Splat

Wow, thank you so much I guess that it is acceptance speech time: A huge thanks to Sinner and the Technic Meisters, and everyone that entered and voted. I'll admit that I was following the public votes quote closely once I saw that my entry had a real chance, and it looked like the lead changed about 15 times throughout the voting period. I guess that I was just luck enough to be ahead when the voting closed. Congrats to everyone that participated, there were some really great MOCs submitted. I think this contest did a great job of filling the void between the 1H 2012 and 2H 2012 releases, where things usually quieten down a bit. It'd be great to see more Technic contests in the future to help bring out the creativity and ingenuity in all of us. As a final thank you, I have been recreating my Water Strider in MLCad and once I fix up a few last issues I will look at getting it uploaded to Rebrickable. Thanks again everyone Edit: I forgot to mention: thanks also to CopMike for providing the prizes for the runners up.

Nice find Paul. I hadn't seen those pics before, but I'm not sure that they are all 8070 prototypes - it looks like there are a few older sets in the mix too. Apart from the obvious 853 Car Chassis, there is also the 8448 Super Street Sensation, the 8145 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano 1:10, and the 8653 Enzo Ferrari 1:10, and perhaps others. Perhaps at this concept/prototype stage they just cut one of these to fit: I've often wished that there was a piece like that, either with an axle or pin.

As someone that only come out of my dark-ages a few years ago, I am actually thankful that there have only been a few colours used. It means that I have been able to build up a collection of pieces that can be used to make MOCs with a decent colour scheme, and not a patchwork of different colours. At the moment I can only use red, yellow or black, but at least I know I can get (most) pieces that I need in these colours. I'm sure I'll get tired of using these colours and wish for more colours soon enough though. I just wish that when TLG introduce a new colour (such as blue, orange, green, or white) that they would release all of the major pieces in that colour (panels, beams, angle connectors, flexible axles, etc). That way you could make one of the great MOC supercars in the new colour straight away.

Nice work nico71. It's a very interesting concept, and something that I have been thinking about for a little while now too, but I have a few other models to get out of the way before I start on mine. I'll be watching your progress to see where you go with this concept.

Thanks Rodeown. There are many great entries in the competition (including yours), so I think the voting will be close... good luck to all.

Thanks Combee, and thanks for the votes

_# 2 ) 3 votes # 12 ) 2 votes # 24 ) 1 vote_ # 38 ) 1 vote_

Oh, okay. No problem. I thought that you might have been locking topics so they don't get changed between now and voting time. Thanks for the clarification. I just didn't want to get disqualified on a technicality (no pun intended)

Hi Sinner/Siegfried, My entry is finalised too. I see you have made it 'Final' in the index, but you haven't locked my topic yet. TSATS: Technic Water Strider Thanks

Thanks efferman @Dino - Thank you very much for your kind words

@flyz - That's a nice collection of Technic cars you have there. Out of those, I think the Vampire GT looks the best

Thanks DLuders. I have included that video in my opening post too. That is exactly correct. They look white on the video, but they are actually LBG. There is a small hole at the top, but you can seal the hole with a 1x1 round plate, or anything with a single stud. There is no bottom, but they act similar to a diving bell where they trap a bubble of air to provide floatation. I have updated my opening post with more details.

@everyone - Thanks again for your kind comments @grohl - I have admired your work for a long time, especially your organic models (I love your prey mantis), so your comment really means a lot to me. Entry update: I took my Water Strider out today and took some photos and a video of it 'walking on water'. I have updated my opening post accordingly. I have also updated the video that I had, so be sure to watch the second half of the video (the 1st half is the same, in the 2nd half you can see it 'walk on water'). Once again, thank you all for your kind comments, and I wish everyone 'good luck' in the contest. @Siegfried (aka Sinner) - Firstly, thank you for organising this contest. I have updated my opening post to only show seven images and one video. I thought that is was important to keep the source photo of a real water strider for reference, so I have kept that in my post, but it is included as one of the seven images. If there is anything else I need to do to fix up my entry please let me know, otherwise consider my entry finalised (and the photo that you have used in the index is perfect).

What about using a worm gear? A worm gear could drive the 24 tooth part of the differential, but there is a large gear reduction (24:1), and if used for long periods of time the worm gears can produce 'dust'.

@everyone - Thank you for your kind comments Yes, it sure does. I tried to mimic the movements that I saw in the YouTube video of the real water strider. It's not too elegant on land, but it would be better on water (but I don't want to get my M-Motor wet). Thanks Tomik. I have created a quick video that shows how this Lego Technic Water Strider 'walks' (please see the video I added to my opening post).

