Captain_Quinn

Babylon 4 had 2 counter-rotating sections, the inner one that reached end-to-end, and the larger habitat section, with Zero-G docking facilities between the two (similar to the cargo 'spine' along the top of B5). The counter-rotating design was intended to allow the station to be located in open space, whereas Babylon 5, needing to be built on the cheap (and therefore, much smaller and simpler), only had the single rotating O'Neil cylinder, requiring it to be put in orbit of a planet to maintain stability. I've got copies of the 3D assets from the show, including all the ships and stations. I should be able to import both into Blender and provide a comparison. Edit: sorry. Heaps from the show, but no B4 for some reason :/

I'm currently working on a MOC design that will use an EV3 or NXT control brick to run a sequence of actions, including motors, sensor and hopefully lights. The sequence follows this flow : Spin motor Stop, pause for 1 second Activate 1 light (A) for 2 seconds whilst switching another light on (to remain on) Reverse direction of motor Loop steps 1-4 for 6 repeats Spin motor random amount + sense colored brick Stop motor Activate light A Wait 10 seconds Switch off all lights There will be 7 pico LED lights in total, each one activated independently. In terms of programming, I have the program for the motor actions and the sensor worked out. What I need to figure now is : What EV3/NXT lights or compatible 3rd party options will best suit. Brickstuff.com supply a set of lights that look like they might work, but not sure if they'd be independently controlled or not. Whether or not these lights could be controlled via programming/electronics, or if I'd need to design some kind of mechanical switching system that I can then program motors to control. I'm in the prototyping phase of the design (building and testing various aspects) and so far everything's looking good for full build if I can solve these two problems. Thanks in advance.

The way I would do it is to export to LDR format (essentially a text file), load that up in a text editor, use search and replace to search for 4459.dat and replace it with 2780.dat. Save the file, then import back into Studio.

Sure... The Macross/Robotech models are an ongoing work-in-progress. Every so often I turn my attention to them to try solve any shortcomings the designs have. I'm pretty sure there's a WIP thread for this that has sat idle for a while. Might be a good time to resurrect that particular thread, and the project around it. As for Daikoncat and his instructions... no idea what's happening there. His design was the primary inspiration for my reverse engineered version, but that's about as far as it went.

Thanks @manglegrat, been a pleasure working with you and @Rolsen on this. Thanks also, @legoman666, for being provider for the decal set. Just saw the ebay listing and gotta say... you've done an awesome job. This is unbearably COOL!!

This thread follows on from @manglegrat's re-creation threads for the EAS Agamemnon and EAS Schwarzkopf. As many of you may well know, I found Manglegrats LDD files and this thread a while back, detailing the recreation of @Rolsen's EAS Agamemnon from SHIPtember 2016. I've said it before, and I'll reiterate my admiration for the creativity both these guys have shown with versions 1.0 and 1.1. What began originally as a personal redesign has blossomed into a full instructions project. Both Ryan (rolsen) and David (manglegrat) have been involved during development, providing valuable feedback, guidance, suggestions and encouragement. Today, we present this: a full color, 364 page, secured PDF of instructions to build the v1.2 series design of the Omega Class Destroyer from Babylon 5. At present, this is a digital-only release in PDF form, accompanied by an XML parts list file, and image files for the UCS-style placard and decals for the ship. The PDF includes in-universe background of the 'future history' background in Babylon 5, a brief history of the design, brief design team bio's, background of the original design and creation of the Omega class by Paul Bryant for Babylon 5, and a graphical parts list. If you've been following the thread on the recreation of the EAS Agamemnon, you'll already know that this has been a long term, labor-of-love project and that there is no intent to profit directly from these instructions. I've not licensed the intellectual property, nor am I sole designer... so we three have agreed to release this under a donation-ware model. So here's how this works: 1. Select a humanitarian charity. 2. Donate AUD$15 (about USD$10) to that charity 3. Email the receipt to tdmocs@gmail.com 4. You'll receive by return email a download link for your distribution package 5. Unzip that package to folder of your choosing on your device/computer 6. Open the password protected PDF. XML and PNG files included in the distribution are not secured. Whilst the images are included for you to print your own stickers, we've partnered with OKBrickWorks (on both eBay and Bricklink) to offer high quality decals at the following prices: Achilles/Agamemnon decal sets (name, EA logo, UCS Sticker) : USD$15 for domestic US shipping, +USD$2 postage elsewhere. Custom name version: Add USD$3 to christen your ship with a different name. As far as charities to donate to are concerned, our only requirement is that they are genuine, humanitarian charities. Secular is good, a-political is essential. I've no desire to get into a discussion about whether a $10 donation to the National Rifle Association, your political party of choice, the KKK, Greenpeace, your local church group or the next GoFundMe that comes along, is suitable. If in doubt, please contact me and ask. Global charities that I've suggested are the likes of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), Mercy Ships, Unicef and World Vision. One smart idea I heard recently is to donate a supply of vaccines through the World Health Organisation to impoverished nations. Charities that educate, ease poverty, help those escaping domestic violence/persecution, and those supporting mental health sufferers. In Australia, there are several that are close to my heart, such as RizeUp (a domestic violence charity supported by a number of local AFOLs and Lego resellers), Childrens Hospital Foundation, The Fred Hollows Foundation, and Beyond Blue. Now, at time of posting this, Flickr is having MAJOR downtime for maintenance, so I'll try posting images from alternate hosts and then edit this post afterwards.

