aware of the #85007 set “Steam Punk Railway Station” from Pantasy/China? Yes, I got sort of positively nervous. It quickly turned out that the title of the set is misleading: They use the railway station shown on the front of the box and the two instruction booklets simply to hide the Steam Punk locomotive along with one carriage. I almost freaked out, when I saw the train. And finally I passed out when I saw that the train is of the suspended monorail type … for more than two decades I was dreaming of a suspended LEGO monorail train – read more about that here: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/150261-wip-lego-monorails-custom-rail-systems-crs/&do=findComment&comment=3680627. With respect to the Dark Side: Pantasy is using GoBricks pieces (as per advertisement on the box) – and these have reached the 100%(+) LEGO quality level, no doubts. OK, as expected, has been discussed on EB. Very small injections points (barely visible), perfect colors, perfect clutch, same “softness” as the latest LEGO bricks and plates have, metal gold and silver pieces all over the place. On their website (https://pantasy.com/blogs/news), they talk about their approach, which is a quite nice read. Building that set was pure and utter fun. It was as if the Pantasy management said to the designers: “Folks, go Steam Punk nuts – no restrictions, just freak out and have fun. When you need more pieces to make it even more glitzy and punky – just do it”. 2723 pieces, BlueBrixx asks for €140, you can get it much cheaper – it is currently almost everywhere sold out, though. No surprise. This set is a blast in every regard. Motorization of the engine From day one, I wanted to motorize this model – it appears to be designed for display only. There are a couple of challenges to do so, though: For one, any propulsion system needs to turn the wheels on any of the four roller brackets the locomotive and the carriage are attached to. Second, available space is rather restricted, as the locomotive is essentially one “solid” piece of snotted ABS – except for the magic glass boiler: (At first, I thought: OK, TLG's well known color vomit coding here as well – but then was told that I was totally wrong: It is right here, where the Steam Punk magic generates the power to propel the locomotive: Inside the glass boiler. Attached is a 10 cylinder V-motor connected to the 8 blade pearl gold propeller on its back side – which actually propels the train. Well, there is no color coding at all in the entire set, except for the boiler brackets. So yes, these colors very well may represent the Steam Punk magic). Third, the elevated track Pantasy used is of the roller coaster type, JK Brickworks also employed for their suspended train (https://jkbrickworks.com/suspended-train/) and thus may be no good choice for motorizing a 700+ g heavy Steam Punk train; this will certainly will fail in roller coaster curves. The original (four individual) roller brackets look like this (Stud.io render) In conclusion, there wasn’t any space other than within the boiler for motorization, but I had no clue how to get any gears, axles, rubber bands to the wheels of the roller brackets. A medium PUp motor may fit in there, but the next challenge would have been PUp cabling and powering. The carriage also provides some space, but no LEGO hub fits in there, even after hefty modding, at least in the lower league I do my builds. But then I remembered a post not mentioning the elephant in the room, a thread @zephyr1934 created back in early 2021 on EB (https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/184036-a-review-of-circuit-cubes-without-mentioning-the-elephant-in-the-room/), which deals – in addition to the Elephant in the room – also with the Circuit Cube BLE hub and Cubic motors from Tenka (https://circuitcubes.com/). Furthermore, @Asper reported on using these (@HoMa called “critters” ) for train automation of his four wide trains, whereas @Ts__ showed a prototype truck for train displays. I looked at the dimensions of the motors (the Cubic motor is 2x 2x4) and the hub (2x 4x4) – and … BOOM – brain currents got ballistic. Furthermore, the wiring between the motors and hub is done with Dupont connectors. Tenka uses 2-wire sockets receiving the corresponding two pins of the hub outputs and motor inputs; however, these sockets are too large to fit through a Technic hole. One can easily make single socket wire ends, which then do fit very well. After some tinkering, MLCad suggested: It may work. My plan was to a) motorize the 10 cylinder V-engine from “within” the boiler section, b) propel the entire train with a motor mounted on a 2-axle monorail bracket assembly, c) route the cables somehow to the hub, which is to be mounted in the carriage in a way that one can easily turn it on and off – and d) easily recharge the hub … so far, a) to c) have been accomplished; d) is on the to-do list, see below. Here we go: New roller brackets for the locomotive and the carriage, and the entire driving motor assembly (render and photographs below). I used two stacked 9V train wheels arranged in the same direction – this way, the (custom) rubber band on the driving wheel has good grip. The rubber O-ring on the powered axle for enhanced traction is one I found in the lab – the white LEGO O-rings do not provide sufficient grip, even on the 12V rails “with teeth”. Here is what I use as my monorail track (no Dark Side elements to be seen, all pure LEGO): https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/150261-wip-lego-monorails-custom-rail-systems-crs/&do=findComment&comment=3680627. Photograph below: One Tenka Cubic motor “inside” the boiler, with an attached axle extending all the way to the front, rubber band connecting to the 10-cylinder motor driving axle. (Custom) cables attaching to the motor are routed through Technic holes in