andythenorth

It was accidental, but my design has some similarities with the white RC passenger train: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=7897-1 Trans-clear roof segment is this: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=43556&colorID=13 They're not cheap, but not painfully expensive either.

"Here's one I made earlier" - poor photos sorry

Awesome. Would buy this with no hesitation if it was a TLG set. I prefer mid-sized intricate sets (like 8109) to the bigger sets - more fun to build (less boring repetitive placing of pins) - lower price point - intricate mechanical functions - more fun to play with

They've also said the same about the 420008 Service Truck, which isn't true either. This kind of factual mistake in TLG written material is pretty common. I find it strange. TLG have very high quality and customer service standards, very high design standards, and an outstanding reputation as an educational toy. Yet there is frequent poor attention to detail in product descriptions. I don't mean little semantic differences over technical terms or country-specific names of machinery etc - this is stuff some people care about intensely, but just isn't that important. However some of the mistakes in product descriptions are borderline lies, or at best misleading and very likely to cause disappointment to builders - whether children or adults. I don't know if these violate trade description legislation, but some people in some countries might think so. Spelling and grammar mistakes in written materials are also easy to find, and similarly don't fit with TLG's overall identity (although I accept English isn't a first language for most TLG designers, and I'd rather have designer blogs which are less-than-perfect than no designer blogs because copy-editing is too expensive). Maybe I'm just being really boring about this, and it's off-topic anyway, but there's my 2p cheers, Andy

Nice tip thanks. I wouldn't have considered mounting the winch drum vertically, neat idea. Doesn't have free-spool (far as I can tell), but ticks all the other boxes. Wonder how much line-pull torque the clutch gear can handle? My goal is about 1kg of truck on a 45' slope. Might need to move the clutch gear to before the worm?

Anyone got a clever design for a compact winch, using PF M-Motor? Wish-list features: - free-spooling option (for fast unreeling of winch line), probably via driving ring - worm drive - clutch gear before worm - self-contained module on 5x11 open frame http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=64178 I can come up with something but it might not be the most efficient design

As Saberwing said - portal axles - reduce the torque through the diff. Or design the truck so it's easy to drop out the diffs and replace the gears.

Nice stuff

For me, the mog is too big. I found it an interesting technical build, but not so big on playability. This year's crane looks good, but I don't have it yet The 8285 tow truck was a nice size imo, with good playability. A high piece-count set of something like a trailer-truck might be neat. This MOC was on the wrong side of 'too big'. Too heavy, stresses parts, poor playability, and took way too long to build http://www.brickshel...y.cgi?i=3054193 (those are power-puller wheels, it's >1m long).

Neat engine.

Neat - and very compact. Building instructions?

The second mail is just a copy and paste response, probably from a system for customer service workflow. An agent has probably tagged it as 'future product enquiry' or something like that, then you get a standard response from the system.

The lift capacity is awesome

It's v1. I can lay my hands on a v2 though. Will try it.

Thanks Ape Fight, that's useful info. Nice truck too.

Too fast? Use the proportional speed controller (train remote) The photo of the small turntable between steering axles showed me how to solve a similar problem I have. Thanks.

Thanks for the info. The truck is now more complete, I have 3x PF motors on one channel, single battery box. This should exceed the max current for the battery box? So far that hasn't happened. Tests include: - brief stall (few seconds) from driving the truck against a wall - climbing up a 2 inch vertical obstacle - towing a 3 year old on a scooter Batteries are 6 x 1.2v AA NiMh rechargeables, full charge. If I = V / R, and max voltage is 7.2v, and R is assumed fixed...that limits max current?

Double deck passenger coach http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1290922 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=3836 Depressed center flat car for maintenance of way equipment or heavy loads (similar to the red cargo train): https://www.exactrai...flat-car-01.jpg http://www.flickr.com/photos/andythenorth/sets/72157624815865731/with/4983539596/

(Off-topic)....to make a range about the same as Mining, could feature: - Sawmill with small log truck and forklift - Log tug with a small dock and log crane - Log harvester and large log truck - Logging crummy (pickup truck) Each set would also feature chainsaw, couple of logs and 1-2 trees. Similar to mining having dynamite, jewels, rocks.