Coming soon...

I think I spent around AUD$300 on my build, with about 85% coming from local resellers, and the rest from Bricklink. Luckily I have a contact that sells recycled Lego by weight, which no doubt saved me considerable money. I also had most of the internal framing pieces in my existing stocks. If memory serves, the parts that were the most troublesome to find were some of the detailing/greebling pieces (like the Ingot tile) and the Dark Blue 3x3 Cone pieces. Those are easily found in Black, which is an acceptable substitute.

Thanks @manglegrat, no ETA at this stage. I'm up to page 130 of the instructions, and I've barely got the stand and internal framing down. There's still the hull plating of foreward and aft sections, the engine section, rotating section and foreward bay/weapons. Sequencing of steps and editing images is taking considerable time in order to make things logical and easily understood. I'm also experimenting with some Buffer Exchange commands in LPub to have arrows indicate connections and such. I'm cutting back on a lot of the extras I'd hoped to include, as the digital artists whose work I'd like to use mostly haven't responded. Thankfully, a really good resource with connections to the original 3D artists that worked on the show has given approval to use his material. I'll PM you and @Rolsen about some additional 'History' info and images once I have a proof of the instructions to send you guys. So far, instructions will be A4 Landscape format suitable for printing/binding, but ideally suited to use on electronic devices with screens 8" or larger. Anything smaller is going to be challenging at best. I'm doing my best to optimise the number of steps and minimise page count so that it doesn't break the bank for anyone that does go ahead and print.

Epic! Well done. Looking forward to seeing more pics. Where'd you get the blueprints?

Thanks, @Sybux. It hasn't been easy, but we got through. As the saying goes.... didn't come this far just to come this far. Anyway, here's a sneak peak of the instructions in-progress...

@Sybux Yeah mate, still working on the instructions. This past year has been an almighty crap-fest for me with university and some family/health issues requiring my attention. I've been refining the design as I error check the build steps, which is a temptation I really need to not give in to. I'd love to be able to motorise either of the designs (rolsen/manglegrats, or mine) but the constrained space makes that challenging in the extreme. I suspect a scale change will be necessary to fit the components unless I can adjust the internals of the rotating section to fit motor, receiver and batteries inside.

I wanted to use the R2 Dome piece, but it's a little too big. The proportions just don't match up for the angles and cockpit, and the top pf the dome extends way too high. I've thought about how to do a large scale Delta7B that has a droid socket that would fit the R2 buildable figure

I based my design off the UCS Obi-Wan Starfighter, and with the release of the buildable R2-D2, the droid head dome was the perfect choice to do an Anakin's version. The 7B Heavy Variant of the Aethersprite replaced the integrated astromech with a droid socket in front of the cockpit, and the cockpit section is slightly larger and detachable, for use as a lifepod if the ship is destroyed. Since my original post, I've refined the design, removing the integrated astromech and replacing it with the minifig sized droid head in front of the cockpit, updating the forward landing gear to better handle the weight balance and changed the way that the panels attach in front of the cockpit.