the boiler bracket and locomotive frame. They extend to the Circuit Cube hub mounted in the carriage. Pantasy designed the boiler essentially as an all-four-side-studded central structural element. All other parts attach to this element and, at the same time, the “side panels” secure the whole model from falling apart when lifted through snotted connections. You can remove the two large “side panels” - and are left with this when they are put together (and yes, good clutch power really shows): This is the entire engine … ... and the lightly modded carriage: The photographs below are showing the Pantasy railway station, designed as a terminal station. Some folks were complaining that the four platforms (labeled 2 to 5, prints of course - there are no stickers in this set) don’t make any sense, as the monorail runs perpendicularly to the apparent platforms. Of course this makes sense : Below are four tracks terminating at the station: (track 2) 4.5V track – coal delivery for steam locomotives on track 4 and maintenance; (track 3) 9V track – passenger and freight trains; (track 4) 9V track – real steam passenger trains; (track 5) 9V track – freight trains. The monorail is of course floating above all that; when the suspended train is leaving, all these tracks can be serviced ... duh. I thought this is the whole point … The Pantasy Railway Station … Station “unfolded”: Have a look inside: Ticket counter (right) and barista coffee stand (left) … when you push the 3-elements revolving door, the golden (Technic break) disc and the clock hands are spinning as well – this calls for additional motorization … Train 85-007 ready to depart … no surprise, should James Bond be on board … After arrival at the other terminal station: This is the Circuit Cube doing all the work; charging is from the top (see below, though), the on/off switch is easily accessible from the back of the car. To-Do list: I need to find a way of controlling the Circuit Cube hub with an ESP32. This has been demonstrated by @Asper; he has provided his code on GitHub (https://github.com/asperka/LEGORemoteCircuitCube). Steffen used a tiny M5Stack Atom and used the Visual Studio Code IDE with the Platform.IO extension described by him here: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/184878-controlling-two-circuit-cubes-with-one-lego-remote/. I’d like to use the same program I wrote for my Crocodile; this was done using the Arduino IDE and Cornelius Munz’ Legoino code (https://github.com/corneliusmunz/legoino). The reason is simple: It works with 4 optical sensors I want to use again for stopping at both terminals and acceleration/deceleration phases. We will see how that shakes out For charging the Circuit Cube, I need to make a custom USB cable (space … need a flat top USB-B plug). Make a longer video showing how powerful the Circuit Cube stuff really is. It is simply amazing. Video wise, I only have this less than 30 sec clip: First, the 10-cylinder engine fires up, then the train departs, totally loses focus, stops somewhere , V10 stops as well as it needs to kick into reverse (yes, the motor goes into reverse, this is a Steam Punk motor, no gear box here – you can see that by carefully looking at the pistons, they go down and up upon return, not up and down when it started), train reappears, totally out of focus, stops and gains focus, motor shuts down. I suck at taking videos, I know. https://bricksafe.com/files/Toastie/pantasy-steam-punk-railway-/Pantasy Steam Punk Train.mp4 (Updates will go into this thread) All the best, Thorsten -
This is my entry for the Bricklink Designer Program Series 1. https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-1/309/The-Cloud-Chaser-Fantasy-Airship It had to be created from bricks within a set palette. So after looking at the bricks available I was inspired towards the idea of a fantasy/adventure airship/blimp. I started with the challenge of the blimp and how to create the correct shape (the easy part) while making it stable and without making it too heavy to be supported by two masts (the hard part!). To stay away from the weight of too many technics and plates as support structure I went with the roll cage (windscreen 64450). And a structure that I think is quite a pretty geometry. I liked it so much I wanted it to be a feature rather than an interior support, so this changed the blimp to a dirigible. The ship body has an interior cabin with Murphy bed and kitchenette, front wheelhouse and back luggage compartment as part of the build. It can sit on the table both on or off the stand. The bricks used in the built model are accurate to the Studio design however the colours of them are about 95% there. Mostly due to inability to source them (rare or above budget). And of that 5% the majority of it is in the interior. In the final design you will not be able to see colours peeking through from lower levels. The most noticeable exterior colour difference is that the 64727 spike around the ship body is light blue grey here but navy in the studio design. Not included in the rendered pictures are 12 stickered pieces (7 unique). Including the title sticker on the 4x4 tile at the base, and stickers upon the 2x4 white oval tiles at the center of each area of the dirigible. There are flexible hoses (part no. 27965) on the brick-built model of which only one is in the Studio model, in an approximate position along the panels of the dirigible. This is due to the part stretching in Studio. For more photos and renders of The Cloud Chaser please visit my Flickr stream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brick_art/ Recreating something built in real life in Studio was a learning challenge! But this has now been built, taken apart and rebuilt so many times to condense the steps and little submodels that I really hope other people will have the chance to build it.
