MangaNOID

I like this. Although I tried some braking on a pulley wheel also with the rubber ‘tyre’ and the ‘tyre’ slipped a lot on the pulley wheel when grabbed. Have you not had this problem I guess? I was using high rpm though which maybe different to what you have. make sure you post the finished arctic truck!

Gear racks just won’t fit. Well they would, but they would be well visible and messy looking and unsymmetrical etc as far as my thoughts go anyway. I’m really trying to have a neat looking MOC as well as a technical one this time. Small LA’s are a similar problem but I may have to live with them and try hide them where the pneumatics are now and move the pneumatics out (to hide the LA’s) the thing is I can’t see any other way of connecting the tracks to the chassis without the use of pneumatics cylinders as the cylinders slide, and hold the weight of the model. Small LAs don’t do that. another thing is that i really wanted the control of this to be in the cabin, which could make gear connection and LAs better...I may have to re think my plans a little and compromise I have one last idea to try when I have time to get the pneumatics working, then rebuild time if it’s a no go.

thanks for you encouragement Steph77 although I am not sure the hardest part is done... I decided to work on the under carriage for a bit and try and work on expanding tracks. what a pain in the bum. to take the load of the excavator (about 1-1.2 kg tops) I decided to use pneumatic cylinders (after trying a whole bunch of stuff) as they had less flex than anything else I tried. They also fit in to the scale that I wanted. I built a fairly awesome solid chassis with coaxial drive to suit that is also fairly compact. took ages but I am happy with it and its dimensions which suit length and width/s of tracks. now as this is supposed to be a pneumatic model then using these cylinders to expand the track also is obvious. except that I can not get them to open evenly. Even just on one side. some cylinders slide easier then others and they end up opening wonky and then become parallel when the end expansion point has been reached of course. maybe I'll have to live with this. I thought about linear actuators to expand the tracks which would (possibly) work but there is not much room and they look a bit ugly. a pneumatic tank hooked up helped a lot but is still not perfect and they open very quickly ruining the spectacle of the opening. I also tried lift arm 'guides' through the chassis but there is still some wonkyness due to Lego gaps desperate to try and keep the cylinders to do the opening so if anyone has any suggestions about even opening rates it would be great full. I've tried quite a few things but I am lost.

5 : 10 6 : 6 10 : 4 1 : 3 3 : 2 11 : 1

Yes I now have a whole bunch of black frames so I will use those as much as possible too. Pretty sure this is 3cyl with .993 displacement. And just read this TYM 1800 has expanding tracks width! Not sure I’ll be able to implement that especially controlled from the cabin but I’ll keep it in mind now...even though this is a generic excavator I’m up for a full challenge...then scale back to what reality can handle

So I have had to almost start again. The first version left no room for the coaxial drive from the cabin so version 2... I started with the coaxial drive and then implemented the slewing as that took up a lot of room. It’s much better now, less room. All on one side direct under the controls with drive coming from the rear where the motor will be. Here is a short vid of it operating (slewing speed is too high but it is just a demo. I’ll have to get some new pneumatic switches now but they should fit in nicely where I left room and operate off the forward and backward stick position (on this left side control) im not sure what the scale will be but I am trying to stick to 17 studs wide for the body. tracks are roughly to scale of final. hopefly I can add to the chassis easily and strengthen. plan is for 1 motor to power everything, pneumatic pump, 3cyl engine etc. hope there is space.

hey all thought I would start a WIP of my new project which is a generic Mini Excavator. Although it is loosely scaled on a TYM TE1800. what started this is the Calypso helicopter I built. I was a bit disappointed to have not used any swashplate technic awesomeness that @steph77 was so helpful to help me understand. so I have taken the swashplate operation part and decided to use these as the controls of the excavator. In the correct place (cabin) and set up like a real Mini excavator iso controls (as best as I can of course) Left hand left = cabin slew. Left hand right = cabin slew. left hand forward = Stick Boom (Dipper) away. Left hand back = Stick Boom (Dipper) close. Right hand left = Bucket curl in (closed) Right hand right = Bucket curl out (dump) Right hand forward = Main Boom down. Right hand back = Main Boom up the idea for these swashplate controls is hopefully to have a bit more control over the pneumatic movements with the new axle hole switch. the switch will effectively be geared down or the movement halved so at maximum operator stick angle there should only be half the pneumatic switch angle operation. So hopefully slower, finer control of the cylinders...we will see. now it all looks pretty untidy at the moment with lots of extra bits sticking out for support whilst I work on placing all the functioning parts. it is going to be pretty compact in there if i can get it right at this scale. I have had a lot of headaches already just getting to this stage. tracks are not to scale and will not be the ones used. they are just holding everything up at the moment. this is the slewing which is connected to the gear clutch the pneumatic switch will be connected to the black axle sticking out. The axle will be solidly connected to the 7L beam when finished instead of the 1L bush this will hopefully be the track controls. space is real tight so i am trying to control the gear clutch with the 3L bar. it does work but the lever arm has to be 'held' in place with the cabin floor to stop it popping out of the clutch. very long way to go!

Considering I gave up on this contest you can pay no attention to my comment, but the other first version was way more promising and technic. This one does not seem very technic to me.