A bit more design work, and a test assembly of the modules designed so far... The hull cylinder is based off the circle/ring gear (4x 24121: Technic, Gear Rack 11x11 Curved) but reinforced by a combination of a series of technic lift arm frames, circular constructs using 2429 hinge plates and brackets, and a few "ring/strap" construct of 1x2 modified plates (48336 Handle on Side, 60470 U-clips on side). The proof of concept build was very rigid as well as being quite light, which is the combination I'm hoping to achieve for this part of the build. The middle section (where the majority of blue tiles are) has the most reinforcement and is hopefully capable of helping with weight bearing, because I plan to have a series of small/soft wheel/tyre combination assembled with lift arms and pins to follow the curve and support the middle as the whole cylinder rotates about its internal axis. I have no confidence in this holding up under it's own weight by just supporting the ends, and if anything, want to minimise the ends as weight bearing points so that they can be used to drive the cylinder in rotation. I need to test what the best option for driving the cylinder rotation is... to the 'axle' of the cylinder, or to the inner gear on the end ring, or both. I may end up foregoing official Lego motors and customise some high torque, low RPM motors from the local electronics chain. I dare say that as the mass increases, changes in how this is mounted and supported will likely be needed. So far, this is about 1.3m long, 26cm diameter at its widest, just shy of 7000 pieces and about 6.5kgs.

Located in grid Epsilon, deep in neutral territory (otherwise known as my dusty office in suburban Australia), Earthforce's New Lego Tech division has been at the drawing board. A few structural/functional proof-of-concept builds have been successful enough to go to next stages of design. Estimates at this stage have this clocking in at around 2.4mtrs long and about 90cm tall. I'm designing it in modules for a number of reasons... ease of transport for exhibitions, and computing resource demands of Stud.io being the major reasons. So far the rotating section has over 5000 bricks (at just over 5kg according to Stud.io), meaning that I'll likely have to find a way to synchronise multiple motors to provide the torque to get it turning. I'm thinking that I'll have it driven from both ends, but I'll need to do the math for the difference in gearing between front and rear in order to minimise torque/twist on the cylinder and the friction at contact points. I have an idea for how to make a stand that will reduce the load bearing requirement on the rotation mechanisms, just need to work out a few details.

Might want to check the permissions on the images you linked... nothing comes up, just a big blank space with a grey circle and minus sign in the centre.

My god... that is a work of art!!

They're still 1x3 for the most part, but I raised the mount location to avoid a conflict and didn't account for that change... which now looking at it, makes for an easier situation in building the launchers. Thanks for picking that up. Easy fix that I can implement without having to change any of the instructions work done so far.

Quick update... Exhibiting my build (which I've dubbed the EAS Achilles) with the local AFOL group this weekend. In preparing it for transport I've learned that no matter how much you try reinforcing some structures in Lego, there's going to be bend and flex. Anyway, here's a quick snapshot of that part of my display. Instruction development is coming along nicely, although I keep finding errors/improvements. Improvements have been noted for future updates and only errors are being corrected now.

It wouldn't be a big surprise to know that along with the Warlock class Dreadnought, I've been trying to design some cylinders in order to make an attempt at building the station eventually. My current winning prototype is a combination of 12 sided and 16 sided 'cylinders' using a combination of technic 1x6 bricks and 2x2 plates with two pin holes on the sides. I'm having to get creative with the use of axles, technic bushes and the right angles in order to build a suitable internal framework. The incompatibilities between system bricks and technic elements is really showing itself to be a challenge here. This began with an experiment in trying to motorise the Omega Class Destroyer with a set of planetary gears, and as that got out of control, grew into the rotating section. I'm having serious doubts about the scale so far, as I'd be looking at nearly 2mtrs length for the whole station, and about 1.2mtr for the rotating cylinder. I have an idea about integrating a stand into the design (i.e. instead of the model and stand being separate, like with the UCS X-Wing, Y-Wing, etc, having it as part of the internal frame, like with the Star Destroyers) and using it to rotate the cylinder... that may limit the influence of gravity and provide a more stable mechanism for rotation

