imajor

This is very interesting, grats!

You can check this too: Pictures: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=395957 I tried it, and it works great.

I removed the original mechanism which controlled the lock, and added a motor which simply rotates that thing to lock the platform. The motor is not directly attached to that axis, two 8t gears are connecting them. The motor was too strong, so I added a double friction pin to make it weaker, like in 8043. You can see that here

Hi all, This is an experiment I wanted to do for a long time. Nothing special on the receiver side, a single motor does the steering, no return to center. On the remote control side, there is an NXT brick, and two motors. One of them are used as an input for the brick, that is the wheel I can operate. The NXT brick detects rotation done to the steering wheel, and turns on/off the steering motor in the vehicle using the other motor. The more I rotate the wheel, the longer the steering motor is turned on. I also improved the program to take into account the backlash of the vehicle, so if you turn right, then left, it keeps the motor on for a longer time period, to get rid of the backlash. Since this is only affecting the remote controller, I thought that maybe Lego will build in something similar to the remote controller of the upcoming rock-crawler. Unfortunately I couldn't test it in action yet, because the steering I made for the 8110 is not good enough, if I let the wheels touch the floor, the M motor is not able to steer the wheels properly.

I'm on the other side then. I really love the playability of 8043, mainly due to the remote control.

I doubt that the helicopter will be motorized. Either the text "batteries are not included" was put on the box by mistake, or the orange area on the right with the "power functions" text is missing by mistake. I bet is it the former.

Thanks Here are a few photos, I hope these will help. Let me know if you are interested in anything else. https://picasaweb.google.com/104297709179363723086/Lego?authkey=Gv1sRgCOL1q8ak8d7nkAE#

To be honest, I'm really disappointed with the off-roader. The list of functions seems to be like zero, if you compare them to the functions in previous flagships. I was hoping for something like remote controlled sequential transmission, or remote controlled switching of diffs on/off. Steering+propulsion is not enough, not even for a middle set. But I should look the bright side, it will be easier to improve the model :)

I managed to motorize the switch function too. Propulsion is 6x4 with two diffs.

What is the problem with the current motors?

It don't have to be as good as the trucks used on the TT competitions. I think most clients don't even know about these competitions,

That is the minimum. It can be extended with other functions.

It is possible that they will use a new controller type, where one function is controlled by a wheel instead of a level. The controller could only give signal to the receiver, when the wheel rotation changes. I hope there will be other remote controlled functions than steering and moving forward/backward. For example remote controlled transmission, or remote controlled dif locks.

You must be joking. I read somewhere (can't find it now) that Mindstorms is one of the most successful sets of lego. Also, as far as I know Anders Christensen Gaasedal (the designer behind 8043) left the technic group to join the designer group of mindstorms. So I hope they are preparing something exciting on the mindstorms line now.

I think this kind of complexicity cannot be achieved by the factory default way for programming, I guess they are used some special programming language. The NXT block can be used for a lot of advanced task, some of them (these are old videos, you probably already seen them):

How are you adding new sets to the database? If this is a manual process, is there a way we could help you? I would be happy to make the part list for the sets I own and your database lacks. Are you doing this only for fun, or is there a way this can earn you money? It seems you invested a lot of time in this. I really like it, thanks a lot!

I'm not sure how the rating is calculated, but I think it is not only the average of the ratings gave by the reviewers. Sometimes you can see a set with a single review, and with a rating number different than the rating which was suggested by the reviewer. Either it is possible to vote for a rating without writing a review, or not all of the reviews are visible for a set. Some sets have 0 reviews, but still got a rating. Sorry for offtopic.

Look at brickset ratings: 8265 - 4.6 8258 - 4.7 8043 - 4.6 8110 - 4.2 You shouldn't think everyone feels the same as you.

I used this for a while, and rubber does make turning harder. So I'm not using it on the carpet for example.

I think 8043 is not realistic in technical sense (otherwise it would be pneumatic), it is only realistic in terms of the look. Other than that, I can highly recommend it. My personal opinion is that 8043 is more complex technically, but it might be because I got 8043 first, and only after that I purchased 8258. I like 8043 much more, however 8258 is also a wonderful set. You should get both :)

This worked for me nicely.

Did anyone notice that the second book of the building instruction is not available at the official site? Maybe they are changing something in it?

Here are some photos without the panels on the sides, hope this helps: Yes, the third function which was used to tilt the bucket, opens/closes the claw.

Thanks guys. Here are a few photos:

Hi all, I have the 8043 excavator for a while now, and I love it. I think the playability is great, but it was hard for me to find a good material which is not heavy, and leaves no dust (especially when I want to play with it inside the house on the carpet). So I was trying to replace the bucket at the end of the arm with a claw. I leaved the rest of the model untouched. I know it is a trivial mod, and not realistic, but I didn't see similar online yet, so I uploaded a short video. Imre