howitzer

Another thing to try might be replacing the worm gear with spur gears, as the worm gear tends to have high friction with significant load. Also trying the PF XL motor might help, it has highest torque of all motors (save the buggy motor) with low rpm, which means less downgearing and thus less friction.

Really sad to see that this didn't work out, the video shows there was a lot of promise, but it's understandable that making this work would take a lot of work. I hope that you or someone else picks up the idea and attempts to finish it as a GBC module.

Yes it does.

Simple on-off physical remote already exists. What we need is couple of proportional control joysticks and few additional buttons.

Apparently the new Mindstorms didn't sell very well and forced the discontinuation. I believe C+ sets have been selling quite well for the most part, so it probably won't be discontinued for a good while yet. And hopefully if it happens, another compatible app will replace it.

Cracking is caused by parts jamming (=too much resistance in the drivetrain), is it not? What I was trying to say was that the Land Rover seemed to be particularly susceptible for this kind of problem even when correctly and carefully assembled, as I've seen multiple comments about it while none for other sets like the UCS cars.

No idea about the cause (only the same guesses as you) nor solutions, but apparently the Land Rover is like this. When freshly assembled, it would work well, but after few months on shelf it would have parts jamming and gears cracking, so I believe this isn't just your problem.

How does it work when attached to a rigid chassis? The holes at the ends move further away from each other as the spring is pressed, so the attachment must somehow accommodate for that. If it doesn't then the whole structure around the leafspring just bends and twists.

Even for those who don't care about tinkering, the ending software support just means that we won't get any more official updates for the Mindstorms app but it will remain as it is. Perhaps it will have issues or missing features, but as long as there's enough backwards compatibility with the OS, the app can be used. Hopefully someone will make a new app for controlling the Mindstorms bricks in the future, similar to ControlZ and others.

Yeah, these are nice ones, especially when you consider the price. I paid total of about 200€ for the five units shown in the photo.

I bought them from Clas Ohlson, their own brand Cocraft. https://www.clasohlson.com/fi/Säilytyslokerikko-Cocraft-60-laatikkoa/p/31-2376

Some did, yes, and some do this kind of tinkering now as well. Still, vast majority of the kids (and adults) then and now prefer easy to use stuff that just works rather than delving deeply into technical know-how and getting themselves electrocuted in the process. On the other hand, I bet there are much larger proportion of youth today who can do at least some computer programming than there was in the heydey of VIC-20 and C64. Learning is much more accessible and convenient today, thanks to stuff like Mindstorms and numerous other similar toys and stuff. Maybe, but I doubt that. Either way, only future will tell.

My new building area is taking shape:

I have to wonder what's next. I can't see them abandoning programmable Lego platform aimed for the consumer market, and C+ just isn't a replacement for Mindstorms with it's lack of rechargeable battery and only 4 ports. So there must be something new in the works.

Same here. The first reveal of the Airbus for example was only that it would be an aircraft of some sort, which immediately raises it above the usual cars, but is still far too little of information whether it's interesting or not. It turned out to be a really great set, but that wasn't apparent until we got the first high quality photos.

Thank you! I have a couple of days off before that so there's hope of getting something finished!

Nice design, hope you post a video soon!

I love it, the concept and workings of are easy to see and understand, but I bet there has been lots of fiddling and fine-tuning to make it work so smoothly. Great work!

I just today got my new sorting/storage system on top of my building table so there's a small chance that I could actually finish my entry in time. Too bad it won't be nearly as fancy as I had hoped to make.

On the other hand, the newly released Razor Crest set (75331) had canopy elements, last used in 1992. So for many parts I don't think we're able to ever say that a part is truly discontinued. Looking forward to photos of your progress!

Yes, but that doesn't mean it's discontinued, plenty of parts have been used again after few years of absence.

Discontinued, really? I mean, it hasn't been used in sets for a few years but it's so incredibly useful part that discontinuing would be really strange. Of course with the linear clutch there's an alternative but as you say, they are not interchangeable.

Yes, it could be used but those micromotors are quite hard to come by these days.

Makes me think of the new Space Shuttle set (10283).

Another thought related to the above calculations: I wonder how many parts are unique only in the sense that they have a sticker or print? Also, there's over 10000 unique parts among those 144 sets but if one would remove small aesthetic details with no functional value or large effect on the looks of the set, I wonder how many parts one would save? Hard to estimate though, as this one is really fuzzy and opinion-based... Still, I'm sure you could get the most of the enjoyment out of every set with much fewer parts than this.