locoworks

it will be getting quite hot because the design looks to require a lot of current ?? the actual gear ratio between the motor spindle and the axles looks quite tall, the worms on the motor shaft have quite a coarse pitch, looking at the worm it appears to be a triple start thread? add to this the worm wheel ( gear on the axle ) is very small in diameter, so the actual gear ratio is likely to in 2 -1 or 3 -1 reduction ratio, very tall for that type of gear train. i think finding a double ended motor wound to give high torque and low revs will be a tough challenge. replacing the motor with a generic double ended can or open frame motor may be possible, but it won't help the gearing issue. as most motors used in 'normal' model railway loco's use gear ratios around the 30 -1 area you still end up with a loco that will travel twice the speed of a lego one so the motor is doing a lot of spinning and probably won't be suitable for the lego power unit. it may be possible to do a complete internal redesign with a gear reduction in there somewhere to allow a different motor to be used, but that is way beyond my abillity.

it isn't the first non/car truck set to use CV joints, it might be in recent years? but 35?? years ago i had a yellow tower crane set that had them in, similar type as the 7905 set. there were a few other sets that had them in too but probably cars, there were 2 in the 8710 parts set which came out 1980 ish

i don't agree, i loved the cybermaster, i still have it somewhere. i liked the weird fold up boxes that were used with the model like a low level telehandler. driving a tracked vehicle to collect and drop off the big boxes using a PC was absolutely ACE. there was a bit of a delay, but i really liked it. the thrustmaster joystick controller was instinctive for driving the vehicle. i got the mindstorms set with the yellow brick and didn't like that much at all, and the white brick with R2D2 was also not to my liking. if i wasn't collecting all the starwars stuff of that size i wouldn't have wanted it. i am dissapointed they didn't do similar sized starwars figures with the newer characters. a jango fett to stand with boba would be nice.

lego made a 90 degree crossing for the 9V track system so i expect if you could find some on ebay or elsewhere they should fit to the current PF track? they would just have metal rail tops.

blocked for me too? i'm in the isle of man which may be considered as UK by people that don't know better.

what are the people?? they dont look lego, more like megablocks???

totally awesome dude :thumbup:

yes, just because an engine can't lift a certain weight vertically, doesn't mean it doesn't have enough power to make the same weight fly with a wing. not many civvy propellor planes have the power to go vertical and keep going up. another thing with heli's, if they are a little overloaded weight wise and they can't manage a vertical take off, but they can get the heli 'light', they can skid along the ground and gain forward momentum until enough forward speed is achieved to generate transitional lift. this effectively is an increase in airspeed over the leading rotor blade giving more lift. sort of like a fixed wing aircraft having to get the wing travelling fast enough to fly. and they can then get airbourne but can't hover. there are many stories of overloaded hueys doing this in vietnam to get soldiers out of harms way.

if you want studless? collect playmobil instead of LEGO.

lego started out making wooden toys so maybe they already made a plane that can fly???

are you expecting the model to actually fly? you don't need a seperate output for the nose wheel, it can use the same output as the rudder. rc planes use the same channel.

if you can lengthen the mainshaft the pendulum effect will help stabalise it.

you need to control the speed of each rotor individually to turn the aircraft, by increasing the rotation of one rotor and decreasing the other you keep the same lift but have more torque from one motor anf the aircraft rotates around its main shaft. if you used one motor only the drive train would have to be spot on so that no torqu effect was taking place and this would probably only be the case at a specific RPM. you would also need a small tail rotor to compensate i would imagine so if you have a tail rotor you might aswell have only one main rotor to power. the big issue i imagine would be that the RPM's and loads involved to create lift would likely cause too much friction between rotating shafts and journals that plastic parts under heavy load may melt??

use as few wheels as possible in the rules, every axle means more resistance. no coupling rods would also help, in fact, the less moving parts the better. i have 5 inch gauge electric loco's and two with with the same 4 motors. one is a twin axle 040, and the other a 4 axle bo bo. the 040 is one mile an hour faster than the bo bo, 12 instead of 11. there is a weight difference working against the bo bo but the extra axles are the real drain.

if you intend to twin motor anything it may cause some issues in corners if the two motors aren't on the same line. the outer curved rail bogie section will need to travel faster than the inner bogie section. i would assume both motors would share the same controller and receiver so they would want to travel at a very similar speed and would sort of fight each other, you'd probably hear the motors straining a bit. two motors on the same side and therefore same line wouldn't be an issue though.

these type of bikes will need heavy wheels or a flywheel somewhere to produce enough gyroscopic force to keep it upright at the speeds it is likely to reach

i think it can be veiwed as just a wide bogie rather than two bogies strapped together. all that is needed is to loose both sets of couplings/buffers and have one set mounted centrally between what seem to be the two bogies. i'm not sure the red highlighted pivots are needed as i can see the outer bogies travelling at a different rate to the inner ones and it jamming in the corners.

in WW 2 there were very heavy railway mounted guns that ran on both lines at the same time i think? google Schwerer Gustav

i had the lego 311 ferry set back in the 70's and there was a sort of torpedo that fitted underneath as ballast. if the link isn't allowed would someone please delete it without banning me??

telling you can motorise it and actually showing you how with instructions are 2 different things JopieK, upon reflection though i do now expect instructions on how to motorise it to be included. as to cost though i think it will cost a lot more than a current set with track and power functions to end up with a powered model with track to run it on. it would be nice if lego produced a 'train motorising' kit with everything in one little box to motorise a train. i guess we all have enough track?? especially curves.

the price seems a bit steep when you can get a train set with track and power functions for not that much more?? that said, i need a set. does it come with instructions for motorising???

the teeth are not wider, they are just the same as the rest with the top pointy bit removed, you notice that there is a second step down in the diff on the left. the one on the right does not have the second deeper step moulded in. as Paul.P says the one on the right allows for full depth gear engagement. it may be that the one on the left can 'jump' out of mesh if too much load is applied??

i would expect the plastic to melt once proper load is put on the conrads at high revs, lubricating will then be a consideration for long runs.

8865 is the only one of the 5 i haven't got. just a bit pre my collecting times from years back.

rechargeable batteries have a lower voltage than dry cells. nicads typically 1.2 volts, nimh slightly less. you could just put nicads instead of dry cells in the battery box but fully charged you would be just over 7 volts instead of 9. your 8 cell pack idea i assume is to get full voltage in the box, but it could be enough power with 6 cells to be useable though not with the same oomph?. if there are no resisters or anything in the box you should be able to recharge the box by converting a lego block to plug onto the outlet. i'd unplug everything from the battery box before i recharged it though because the dirty charge current may upset any electronics wired to it. alternatively if you want 8 cells and cant get AA's to fit you could use AAA's and have shorter run times, or even forget the battery box altogether if the superstructure can withstand its loss and just replace it with an 8 cell pack??