aeh5040

Hard to see how the steering changes the direction of the propellers. Moving the black 11L liftarm side to side would do it, but how is that controlled?

No, I mean I'm not sure why it seems to have provoked so much complaining. If I meant "we should not say anything against any model/design shared here in this website" I would have said that. I'm not sure if there is a way to make it any clearer! :)

That's an extremely neat and interesting idea! (I'm not sure why it seems to have provoked so much complaining). The form factor looks very convenient for vehicles too.

Well done to everyone who figured it all out. I guess TLG don't really need to release it now

A pity not to have gearing up from the wheels to the prop. But I don't see where it could fit in.

Hard to understand how the steering can work (if that's what it is).

The new clutch seems to have an awfully high slipping torque. If it was slipping regularly I would be concerned about twisting axles, etc.

Some very interesting ideas here. The concept has a fair bit in common with a mechanical joystick remote, of which there are several designs out there, e.g. https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=301922

It's very odd - I've never seen anything like this. Is it possible they were exposed to some solvent? Floor cleaner or something?

My impression is that "technic" spans quite a range of interests. There are people (like me) who are primarily motivated by interest in mechanisms, physics, and abstract kinetic art, and there are those who are mainly into realistic models of vehicles, with a lot of emphasis on aesthetics (and of course there are many people somewhere in between, and other variants). Model team is a long way from the first category, but quite closely aligned with the second. While I don't have close personal interest in the realism focussed stuff, I can still appreciate it, and I don't object at all to seeing it.

I've made instructions for this. Instructions for the base unit: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-54355/aeh5040/the-pangolin/ Video instructions for interfacing with the glockenspiel and setup: Original presentation video and explanation:

There have been some prior discussions of similar issues:

That's an AMAZING piece of work, well done! Even using arbitrary parts it would be impressive, but doing it from one set is astonishsing. I might try to make the fan a little faster. It's kind of a pity that the marvellous reversing mechanism for the steering is not more obvious to the casual observer. If it were motorized it would be perhaps be clearer, but that might not be practical. I encourage you to make instructions. I'm sure lots of people would want to make this, and you might regret not having a record of it later.

I became rather obsessed with this concept about 10 years ago, and came up with several approaches (sorry for low quality videos!):

That's amazing. I still don't really understand how the magic one way mechanism works....

That's extremely interesting and innovative! I too have wondered for a long time how to do such things robustly. What I would really like is a mechanism that achieves something along the lines of: no rotation for 5/6 of the time period, then exactly 2 rotations taking up the remaining 1/6 of the time period, repeated. All with good torque and minimal backlash. (The exact numbers don't matter to me, but I want something roughly like this). Timed shifter mechanisms don't work, because the number of rotations cannot be controlled precisely. Cardan gears can't achieve anywhere near this much or the period with no rotation (I think). Geneva mechanisms or intermittent chain drives in principle do it, but it is very hard to make them strong or precise enough. The feedback mechanism I used in the Pendragon does do this, but it also has problems of torque and robustness and backlash.

Good work. Don't forget the 56t and 60t turntables !

Very ingenious!

I remember this! It was probably the main impetus for the end of my dark age. Thanks for posting.

I suspect someone fairly senior is getting fired over this set.

That's very interesting. It would be good to see the comparison under load too. I do wonder how big a role the choice of bracing plays. E.g. with the 40t gears, some of the axles go though multiple stacked liftarms, which can add a lot of friction.

Nice work, as always! Long ago I made a two-stage oscillator with some similarities: (Honestly I'm not sure if I quite remember how it works!) I expect you could make a better and more robust version...

It seems to me that there is another potential way to fix the gearbox flaw, perhaps better than doubling up the 8t gears. The purpose of the three 8t gears is to power the red 16t clutch gears on one side in the opposite direction. This is a problem, because the changeover switch for the rotors only goes in one direction, and engages with the red gear that is driven through the 8t gears. How about simply re-configuring the rotor switch so that it goes in the opposite direction. That way it will engage with a red gear that is driven directly by other 16t gears, not through the 8t gears. This would need a bit of rearrangement of course (currently there is an extra liftarm where the red gear needs to be. Sorry if this is hard to understand. It's also possible that there is some obstruction to this scheme that I cannot see (I don't have the set).

That's a very interesting technique with the bionicle knob things. Perhaps I am wrong, but I am concerned that they might break off with prolonged use...?