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kbalage

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Everything posted by kbalage

  1. kbalage
    I was really impressed, based on my tests the max range was ~50m in an area without interference. Powered Up performed actually much better then BuWizz and SBrick which are also using Bluetooth. More details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhpbpm2nEWc
  2. kbalage
    Great little build, love it! The transparent engine with the lights is a nice extra :)
  3. kbalage
    What a beast! All features are very well done, congrats! I'd love to know more about that automatic leveling system if possible, looks very interesting.
  4. kbalage
    Just checked that video of Facebook, it has much nicer clips. @Anio - during the uncut walkaround footage where the camera follows the action (even the non-accelerated parts) the camera shakes around constantly, you can also clearly see how the cameraman was walking around. Maybe it was left like this intentionally to show the viewers where it was accelerated and I have no doubt that it was filmed by a professional crew with an expensive equipment, still that footage has an unprofessional look for me. I was curious so I quickly edited the video with some simple software stabilization and rendered the two clips side by side, the difference is very visible and the stabilized footage has a much smoother look. Anyway, all of this is my personal visual taste and has nothing to do with the great achievement you made with all these cranes so I stop being off-topic, again very well done!
  5. kbalage
    Congrats guys, this is a very cool setup! Well worth all the effort that went into the planning and building. I'd love to see/read more about the modules and the whole process, hope there'll be more information shared. To be honest the only thing that bugs me is the quality of the video - you guys spent 650 hours designing-building-setting things up then someone with a shaky mobile phone walks around and records it? This setup would deserve a proper video with a stabilized camera and some better angles... but probably that's just me.
  6. kbalage
    The Batmobile actually performs well, not sure what you mean. It does what it promises, steering works ok and it does wheeeeelies :) Let's see what comes but if there'll be a PU servo I wouldn't expect more than an M motor for drive. I'm sure there will be, but I don't think all of them will appear in the 2019H1 lineup.
  7. kbalage
    I expect to see something very similar to the app-controlled Batmobile, the price is the same. Two M motors and the Technic version of the battery box. It'd be nice to have a physical controller as well, but who knows.
  8. kbalage
    With BuWizz you can control more than 2 motors, you can control more BuWizz units the same time as well. If you use @imurvai's great app you can do it with a wired/Bluetooth android controller.
  9. kbalage
    What a massive Frankencar and a plethora of functions, I love it! Congrats for the 10k subs, very well deserved! Hope to join the club before Christmas
  10. kbalage
    Thanks @agrof, glad you like the result I agree the original wheels look better but unfortunately their climbing abilities are not so good. I enjoyed very much the test and the making of the video, although I'm a bit out of shape so climbing up the hill was a challenge (and also fighting a zillion mosquitoes)
  11. kbalage
    @technic_addict thanks! It actually fell off the wall at some point but had no any issues, it's a very sturdy little vehicle :) About the mod - the 2 L motors are located in the middle of the vehicle and the whole buggy is very compact, I doubt there's a possibility to swap the motors without changing the overall shape and size. Since it's more of a crawler there's really no point to do that anyway. It would be interesting to test it with other wheels (probably non-LEGO ones) to see what fits the best, and probably gear it down even more for better climbing abilities.
  12. kbalage
    @agrof was kind enough to borrow me his Ultra 4 buggy to film it, you can see the result below: Actually I had the buggy with me for quite a while now but I wanted to find a nice scenic location for it :) I did not change much compared to the original setup, swapped the battery box & IR combo with a BuWizz unit and changed the wheels as these are better for outdoor climbing than the originals. It is a fun little vehicle, enjoyed it very much :)
  13. kbalage
    I really wonder how is the performance, and also the range. The listing linked in the video's comments does not tell a lot about it, but another Cada product sheet with a similar unit says it has a 7.4V battery, and range "greater than 25m". Hope you'll share your findings Jim as soon as you get it :) @Doug72 - This is the product page that was linked from the video
  14. kbalage
    You cannot sell such a big creation with all the electronics for this price even if it is the crappiest Chinese copy. It's a scam, page set up for people who believe in miracles and amazing one of a kind deals, or have zero idea about the approximate real value of such a car.
  15. kbalage
    As I wrote on Facebook, it's very similar to the fake LEGO shops popping up almost on a daily basis. You can ask on the LAN if the LEGO legal team can give you any advice, but in reality I don't think there's much you can do. It's a scam, and now MOCs are also used for scamming people. I'm sure they are registered in a country where you have zero legal options, and the page will disappear within a few days/weeks. A funny (or sad) addition - they used my video of @Didumos69's w16 on the Porsche's product page, so they have clearly zero idea what engine is supposed to be in that car...
  16. kbalage
    I had a similar controller, there's a combination of buttons you need to press to switch the controller to discovery mode. If I recall correctly it was the central home button and one of the buttons with a letter, X or Y probably. You'll notice the discovery mode because the led on the controller starts to blink rapidly.