Thanks for your blog post, I've been thinking about controlling LEDs in Technic vehicles using Arduino boards, and this gives me some helpful info. I'm hoping I can slave the Arduino to the IR signal from Power Functions remote, then use it for turn signals, reverse lights etc in a remote control truck.

Pictures attached, it's a 1 stud offset that works perfectly. They are inline, not orthogonal btw Thanks, that will do nicely Rear axles have locking diffs, gen 2 diff is easiest way to do that. Front axles are steering, the gen 3 diff is the only one that fits in a strong structure with a sane build time.EDIT, added pictures. This is the rear axle unit, it's for a 4 axle truck, twin-steer front axles, dual drive non-steering at the rear. I'm building for towing performance and capacity to climb small obstacles. The whole rear unit is centre-pivoted as a walking beam. It doesn't need to oscillate in more than one plane; with the diff locks in there is always at least one wheel with traction, it works pretty well. However the truck is currently 8x4, and the unpowered front tyres won't climb any obstacle higher than the axle line, the tyres just dig in. The rear drive is strong enough that it will then try and push the front axles off the truck. Converting to 8x8 is the obvious solution, and more power is good eh? Untitled by andythenorth, on Flickr Untitled by andythenorth, on Flickr Untitled by andythenorth, on Flickr Untitled by andythenorth, on Flickr The rear unit is insanely strong for a such simple construction, and it's easily taken apart and fixed if a gear or axle breaks (which happens). Diff locks are pneumatic, inspired by Sariel The whole thing is a v2 of this http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=307640 previous version had gearbox with 2 speeds, M-motor driven diff locks and 1 PF XL motor for drive. It was way overcomplicated, a bit gutless, and broke a lot of parts. Construction was over-engineered, and replacing broken parts was a nightmare. Pretty pleased with v2

Astound me with simple maths I have following case: Rear wheels PF XL motor 20t double bevel drive 12t double bevel idler 24t driven on 2nd gen differential (all in same plane on a 1x5 L liftarm, keeping them together, but eh, details). Front wheels PF XL motor ??? drive / idler / driven gear(s) driven axle 20t double bevel drive 28t driven 3rd gen differential (bevel and diff are orthogonal in 5x7 rect frame) So to get approximately same rotational speed out, what gear combination do I want between the motor and the axle driving the 20t/28t diff pair? For extra fun, what if I substitute an M or L motor for the XL on the front wheels only?

The servo-switch solution is nice, but I want to use the proportional speed remote. Maybe a PF rotary proportional switch is needed? :) This truck will have two battery boxes anyway, so that suggestion could work. From experience with PF trains, I wonder if the two receivers will get out of sync easily?

Anyone run 3 or 4 XL motors on a single channel of a PF receiver in a trial truck or similar? Lego don't advise it (http://powerfunction...aq/default.aspx), and I thought I'd read somewhere that the PF receiver current protection will trip with more than 2 XL motors, but can't find that with google. I'm not concerned about damaging the parts, but I don't want to build a toy where the PF will cut out a lot due to current protection kicking in I have tried 4 XL on one channel, and they run fine, if a bit slowly. 3 is slower than 2 and, 4 is slower again, the battery box can't keep up. So performance might be an issue too. I also tried stalling 2 of the 4 motors (using finger as a brake, errr don't try that at home, blisters). That does trip the receiver if I do it long enough. Dunno if the truck I'm building will stall motors long enough for this to be a problem, I think it will break gears rather than stall a motor. Main problem could be battery life / power? I am wondering if more power can be patched in to the power rails on the PF wire?

My kids won't care about modelling a realistic airport, they'll just play happilly with the big plane that can fit stuff in. YMMV.