Thanks. I am blissfully unaware how the selling side of bricklink works, so I thought that part would have been 'chucked' up for sale all ready, being a new part and all, that should be popular

trying to source the new pneumatic switches from the 42080 set but none appear on bricklink yet Does it usually take a while for new parts to show up there? Also the parts list doesn’t show that piece even on brickset or bricklink

oh man talk about breaking necks with that over the top twist motion

Thank you for the review! This is now the only one I’m interested in this year maybe cause I don’t have the bucket or any large LA’s yet. This set looks real nice, I think Volvo is doing great things for LEGO technic with no need to mention colour vomit here. They obviously have a say in the final product! Love those other concept pics too! EDIT sorry for the large lettering not sure how to change it from my phone wasn’t meant to be different size.

I think you own this topic yo! well thought out Mods and love the anti roll bar

Quake not in fear anymore TC14 competitors , I have had to retire this … thing. Time and expertise are all eluding me so unfortunately there will be no entry from me this time. I know there is still many weeks to go, but I would never get this working in any way shape or form by then. Maybe if someone else likes the concept they can run with it and succeed. Thanks to @Jim and @Milan and Eurobricks for holding fun contests like this. Hopefully I’ll have a bit more sense relative to my abilities and time allowance for any next TC round. Good luck to all!

Is this more for power functions in your thoughts or manual operation as well? Now probably both of course, but have you considered an elongated teardrop shape lead in/out of the ports on the rotary section to be able to have control over the speed of the air (thus slower piston response if needed). This would mostly only benefit manual operation but I would consider this a desirable addition. It’s your design you have in mind of course but if your open for other suggestions. Its kind of all or nothing with current valves unless your very dexterous or gear the new axle shaft type down a lot. EDIT: sorry this is all redundant comment as I just realised what LPE means. Sorry.

very nice drive shaft. I was going to post a question about limiting differential skip a little while ago but this seems to answer it. I have a lot of skip off 2x XL motors from the 20t to differential. so this is possibly perfect. thanks for sharing.

sorry for the bad pic but is there room to slightly offset the holes so a pair only matches up with one outlet? holes should be 180 degree apart unlike in the pic of course. EDIT: Imanol suggestion seems far better!

this is nice, I guess there is a specific application for this that you have in mind?

Thank you for your thuoghts people. I also think that reducing segments will decrease interest. it would just end up being an excavator arm...although I will dwell on that some more. it would perhaps be lighter but still reach as far (height prowess etc) so far I'm not talking about cylinder strength (although I probably will be when I actually test it) but two at the base does seem necessary like you say. It mostly seems like weak segment strength, and 'bending' of the arm when horizontal segment gaps (Lego tolerance's) my current thoughts are that this ride will not be as interesting as first thought. In theory it seems good but when playing with the arms and its movements, not so.

I was getting excited and a rename was going to be ‘mecha fist of fury’ but it’s turned into ‘mecha fist of failure’ Version 1 above got too big and heavy. Version 2 below, pretty much the same. I minimised as best I can but I failed. This will not work how I wanted it too. I haven’t even added the people spinning seat bit that would be clutched in the fist yet. I am all out of ideas.

Looks good so far. how will it lift up the tower? How will it slow down at the end of the drop?

I guess you tried pneumatics to lift this thing? I'm finding they can lift a mighty load. put the xl motor elsewhere to save weight. no doubt you tried everything :(

actually the radom bit only applies to the ride goers not knowing whats next. the events of the ride will be programmed and fine tuned/choreagraphed, otherwise I see this thing toppling over and breaking apart if anything could move at any time. although the programs can be swapped over so the next ride goers wont know what to expect. but that is getting way ahead of my abilities. I may have to operate this carny ride manually whilst I take punters monies, eat my hotdogs and check out all the 'talent' I will probably change the name. I would definitely use these if I had them. although I want them anyway, I am reluctant to buy bits for this challenge. we shall see when i get to that part. I do have another idea using 42042 tracks. but its just an idea. one problem is the driven axle getting in the way. fun times!

that's it! so not a set...memory fade. thanks for any encouraging words. after a bit more building on the tower today I am scared. I'ts getting tall and heavy. I'm really trying to keep weight down so the pneumatics can actually work. We shall see. another major problem I see (i'll tackle it after the tower is finished and tested) is that there will be a lot of pneumatic hoses through the turntable. a bigger turntable... anyway wont go there just yet. that's it for this week so hopefully update next week. oh also I don't think this is a real life ride @pagicence if it was i think this would be frikken cool (if i do say so)

I may have challenged myself too much here, it could be a FIP but I’ll start with a WIP and we will see what happens as it progresses. No secrets here this will hopefully be a multi limb tower thing that can ‘collapse’ expand, spin around and everything in between... Random is used in the name as the idea is that this ride can make any move anytime so the ride goer will not know what to expect... although it won’t exactly be random as the moves will hopefully be programmed (so easily changeable) into a system of steering racks on a system plate (or similar) to spin cogs or move pneumatic switches which will then move the ride...umm sorry I am really bad at expIning things. There is a technic set from the studded era that was ‘programable’ like this but I forget the set sorry. like I said I’ve aimed quite high for myself so we will see what happens. A sketch of what I’m trying to build