  17. kbalage
    @Bublehead it's a nice idea but won't work in reality - it'd mean you have to manage the distribution of the instructions yourself and track every iteration, link it to the specific seller. Tons of extra work and the best you can get out of it is the e-mail address/Paypal account of the guy who bought it for the copycat company. Does not worth the effort. Also as @Mylenium says if the instructions are stolen by a big company like Lepin, they will probably create their own version based on the original. You could only catch the small potatoes trying to resell instructions on E-bay or another equivalent of it.
  18. kbalage
    He can, but then then I don't see the point of crowdfunding. People who will become early adopters via CF would most probably buy it anyway officially and not through copycat companies. Honestly YT photo sequence instructions will hardly buy you a cheeseburger, don't expect million views for instructions of a complex MOC... If you are sharing MOC instructions for free then you should accept that someone will potentially make money of it, period. What I see as an option if you're willing to do a business - offer and easy and good quality way to buy your creation. You can sell digital PDF instructions, offer complete kits yourself (like Ingmar Spijkhoven does with his cool trucks) or do it via a 3rd party service like Mochub. Whoever respects the creator will buy it this way, all the others will try to steal it somehow anyway...
  19. kbalage
    Crowdfunding has a time limit, once your campaign ends then you're done with selling. This means the real fanboys and dedicated people will buy it, but you miss the opportunity to bring it to everyone else who stumbles upon the creation on your webpage/rebrickable/google search/etc. Additionally, after the campaign you give the opportunity to Lepin and other bastards to take over the market completely of your MOC and be the single sellers of it. Successfully protecting a digital product is a really tough thing. My paid instructions have watermarks (buyer's e-mail address embedded) added automatically via Sellfy, but this does not prevent dedicated thieves. Just found a guy in Singapore who's selling a lot of MOCs (including my RC mods) by reselling the instructions and offering a mixed bag of LEGO and Lepin bricks. I'm considering a test buy to see if he took the time to take screenshots of the pdf or managed to remove the watermark or did not really bother with it at all. Since we know that LEGO failed so far to fight successfully against Lepin, what could be a good strategy for independent creators? There are markets and cultures where copying and reselling someone else's creation is an everyday habit, I don't think there's a possibility to change that. I think the most important is to be a role model in your own community. Raise your voice against the copycat companies, explain the (potential) buyers why this hurts everyone, also explain to some others why it is a bad thing to team up to buy MOC instructions cheaper (yeah this happens as well).
  20. kbalage
    This site/business has a long history doing this, if you check their page it is full of such videos. They think if they indicate who's the original creator (strictly text only, no links to the original content) then it's completely fine. They posted once one of my videos, I contacted them via Fb message to have it removed, unfortunately I did not start with a report to Facebook. Here is our conversation: Me: Hi! Please remove my video (took from RacingBrick YouTube channel), I did not give you authorization to use my video on your Facebook page to promote your business. Sharing a YouTube video's link via Facebook is a common practice but this is different. I understand that you'd like to drive traffic to your own Facebook page but this is a bad business practice, please stop doing this - I see you're actively uploading other creators' videos as well. Oldlego guy: obviously I will do it with extreme pleasure, if you do not understand the advantage it is not my fault. Goodbye And he banned me immediately after. So as you see the guy even thinks he's doing good for the creators, which means he's either plain stupid or thinks that I'm stupid enough to get this. Anyway, the more creators report the videos uploaded by them to Facebook the better, maybe he gets the message one day.
  21. kbalage
    Great performance with 2L motors only, the scale helps a lot, I really like it! Video presentation is also great :)
  22. kbalage
    I had several experiments with a lot of configurations before I arrived to this setup, so believe me 1 BuWizz & 2 buggy motors were simply not enough. Perhaps if you can create ideal conditions with a completely smooth and flat surface where you have enough distance to accelerate and meanwhile follow the car, but even there I think the 2 BuWizz/4 buggy config is better. Steering adds unnecessary complexity, at this speed you only need minimal correction otherwise your car will simply drive off the track. Thanks! The vehicle was as flat as possible, honestly I don't think cables really matter here. As I mentioned previously a better track could improve the results significantly, but I don't plan to continue this project for a while.
  23. kbalage
    Finally finished the RC mods of both A and B models. The Tow Truck came first: It has the following functions: - M motor to drive the rear wheels - M motor for steering (return to center with rubber bands) - Fake engine driven by M motor - Controlled with a Power Functions IR receiver and IR remote or a Powered Up remote - Powered by a Power Functions AAA Battery Box or a Powered Up hub Today I finished the motorization of the forklift as well: - the first M motor powers 2 different functions - it can drive the vehicle or it can control the fork elevation. There's a function selector on the side of the vehicle to choose between these two functions - the other M motor for steering (return to center with rubber band) - Mast tilt angle is controlled manually with a linear actuator instead of the previous mechanism to achieve precision control - It is controlled with a Power Functions IR receiver and IR remote or a Powered Up remote - Powered by a Power Functions AAA Battery Box or a Powered Up hub
  24. kbalage
    You can select the BuWizz voltage in Device Management when you connect the BuWizz unit.
  25. kbalage
    I really loved to take photos & videos of this set, looks fantastic in its natural habitat:
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