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Abe Lincoln's History Celebrity Soirée on the River of Time Cruise
Captain Key posted a topic in LEGO Licensed
Support a LEGO Idea? Submitted this idea to LEGO, but built it to fill a need for more steam punk builds in general. Anyone who's familiar with steam punk have some details they would add to this that could make it more appealing? In 1865, a time traveler came to Abe Lincoln and told him his gruesome fate. Wanting to avoid this, Abe agreed to come aboard the time traveler's vessel and live his best life: treasure hunting through time! Along the way, he gathered a crew of history's most adventurous people. Along with Abe came Cleopatra, Sun Tzu, Socrates, Robin Hood, and Blackbeard. He persuaded these celebrities of history by offering fame and fortune beyond their wildest dreams. The vessel itself is a hardy steam-powered copter ship that can travel on water or through the air. It is driven by a lightning rod device that uses static electricity in the clouds and lightning to power its fuel cell attached to the wheel. That wheel is connected to a helm clock and an engine clock where the crew can set a course for any time throughout history. One can remove the rear deck in order to stow helpful items and treasure! A rear propeller thrusts forward movement while side propellers affect the yaw. Heavy chains keep the rotor and engine assembly stable while in flight. Get ready for adventure and fun as this all-star crew wets their feet on this maiden voyage tea party! Support this time machine idea! -
Something I created last night in the studio. Honestly, I wanted to make a gritty, steam-punk inspired airship, mixing pieces parts from the Ninjago: Skybound 70603 Raid Zeppelin, 70601 Sky Shark, and Day of the departed 70592 Salvage M.E.C. All that I got from that was another pile of bricks. Also, a pilotable mech suit for Pirates. My inspiration was the Skeleton Mech that came with Ronin's Salvage M.E.C. Honestly, I wanted to make a diving suit for my LEGO CMF Series 8 Diver. After putting it together and taking it apart and rearranging the pieces so many times, I ultimately converted the Diving suit into a fully weaponized battle suit for the Brickbeard Pirates. Looking at the build, it looks like an extremely scaled down version of Kai's 70721 Fire Mech. Another source of inspiration, is Captain Metalbeard from the LEGO Movie. By far my favorite character, and set, from the entire thing. (I have made heavy modifications to stock Metalbeard from 70807 Metalbeard's Duel, as well as build from scratch with instructions, An Evil Robot variation of Metalbeard I've come to call Steelbeard. The foot on the left leg is the only thing I dislike about the entire build. It seems flimsy as it is supporting the entire thing, and consists of two bricks. I do like the grating on the angle piece, to make it look like a boot tread though. The major difference between this Moc, and traditional Steam Punk, is that this is more in line with the golden age of Piracy. Ergo, in lieu of a Steam Boiler, this battlesuit is fueled by Rum, grog, or anything else foul smelling that can burn in a boiler. Bilge Punk, if you would prefer to call it anything.
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(MOC) ZIL E134 Mad Max/Steam Punk Design-Truck + Instructions
Berghain89 posted a topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
Hey, i would love to share my latest Creation with you guys. Its been a while since my last MOC, but i took the time to build something cool. It is definitely one of my best so far. And for the first time i decided to provide detailed instruction for this MOC. What are the functions of the ZlL E134 Truck: First of all, i used 2x SBricks and 2x 88000 Battery Packs. 2 XL Motos for propulsion 2 L Motors for steering 1 M Motor for gear change (2 speed transmission) 1 LED on the roof (there is a lot of space to use more LED) a working 12 Zylinder Fake Engine behind the cabin. 2965 Parts , about 3,4 Kg. There is still room for improvements. Under the hood is enough space to put in what ever you want. The whole Bodywork can be removed very easy. (modular design) But as always, a short video can show you the Model in action. Instruction: https://rebrickable....nkmad-max-desig Thanks to Madoka for the inspiration with his Tatra 813 Truck. Great work as always.
