doug72

See:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-48076505

The hardest set for me was the lego 8275 Motorised Bulldozer as a Christmas gift from my family. It was my first ever Technic set build and having no previous experience of building Lego it was a challenge This kick started me to take up a hobby of Technic builds as an AFOL with a short excursion into Lego trains while grand children were younger.

+1 & GBC trains

Something like this but without the ball socket. LEGO Beam Frame with Large Ball Joint (92910) I have used these f(without modification) for making caster steering units with success. A half frame would be very useful.

Blue axle / pin is correct - it for friction resistance - that gear only needs to turn a little bit using the 12T double bevel gear by hand to adjust the grip of the robot arms. I'm not entirely sure how it does that !! Maybe someone else can explain better.

Correction:- My mistake Seems I missed out page 84 steps 1 to 3 and only put the 1 x 10 studded beam before moving onto page 85. I however came up with almost the same solution but additional legs also help keep the input box from drooping especially when moving the module from its storage shelf.

Found you do have to check & double check each stage before moving on. I had to rebuild both robots twice before I was sure they were built correct. Difficult at times to determine exactly how parts connected. Also had to rob older MOCs for some parts to co-ordinate colours etc !!! Even with an engineering background - still hard to figure out how it works !!! Made a small MOD as did not like how the ball input was only attached on one side, plus Added support legs to keep it stable. see image below.

Why not just space the pins on the lift conveyor further apart, which should allow time for top bucket to swing upwards in time OK.

They should have used multiples of this part:- LEGO Support 2 x 2 x 11 Solid Pillar Base (75347)

I was very short of them when first I started building the train GBC modules but have a good stock of them now. Some 1 x 1 bricks with one hole are also useful and are required for the through module. Re new module, auto reverser for the swing arms to build next and install to replace the temporary drive shaft used to test & prove it can handle a full load of 30 balls per trip.

New Train Module WIP. Progress to date. Following the failure of building an alternative to the Akiyuki Crane loader I set out to find another way to lift the ball container on & off the train. Side Swing Loader Module:- I have been quietly working away on this, ensuring at each step that it functions as required before moving on the next stage. Train enters reverser with ball carrier which slides onto the lifting arms which are resting on frame work to prevent movement as train enters. Ball carrier is then lifted off the train & swung up & over to the loading point. Now proven it can lift and transfer 30 balls at a time and land correctly back onto the train. Tested with both M & L motor trains. M motor copes OK but L motor slightly faster. Quarter gears racks are not used - instead the two swing arms are mounted on two synchronised Z56 turntables which driven by worms gears Main problems were getting clearances for cradle for the ball carrier between the swing arms and clearance for counterweight. Drive to these was via double 8T gears meshing with double Z24 clutch gears, but now tested with a single 8T /24T clutch gear combination and works OK. Clutch gear is for over run protection. The train reversers uses 72:1 reduction with a single lobe rotor. Next step is to build the reversing unit for the swing arms and synchronise it with the train releasing and to allow for a short dwell time at loading point. A snap over with bob weight will be used to change the drive direction. The train reverser uses an interrupter gear that allows the drive to reversing rotor to be stopped so that timing can be adjusted without the need to pull gears apart. Final stage is to build the loading hopper. K

That was my entry for the TC8 Crane contest, 3 years ago. No instructions & the images are no longer be available on Flickr.

Good to hear you are making prgress & sorting out problems. Half Stud offset:- Found this to be common with GBC modules, due mixing studded and stud less Technic. Also a problem when building on studded base plates. Re lack of space for GBC train layout. I too suffer from this - had to use our conservatory to set up and test the Rotary / Elevator modules which now consigned to shelving in my Lego Room. Eventually will be set up in my attic once it warms up !! Here’s some images of my Lego Room with my MOCs and GBC train modules on shelves.

Problem solved. The half Z28 turntable for the red robot was 180 degs out of phase with the 24T gear below that has the short crank arm. Now tested and Red robot working at same speed as the Yellow robot.

Catch & Spin GBC. Now purchased the instructions and built this module after sourcing the extra parts required. Had to use colours I had available. Didn’t have any eyes so made them from 1L round white plates with the stud part blacked using a marker pen. Robots are slightly out of phase with each other. (to be corrected). The yellow robot is working OK Tested and module working but have an issue with the Red robot that is noticeably slower and performs an additional opening & closing of the hands before reaching the position when the roller drops down. Hands then re-open & to pick up ball OK - then robot rotates to open and drop ball down discharge chute. Robot sometimes fails to rotate and drop into the loading position All gears checked and freely turning. Correct friction free pins used. Anyone got ideas how to fix this ? See video.

Re Elevator dropping problems:- See page 9, 27/8/2018 & discussion that followed - resulting in the various mods etc. @Berthil version uses counterweight system without the worm gear. @dunes instruction are for the worm drive version. @MajklSpajkl added the counterweight system. Re Cruising: not something I would enjoy after 35 years at sea. The last vessel I sailed on was a 350,000 DWT tanker with a single 6 cylinder engine developing 6000 hp per cylinder at 15 knots.

The original version by Akiyuki is hard to adjust & has a tendency allowing the elevator to suddenly drop !! - due to complex system of trips, latch and rubber bands. Worm drive prevents the sudden drops but is slower than the geared version - which is why the counterweight solution was made to help obtain full speed required for the 1 ball per second GBC rule for events.

You should be able to follow the Akiyuki instructions up to page 35 for the main structure. The thin 7 x 0.5 beam (yellow) is not required on page 6 The 7L beam (yellow) / 3 x 3 tee beam with roller & axle etc are not required on page 18 if using the worm drive version. The main modifications are on the elevating platform, with original trips and catches replaced by two simple chocks. The counterweight system was an additional mod. Note there are two versions of the elevator:- 1/. With worm drive. 2/. Without worm drive.

Good to hear you are making progress and awaiting parts to continue. I have been designing a new train module to lift ball carrier on & off the train. Structure & geometry sorted - just the the drive & timing to devise. Work is currently on hold as I am building the Akiyuki Catch & Spin GBC module now that I have finally got all the parts required.

Make sure you have not got the small black pole change over switch accidentally in the middle position. I have been caught out with this issue before.

PF RX 8884 also out of stock.

There is a RED 8T gear that freely slides along an axle.

Thanks for your comments - yes it became quite a frustrating build and was becoming much too big and consumed lots of parts. it was a useful leaning process. I am currently exploring other ways to lift the ball carrier off the train unit, transfer it it to the loading point and lift back on the train again.

I had problems on a GBC module I built with balls bouncing out of cups, I used a short swinging arm to slow the balls down a bit. Made using a no. 1 connector with a 3L axle hanging on a friction free pin.