This months promotion at Lego S@H is a free reusable Lego Tote Bag if you spend over $99. This bag actually doesn't look too bad, and it folds up into a nice little '2x2 plate' package. I'm still hoping that they have another 'May the Forth' promotion next month with free shipping to Australia like they did last year - free shipping makes buying from Pick A Brick a lot better value. Fingers crossed.

Amazon.it seem to have a few items on sale at the moment. http://www.brickset.com/buy/IT/amazon/ (Disclosure: links on that page are affiliate links - to avoid these affiliate links, go to Amazon.it and search from there.) For example: 10212 Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Australian RRP = AU$449.99 Amazon.it price = EUR 197,59 (AU$253.27) After tax removed = EUR 163,30 (AU$209.32) Shipping = EUR 44,73 (AU$ 57.33) Total = EUR 208,03 (AU$266.65) Saving vs AU RRP = AU$183.34 (40.7% off AU RRP)

Here is my entry for the 'To sail the Technic sea' contest: a Technic Water Strider (or 'gerridae'). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GerridaeYou can see some more information about water striders and the way that they move on water in this YouTube video : I originally wanted to use a Windup Motor but it didn't have enough power or enough turns when wound up (it has about 8 turns). I ended up using an M-Motor for propulsion, but the battery box is external and uses a tether to control the water strider. There is no steering in this model. The mechanism that moves the middle and rear legs uses a modified version of Sariel's Octopod mechanism. The middle legs move in an elliptical motion, and have rubber tips to give them grip and help my water strider move forward when it is 'on land'. When my water strider is in the water, the rubber tips are replaced with 6x6 radar dishes that act as paddles or oars. To get my water strider to float in water I used the hemispheres from the Death Star Planet set. The hole in the top can be blocked using a 1x1 round plate, and this provided enough floatation to stop my water strider from sinking when it isn't moving. Unfortunately when my water strider is moving, or when the water is a bit choppy, the hemispheres on the rear legs flood and sink, so I had to use some ping pong balls for a little bit more floatation. This was a last minute solution to my problem, and I hope it is ok. I would have used the balls from the Mindstorms sets if I had any of them. Here is a quick video of my Water Strider in action: I took the video of the water strider in the fountain at the back of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia (StreetView link). The fishing line in the video is just so my water strider didn't float away out of reach . Here are a few more images of my water strider: These photos and more can be seen in higher resolution in my BrickShelf folder (once they have been moderated/approved). I have also created building instructions for this model if you would like to build a copy.

This is great, very nice work. I really like the way that you have incorporated the Unimog ball joints, and that it can walk as well as roll.

It looks like Big W Online has some of the new Technic sets available too. I'm not sure about in-store, but I assume that if Target has them available in-store, Big W will too, or it will soon. The price of the Technic Tow-Truck is cheaper at Big W than at Target ($88 vs $99 as reported by lightningtiger), but not as cheap as Target with a 25% off sale. 9395 Lego Technic Pick-up Tow Truck - $88.00 9394 Lego Technic Jet Plane - $58.84 9392 Lego Technic Quad Bike - $34.48 9397 Lego Technic Log Truck - 168.00 (Out of Stock) Big W Online also has free delivery on these items, ending March 28. http://www.bigw.com.au/toys/construction/lego/technic/t/ Edit: I should also mention that none of these are available on the Lego Australia S@H site yet either.

If you don't have any luck getting a high quality PDF then you could buy a copy of the instructions off Bricklink : http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=77790

(minifigs not included) They can be bought in Australia from NoteMaker (www.notemaker.com.au/collections/moleskine-lego) and possibly other retailers too. 9x14cm, 192 pages, ruled or plain versions = AU$29.95 13x21cm, 240 pages, ruled or plain versions = AU$39.95 NoteMaker shipping is AU$6.50 within Australia, of free for orders over AU$65. To me it still seems a bit much for a notebook... ...especially when I could be spending that money on more Lego

I have filled in the survey, and have summarised some of my suggestions below: I think it would be good if it has it's own power (batteries) and is the same size as the existing AA PF Battery Box so that they could be interchanged easily. It would be a good way to convert existing models to bluetooth controlled models. With 3 proportional controls and 5 on/off controls, it will be interesting to see where all of the PF connectors will be located - 8 connectors will take up quite a bit of room. I'm also wondering about how much power can be delivered given that the existing PF battery box is only designed to power 2 x XL or 4 x M motors at the same time (see Q2 on this page). From a software point-of-view, there are a few things that could be very helpful: Having a slider control so that when the slider is at 0%, the 'Core' controls a motor that sets a linear actuator to be fully contracted (either full size or mini LA). When it is set to 50%, the linear actuator is 1/2 extended, and at 100% the linear actuator is fully extended. Have pre-sets so that certain combinations of motors can be turned on/off at the same time. eg. with a tank where each track is controlled by a separate motor, have a pre-set to 'drive forward' which turns on both left and right motors at the same time. This is a simple example, but could be useful in more complex mechanisms too, such as GBCs. Have macros (including pauses) so that routines can be performed. (And have a more complex programming interface for us AFOLs/programmers). Be able to set the macros/routines to loop - this would be good for repeating demonstrations at expos, or GBCs, etc). Can't most of the above be achieved with Mindstorms, bluetooth, and a mobile phone already?