ok, so a (not so) quick update on where development is at on my v1.2.x series of this design... Prototype build: this highlighted some areas for improvement and simplification that have been implemented. This (at the time) reduced the part count and the number of build steps, not to mention the complexity of, and challenge in building, certain sections. These changes were all internal and have not affected the appearance. Parts selection: in uploading the design to Bricklink and generating a parts/wanted list, a few alarm bells started ringing in terms of parts availability and cost. This has led to several redesigns, most of which are visible. Redesigns of the engine section to address the influence of gravity involved using parts that, as it turns out, are quite expensive. A bit of creative license in detailing later, and the cost of sourcing the necessary parts for that section dropped by almost USD$100. Another aspect of the build that was tempting to change were areas of surface detail that could be made using alternate parts... for example, a section of 4 2x2 tiles could be replaced with 4 1x4 tiles, or 2 4x2 tiles. At this stage I've avoided such changes unless they improve the stability of the section involved, or significantly reduced the costs for parts. Instructions: these are in the works. Several attempts at these had been made whilst I was prototyping and redesigning. I learned early in the process that implementing changes to instructions is not easily achieved mid process. I had hoped to have these finished before certain professional/educational commitments (I'm a final year allied health student undertaking clinical immersions this year) but priorities have shuffled this project down the list. However, some excellent progress has been made on various aspects of the final instructions, and whilst they may not be as awe-inspiring as Mirko Soppelsa's Star Bricks in terms of production quality, but I hope that the ideas coming to fruition in that regard will be appealing to not only the Babylon 5 fanbase, but both the broader Lego and Scifi communities. Current state: version 1.2.37.5.... so, 37 major revisions in design to @manglegrat's release, with a few updates to details on the last of those. A 'quick and dirty' conversion of the design file into instructions has been rendered, 92% of the 4722 parts are boxed up with the remainder on order... and my kids are on standby for a final build test (the idea being that if a 10 yr old and 13 yr old can build this, anyone older can). Artwork for the instructions is being sourced/produced, a photographer has been approached, along with some 'value-add' contributions from the B5 community. Barring any major impediments or problems identified by the "child duo build test", this will be the release version. I'm aiming to display this build along with a few other builds at our local Lego AFOL Clubs next exhibition in a fortnight. Future developments: as has been discussed here, the two previous designers, @Rolsen and @manglegrat, deserve massive props for their designs, on which this is based. One of the challenges for future versions has been motorising the rotating mid-section... and suffice to say, when I need a break from the work on this project, studies, family, pets, door-to-door salespeople... this particular challenge is what I turn my attention to (no dad-joke worthy pun intended on that). I _think_ I've come up with a design that addresses the challenges presented by the scale of this design and maintains the stability between sections. I need to prototype build this design, which will require reading up on the PF motors, their specs and their requirements. Goal: to release professional quality build instructions (electronic and print-on-demand) on par with those produced by @StarBricks and @Davdup by mid-2018 via a donation-ware model, with all proceeds going to global humanitarian charities. My goal here is not to profit on the intellectual property or previous design works of others, but to spread an enjoyment of Lego, Scifi and Babylon 5 to a wider audience. It's my hope that the quality of the design, build and instructions will motivate those wanting to include this in their collections to help charities such as Doctors Without Borders (Medicin Sans Frontiers), Unicef and the like. My thanks to Rolsen and Manglegrat for agreeing to and endorsing this particular aspect, as without both their works and agreement on this, I'd not likely have gone down a release path.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar... love your work

The other factor that comes to mind with a direct drive is the torque/power of the motor and the ability to vary those to suit. I'm not familiar enough with the PF motors to know whether or not that's possible... so my thinking at this stage is to may try a combination of parallel axles and stepping down of gears, along with a planetary arrangement to spread the forces and balance them between the sides of the inner turntable. Having the PF motors axis off-centre to the turntable could work in your favour here, especially if you want to have the final drive axle on axis with the centre of the turntable. Looking at some of the planetary gear setups that use those particular turntables, it looks like a central drive gear (sun gear) with two planetary gears driving the internal ring of moving part. That alone should have a reduction gear effect, more so if your central drive gear is smaller than the planetary gears. I think if you can have a short enough axles, and the right step down combination of gears to increase torque/reduce speed, you can make this work without to much stress on the components.