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@aeh5040 thanks! Neither did I until recently - thank you YouTube recommendations!

Thank you, I appreciate it.

I have a long list of ideas, not so much plans :) When the axles drop down, they land in grooves created by six of these joined together. It is a reliable setup - not once have I seen them not end up aligned properly. These renderings should explain it (the 'groove assembly' is kept at the right height by having it held up against three 6L axles from underneath. The 12L axles that hold it up are under slight tension and so act kind of like a leaf spring) Of course, the chain has to be at the exact right height as well. It turns out that this can be achieved by having it rest on the underside of a plate attached to an upside-down Technic brick. This is the reason that the entire main frame of the build is upside-down. This is also part of the reason why the build is studded (along with the need for a strong/stiff frame). Also in the first render, part of the pusher mechanism can be seen (although it's not aligned in the in-out axis in the render - the 'pushers' would actually be further 'in' in this position). This was the most difficult part of the build - it has to push the pins in just the right distance and with a lot of force. So, the turntables are actually mounted 'off-grid', slightly more 'in' towards the chain, to allow for any bending of the frame and to ensure the pins are pushed all of the way in. 60-tooth turntables are a great way to increase the torque from the drivetrain (60 times), and this was a nice learning experience for me (I started with smaller worm drives and the build just got torn apart). Good idea with the colours, I might have to try that. Did you see my flickr album? That has a few more pictures. It's hard to show the internal mechanisms in photos - a CAD model would be better. I might get around to making one, maybe not though. Also, if you do try to recreate it, I'll warn you that the liftarms do get jammed sometimes - I never made it reliable enough to run for long times, at a show for example. Haha, that would be great, or for a first step just a big hopper that you could dump all of the parts in, to be fed into their hoppers. I think that anything is possible, it is just a matter of how much time and patience you have .

Thanks @Milan, appreciate it! I'm sorry it couldn't be better contrasting - was slightly limited in terms of colour for this build.

Thanks everyone for the comments. This project took a lot of work and went through many revisions to get to the point where it is. All of the positive feedback makes it all worth while . I will answer everyone's questions shortly, maybe with the help of a CAD model to show more details. @Milan A front page would be great! I see what you mean about the picture, though I'm not sure how best to improve it. Here are some attempts...

This machine will construct a chain out of Technic pieces and is powered by just one motor. Each chain link consists of: One 1x3 liftarm Two 1x3 thin liftarms Two 2L pins The parts are loaded into magazines, from where they are joined together by mechanical means to form a link. Once a chain link is complete, it is dragged along so that the next one can be assembled (to the previous link) and so on. This is the result: Features: Makes one chain link about every 20 seconds (~5.76 meters/hour) Magazine capacity for about 30 chain links (easily expanded) Fully mechanical, with no programming Outputs a functional Lego chain Without further ado, here is the video. Enjoy! flickr album

Wow, that is a really nice robot

@melon thank you :). I haven't made a Studio file - hopefully HRU_Bricks' will suffice. @HRU_Bricks @Berthil I did some small tests and the grooves in GBC balls did indeed cause the vacuum not to work for me. It would be great to see the robot used in a GBC in one way or another!

true true

Akiyuki - "hold my beer": Just kidding, I agree with the point that you were making.

Looks good @HRU_Bricks!

@HRU_Bricks thank you. The beauty of this robot is that each motor's rotation directly correlates to an axis movement. To reach a point in x, y, z the motors must simply rotate to x, y, z (multiplied by some gearing factor). In my case the x, y, z position is input in Lego studs. Sorry, I've already dismantled the model but there is really not much behind the back.

I'm not too familiar with Scratch but do the motor commands in the 'Elevate_move' function run sequentially, i.e. F motor runs then B motor runs? Also, are the relative positions of F and B both zero when the program starts?

Interesting. I hadn't considered that some motors would be under more stress and lag behind. If only there was some way to ensure that they all moved at their desired speeds... It sounds like you've made some progress. Hopefully we get to see a new video!

^ I second that. Very nice work.

Why do you need to calculate the fork position using forward kinematics? Surely the position is already stored somewhere?

I would welcome a bushing without the four indentations - a feature I don't think I've ever used. I think they'd look a little cleaner and it would stop me from getting annoyed when they aren't oriented the same way . Something like this:

Fantastic! I love all of the features you have been able to fit in. Great presentation too, well done.

Sorry but I haven't modelled any of my other MOCs. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the other topic :)

Thank you for the comments. That's right about the 7 bit instructions: I don't have any more pictures but I created a Studio 2.0 file which you can download: LEGO Technic - Mechanical Seven-Segment Tilt Display (v2).io Thanks, love your work!

You're both welcome, I'm glad I could help :). I find these types of robots interesting with some good examples on YouTube. I hope to build some different types in the future (maybe with more axes).

@domleg Thank you! I am reluctant to share the code because it is unrefined and was thrown together just to be good enough for the video. That being said, maybe you can get something out of it, just bear in mind that it could do with some work: @Jonas Sure, hopefully these help: (Flickr album)

I use the Powered Up technic hub as an alternative for Mindstorms and for me, there is not much that Mindstorms can do that Powered Up can't (I'm mostly building random robots and mechanisms). The Powered Up code blocks aren't too dissimilar to Scratch (bundled with Mindstorms 51515) and for more advanced programming, Pybricks can do most of what Mindstorms Python can do (I think).

Nice work - very compact. I look forward to the demonstration video.

@Jonas That's right about the tread link. I think it could be enlarged, I was just restricted by my longest axles being 12M. With 32M axles it could be enlarged significantly I think. @NikosSprocket thanks. It was programmed using Pybricks.