Thanks timr The gearbox isn't that complex or intricate, and I think it is a fairly elegant solution. The bulk of it is mainly due to the frame around it, but in a proper MOC this frame would become part of the chassis of the vehicle. Looking back at the video, I can see that it might be a bit difficult to understand what is happening in the gearbox, so I have created a series of CAD images that show what the gears are doing at each gear position. Basically, the Linear Actuator is just moving the central dark bluish grey 16T clutch gear back and forward along the central axle, and in doing so different gears are engaged. (click to enlarge) In the pictures above you can see that the gears that are engaged always go in a straight line through the central 16T clutch gear. It takes a lot of force to get these gears out of line, so there is little chance of the gears jumping at all. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears all have an even number of gear steps, which means that the output always rotates in the same direction when any of these gears are used. The secondary driveshaft currently rotates in the opposite direction. In my initial tests (and shown in the video at 2:17), if I stop the output axle from turning it stalls the motor rather than letting the gears jump, grind, or bind. The video shows me using M-motors, but I suspect that if I used an XL-motor the universal joints would come apart before the gears give way. I'm not sure exactly how much force the gearbox can handle before something 'bad' happens though. Let me know if anyone is interested in instructions for this gearbox. Edit: Nobody here on EB seems to want instructions, but a comment on my YouTube page asked for them so I have created a few quick steps which can be seen in my Brickshelf folder, as well as an LDraw file.

Sorry to bump and old topic, and to double post, but I have some more developments on my gearbox design that I thought that I would share with you all. Rather than create a new topic, I thought that I would reply to this one. Over the last 6 months or so, in between other projects, I have been trying to design a gearbox that has 3 speeds plus a 4th gear that sends output to a secondary drive-shaft to control another piece of equipment, such as a winch or crane. I designed many different gearboxes that failed for one reason or another, some of which are shown here: The main problems with these gearboxes are: some used long axles, and long axles can flex if not supported properly, some used square edge gears that don't like to mesh nicely with other square edge gears (8T, 16T, 24T), and some used a sliding axle to change gear, which means you need twice as much space in your MOC to allow the axle to slide back and forward. As a result, they were big, hard to control, and the gears would jump, grind, and/or bind too easily. Another failed attempt, using a worm gear to change gears: It works, but it can't handle much resistance before the gears jump. I also tried to come up with some other methods of controlling a gearbox, which can be seen in these two YouTube videos: Unfortunately these methods take up a lot of room, and while they are great proof-of-concepts, they aren't too practical in real-life. After much trial and error, I have finally designed a gearbox that I am happy with: (In the following photos, notice the position of the Dark Bluish Grey 16T Clutch Gear in the middle - click for larger images) Secondary Drive-shaft = 1.66 : 1 Neutral 1st Gear = 2.77 : 1 2nd Gear = 1.66 : 1 3rd Gear = 1.00 : 1 It fulfills all of the criteria that I set out in my first post above, and also includes a neutral gear too. For each gear position, it is always a bevel gear meshing with a square tooth gear (no square on square combinations) so the gears mesh really smoothly. There is also a little bit of space between each gear to prevent the gears from binding. On my YouTube page I posted the following description: A design for a Lego Technic gearbox that has 3 speeds plus neutral, and a secondary drive-shaft (red). The secondary drive-shaft can be used to control another piece of equipment such as a winch or crane. The gear changes are smooth, and the teeth don't jump, grind, or bind at all. As the motion of the gear change is linear and sequential, it can easily be controlled using a Linear Actuator and a M-Motor (as shown in the video), or remote controlled using the Lego Power Functions system. The gear ratios are: Secondary Drive-shaft = 1.66 : 1 1st Gear = 2.77 : 1 2nd Gear = 1.66 : 1 3rd Gear = 1.00 : 1 Different gear ratios can easily be achieved by changing where the drive motor is attached. The gearbox mechanism can be built into a chassis of a vehicle quite easily. The linear actuator takes up a lot of space, but if you remove the Secondary Drive-shaft and the Neutral positions, then the gearbox can be controlled using the smaller Mini Linear Actuator. More images are available on Brickshelf : http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/slfroden/Ideas/Gearbox-3-1/SmoothLinearGearbox/ Please let me know what you think, or if any further improvements can be made.